Athens, Ga. – Four University of Georgia graduates will return to campus to be featured in the annual Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Alumni Authors Showcase Nov. 3 at 4 p.m. in the Miller Learning Center’s Reading Room. The event is free and open to the public.
Authors Kathleen Cochran (Marcia Stevens Smith, ABJ ’76), Laura Spinella (ABJ ’84), Joe Samuel “Sam” Starnes (ABJ ’89) and Frank Stanfield (ABJ ’80) will discuss their current books and work.
The showcase will feature question and answer sessions with the authors, book signings, a reception and a featured book sale. Carolina Acosta Alzuru, an associate professor of public relations, author and Grady College alumna (MA ’96, PhD ’99), will serve as moderator.
Cochran is author of two novels-“Take This Man” and “A Working Title Memory”-as well as “These Lines,” a book of her early poetry. “Take This Man,” her most recent novel, is the story of three women who were married to the same professional soldier at different periods of his life and who meet at his funeral.
Spinella’s Southern-set novel “Beautiful Disaster” takes place in Athens. Originally from Long Island, N.Y., Spinella has worked as a freelance journalist for a variety of newspapers and magazines. “Beautiful Disaster” was recently selected as a finalist in the prestigious NJRWA Golden Leaf contest.
Set for an October release, Starnes’ second novel “Fall Line” chronicles one eventful day in the life of a rural Georgia community about to be changed forever by the creation of a man-made lake. Starnes previously wrote the novel “Calling,” many short stories, poems and magazine and newspaper articles.
Stanfield is a 30-year veteran journalist and has been editor and reporter for newspapers including “The Orlando Sentinel,” where he covered thousands of criminal cases. Inspiration for his novel “Unbroken: The Dorothy Lewis Story” came from one of these cases. The novel shares Lewis’s story and the source of her strength, courage and indomitable spirit.
Established in 1915, the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in journalism, advertising, public relations, digital and broadcast journalism and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.
