ATTENTION ALL POETRY AND SHORT STORY LOVERS: We captured a duo of extremely talented “Yoopers” to come all the way down to Savannah for a poetry and prose reading! That’s “Michigan’s Upper Peninsula” folks for all y’all Southerners out there.

Poet and prose writer JONATHAN JOHNSON and short story writer CHRIS FINK are taking off their snowshoes as we speak and The Book Lady is rolling out the hospitality mat. Come join us to give them a “c’mon in!” like only southerners can!

This is a special event made possible by a fellow “Yooper” and Book Lady friend, author and poet Dr. Chad Faries, 2026 Yooper Poetry Prize Winner for his latest poetry collection, Amasa Speaker Factory.

READ ON for more about all 3 of these authors and their work…

The annual Savannah Local Author Day & the Flannery O’Connor Birthday Party are back! Local Author Day is sponsored by The Book Lady Bookstore and we are once again joining forces with the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, because after all, Flannery is Savannah’s most famous local author!

2026 marks Flannery’s 101st Birthday and to celebrate there will be games, live music, crafts, birthday cake, and a quirky costumed promenade strolling around beautiful Lafayette Square. So don your best Flannery or Flannery-fictional-character costume, pack up the kids, and join the fun.

Come meet and mingle with local and regional literati: over 40 authors will be selling their latest books and sharing stories about their creative process.

Enjoy a family- friendly Sunday afternoon among the azaleas with a Flannery look-alike contest, a Panhandle Slim pop-up art sale, games, including chicken-cornhole (you’ll just have to see it), a random gorilla (can you guess why?, you will be “Wise” if you can!), literary crafts with the Childhood Home and Starlandia, Leopold’s ice cream cart, Sweet Thunder Band at the peacock bandshell and leading the outdoor promenade, and so much more.

This is a FREE EVENT and one of the best grass roots, quirky events that makes Savannah so special!

Visit the Book Lady events page and Flannery O’Connor’s Childhood Home website for more details!

Monday blahs? We feel ya! So The Book Lady is having a free event to jump-start your week...

Acclaimed poet Tim Seibles will be reading and signing his newest collection!

Tim Seibles was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2016 to 2018. He is a former National Endowment for the Arts fellow and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellow. His eight books of poetry include Fast Animal, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award, winner of the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and the Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Poetry. This was followed by One Turn Around the Sun in 2017. Voodoo Libretto: New & Selected Poems was released by Etruscan Press in 2022. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Furious Flower Poetry Center in 2024. Seibles' latest collection, With No Hat (also Estruscan Press) is just out this week, and copies will be for sale Monday evening.

Read on for more about the sponsors and Georgia Poetry Circuit…

Georgia Poetry Circuit is bringing another nationally acclaimed poet to Savannah! Joni us at the bookshop for this FREE event!

Dr. Diamond Forde is the author of two poetry collections, Mother Body (Saturnalia Books, 2021) and The Book of Alice (upcoming from Scribner Books, 2026).

Forde received a doctorate in Creative Writing at Florida State University, with a specialization in both African American poetics and fat studies, and an MFA in Creative Writing at The University of Alabama. Forde has received recognition in the Furious Flower Poetry Prize, nomination as a Kate Tufts Discovery award finalist, and has earned a Ruth Lily Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg fellowship. Her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Obsidian, Callaloo, and elsewhere. Forde serves as the Interviews Editor for Honey Literary, as an assistant professor at North Carolina University, and as an avid lover of colorful dresses.

*This FREE (but come early for a good seat) public event is brought to you by Savannah State University's Department of English Languages and Cultures, The Book Lady Bookstore, and Estuary Creative Arts Club.

Read on for more about the Georgia Poetry Circuit…

Halloween doesn’t have to be over in October, does it? Join The Book Lady and award-winning author Andrew K. Clark for a discussion on Horror in the 80s.

Clark will be in conversation with The Learning Center’s Director, Roger Smith, and you can pick up a copy of Clark's new 80s Appalachian horror novel, Where Dark Things Rise, at the BL table!

Andrew K. Clark is a writer from Western North Carolina where his people settled before the Revolutionary War. His poetry collection, Jesus in the Trailer was published by Main Street Rag Press and shortlisted for the Able Muse Book Award. His debut novel, Where Dark Things Grow, was released by Cowboy Jamboree Press in 2024. Clark’s most recent novel, Where Dark Things Rise, was just released this fall (Quill & Crow). His work has appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, The Wrath Bearing Tree, and many other journals. He received his MFA from Converse College.

Register and GET YOUR TICKETS, or just come and pay at the door… if you dare!

Read on for more info about The Learning Center in Savannah…

The Georgia Historical Society is presenting a special program as part of GHS’s “US250” commemoration to kick off the 2025-2026 Georgia History Festival.

Join GHS for an evening with acclaimed author and historian Rick Atkinson. Enjoy a lively discussion between Atkinson and Dr. Stan Deaton, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian at the Georgia Historical Society, about Atkinson’s book, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780.

The event is FREE and open to the public.

Atkinson’s books will be available for sale & signing at the event. Come by and visit The Book Lady’s table! If you can’t make the event, please call the shop to pre-order and we can get it signed for you!

Read on for more about Rick Atkinson’s work and the Georgia Historical Society…

Two of The Book Lady’s favorite authors In Conversation: Patricia Lockwood & Zach Powers!

From the Dylan Thomas Prize and Thurber Prize-winner, plus Booker Prize-finalist and “formidably gifted writer” (The New York Times), a vertiginous novel about a woman’s descent into illness and insanity. Will There Ever Be Another You was just released from Riverhead Books in September, and The Book Lady is teaming up with E. Shaver Booksellers to co-host Lockwood’s latest Savannah debut.

Lockwood will be in conversation with Zach Powers, Executive & Artistic Director of The Writer’s Center, and author of the novel, First Cosmic Velocity, the short story collection, Gravity Changes, and the upcoming novel, The Migraine Diaries (February 2026 from JackLeg Press).

Get your TICKETS HERE!

Check out this NEW Yorker Interview with Lockwood!

Read on for more about Patricia Lockwood & Zach Powers & their work…

Hey railroad and history buffs! Join us for a Learning Center author talk on Skidaway Island, Monday, October 6th at 5 pm!

While George Pullman is associated with luxury railroad cars, his older brother Albert actually designed the cars and promoted them to wealthy clients. Historian Simon Cordery recounts Pullman’s fascinating, erratic career as a Gilded Age entrepreneur. Simon Cordery is Professor and Chair in the History Department at Iowa State University. He is also the author of The Iron Road in the Prairie State, Mother Jones, and British Friendly Societies, 1750–1914.

Get your TICKETS HEREor pay at the door (discounted ticket price always available for Learning Center members; check out their plethora of events that make a membership so worth it!).

READ ON for more about Gilded Age & The Learning Center…

You know about Savannah’s most entertaining literary crew, right? Well, did you know that on September 24th they will once again blow the roof off at Front Porch Improv and the Book Lady will also be there?

Come celebrate Seersucker's 15th birthday with readings from Michael Ian Black, Harrison Scott Key, Jen Spyra, and Kathryn Belle! And also cake. There will be lots of cake.

MICHAEL IAN BLACK is a multi-media talent who’s starred in numerous films and TV series, written and/or directed two films, is a prolific author and commentator, and regularly tours the country performing his ribald brand of jokes and observations. Black’s authored 11 books, including the recently released best seller, “A Child’s First Book of Trump,” two well-received memoirs, and seven other children's books.

HARRISON SCOTT KEY is the author of How to Stay Married, Congratulations, Who Are You Again?, and The World's Largest Man, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Harrison's humor and nonfiction have appeared in The Best American Travel Writing, Oxford American, Outside, The New York Times, The Bitter Southerner, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Town & Country, The Mockingbird, Salon, Savannah Magazine, Reader's Digest, Image, Southern Living, Gulf Coast, and Creative Nonfiction.

JEN SPYRA is a former staff writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Onion. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York Magazine, McSweeney's and elsewhere. Spyra is currently adapting the title story from her short story collection Big Time as a feature comedy, and her forthcoming debut novel will be published by Random House in 2026. 

KATHRYN SOPHIA BELLE, Ph.D. is former Associate Professor of Philosophy and affiliate faculty in African American Studies as well as Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University.   Her most recent book is, Beauvoir and Belle: A Black Feminist Critique of The Second Sex (forthcoming with Oxford University Press). 

GET YOUR TICKETS BEFORE THEY SELL OUT!

6pm - Social Hour
7pm - Seersucker Live Performance (90 minutes)

Show admission (general): $15 
Show admission (student): $10 

GENERAL ADMISSION 
Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, so snagging seats together isn't guaranteed. Groups should keep this in mind while planning and arrive early.

Read on for more about Seersucker Live…

Join us for a special wine reception and conversation with the authors of Full of Grace and Mischief at The Desoto in historic downtown Savannah!

Close friends. Southern storytellers. Sacred troublemakers. Maureen Pacifici Smith and Fran Thomas are longtime friends who connected in Savannah, Georgia, and have spent hours and hours laughing, crying, bantering back and forth, and story-swapping together.

Their debut novel, Full of Grace and Mischief, is a deeply personal and poignant look at girlhood, Catholicism, and the bittersweet complexity of growing up in the South. Drawing from their own experiences (and a little mischief of their own), they bring humor, heart, and honesty to the page. Their shared love of art—and the many artists who’ve inspired them—continues to shape their creative lives. Whether they’re writing or reminiscing, they carry the kind of friendship that makes for unforgettable fiction.

You are invited!

Wine reception begins at 5:30 in the private lobby of The Desoto (enter the Desoto at the 300 Bull Street entrance). At 6:00 we will gather in the the hotel’s Pulaski Room to hear about how Pacifici and Thomas, through their collaborative writing, have woven together a heartfelt Southern coming-of-age story spanning decades of devotion and disruption that creates a raw and radiant portrait of friendship and forgiveness.

This event is FREE and open to the public! Books will be available for sale by The Book Lady at the entrance to the Pulaski Room. Book signing following the event.

READ ON for more about Grace and Mischief…

Join us at The Book Lady for our Coastal WildScapes fundraising event, with author Tom Poland, the former managing editor of South Carolina Wildlife Magazine. Poland is the author of South Carolina Country Roads, Reflections of South Carolina (volumes 1 and 2), and Georgialina: A Southland As We Knew It.

Yeah, we know it’s HOT outside, but come indulge in some Carolina Barbecue Sliders (provided by Savannah’s best, Sandfly Bar-B-Que) and Sweet Tea for a good cause!

Learn more about the wild, mysterious, and majestic landforms of Carolina Bays, and support the educational and conservation work of one of Georgia’s most dedicated teams of environmentalist stewards.

Check out more about Coastal WildScapes HERE

Tom Poland, A Georgia native and graduate of the University of Georgia, writes about the South, its people, culture, and natural features. Governor Henry McMaster conferred the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian order, upon him for his body of work, stating, “His work is exceptional to the state.”

This is a NO ADMISSION event, but DONATIONS to Coastal WildScapes are encouraged! A donation jar will be onsite, and copies of Carolina Bays will be available for Sale & signing!

Read on for more about Tom Poland and his work…

Join The Book Lady at The Learning Center for a lunchtime conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kevin Sack and Savannah’s Reverend Thurmond Tillman of First African Baptist Church about the enduring legacy of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice.
“A masterpiece . . . a dense, rich, captivating narrative, featuring vivid prose . . . expansive, inspiring and hugely important.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

Get your ADVANCE TICKETS HERE!

Books will be available for sale and signing at the event AND in advance at The Book Lady shop today!

Read on for more info…

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.

If you have never heard Sedaris live, don’t miss this event! And get your TICKETS before we are sold out!

Join us at the historic, beautiful Lucas Theatre in downtown Savannah, pick up the latest Sedaris story collections at the Book Lady table, and get your books signed (yes, famously Sedaris stays until the bitter end to sign EACH & EVERY book!). Have you read his 2021 collection Happy-Go-Lucky (Hachette, 2022)? Have you seen his beautifully gross picture book, Pretty Ugly (Toon Books, 2024), co-written with with the legendary Ian Falconer? They, along with his classics, Barrel Fever, Calypso,Me Talk Pretty One Day, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and many others, will be available for sale and signing.

Read on for more about David Sedaris and his work…

POSTPONED! RESCHEDULING IN PROGRESS, STAY TUNED TO THIS SPACE!

Georgia Poetry Circuit is bringing another nationally acclaimed poet to Savannah! Joni us at the bookshop for this FREE event!

Camonghne Felix, poet and essayist, is the author of Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation (One World, 2023), which was hailed by TIME Magazine and Vogue as one of the most anticipated books of 2023 and top memoirs of 2023. Her poetry debut, Build Yourself a Boat (Haymarket Books, 2019) was long-listed for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry, shortlisted for the PEN/Open Book Awards, and shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Academy of American Poets, Harvard Review, LitHub, The New Yorker, PEN America, Poetry Magazine, Freeman’s Journal, and elsewhere. Her next full length work, Let the Poets Govern, is forthcoming from One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

*This FREE (but come early for a good seat) public event is brought to you by Savannah State University's Department of English Languages and Cultures, The Book Lady Bookstore, and Estuary Creative Arts Club.

READ ON for more about our visiting poet Camonghne Felix and The Georgia Poetry Circuit…

The annual Savannah Local Author Day & the Flannery O’Connor Birthday Party are back! Local Author Day is sponsored by The Book Lady Bookstore and we are once again joining forces with the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, because after all, Flannery is Savannah’s most famous local author!

2025 marks Flannery’s 100th Birthday and there will be an entire weekend of Centennial Events culminating in the annual “Fair in the Square” with games, live music, crafts, birthday cake, and a quirky costumed parade strolling around beautiful Lafayette Square. So don your best Flannery or Flannery-fictional-character costume, pack up the kids, and join the fun.

Come meet and mingle with local and regional literati: over 40 authors will be selling their latest books and sharing stories about their creative process.

Enjoy a Sunday afternoon among the azaleas with artsy activities, a Flannery look-alike contest, a Panhandle Slim exhibition, games, including chicken-cornhole (you’ll just have to see it), a random gorilla (can you guess why?, you will be “Wise” if you can!), a Moon River Opera sing-along, Starlandia craft and sign-making table, Sweet Thunder Band at the peacock bandshell and parade, and so much more.

Read on for more details on Local Author Day and Centennial Weekend events…

Savannah’s most idyllic oyster roast is back! And The Book Lady tent will be there with an amazing selection of books about our irreplaceable coastal home!

There is no place like coastal Georgia. Precious, vulnerable and ours to conserve. For 58 years, the Georgia Conservancy, with the support of individuals like you, has passionately worked to protect and conserve coastal Georgia. With celebration in our hearts and the future of Georgia's coast on our minds, we cordially invite you to our 2025 Oyster Roast, hosted at Grove Point in Savannah on Saturday, February 22 from 2 PM to 5 PM. The Oyster Roast will feature local oysters and clams from Sapelo Sea Farms, live music, local Georgia beer from Creature Comforts, and much, much more! 

OYSTER ROAST TICKETS

$125 - General Admission  JUST A FEW TIX REMAIN
includes Sapelo Sea Farm oysters and clams, BBQ, beer from Creature Comforts, GC-branded Sili pint glass, non-alcoholic refreshments, campfires, nature tours and talks, live music, and silent auction opportunities.

$225 - VIS (Very Important Shucker) SOLD OUT
all General Admission perks, plus early entry (1:30 PM), ASW Distillery specialty cocktails, wine, coastal delicacies from Erica Davis Lowcountry Catering, and a token of our appreciation.

*The 2025 Oyster Roast is a rain-or-shine event, however in the case that severe weather necessitates that Grove Point management cancel the event, your ticket purchase will be converted to a 100% tax-deductible donation to the Georgia Conservancy.

Read on for more about Georgia Conservancy and Oyster Roast 2025 details…

The New Yorker turns 100 this year, and Charles Bethea has been writing for the magazine for over 15 of those years, both as a contributor since 2008 and, since 2018, as a staff writer! Join us at The Learning Center once again to hear Bethea talk about the 1925 origins of this legendary magazine—self-consciously created for the “sophisticated reader”—and chronicle milestones along a century of literary and journalistic evolution.

CHARLES BETHEA’s investigative reporting has centered on politics, true crime and the south. He broke the news of Roy Moore's mall ban, as well as Mark Meadows's involvement with creationist paleontology and apparent commission of voter fraud. He has also covered the attempt to change the U.S. Census, the consequences of news deserts, the absence of adequate public defense in the Southern District of Georgia, a brewery run by active rival gang members, and the most lucrative fraud ever perpetrated by a prison inmate. Bethea has published more than sixty Talk of the Town pieces, too, on such subjects as the creator of barackobama@gmail.com, Alex Honnold's attempt to scale a skyscraper, Pete Buttigieg's Oxford years, Kanye West's presidential run, and a sculptor obsessed with Donald Trump.

Previously, Bethea was an editor at Outside magazine and a writer-at-large for Atlanta magazine. His work has also appeared in Grantland, The New Republic, the Wall Street Journal, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Wired.

In 2020, Bethea was named to Georgia Trend's list of "40 Under 40" in the state. In 2021, he won The Mirror Award for "Best Single Article/Story" for his reporting on the loss of local news in Jones County, North Carolina. In 2023, he was nominated for a James Beard Award, in the "feature reporting" category, for his investigation into TRU Colors Brewing Company. His New Yorker story, “The Americans Prepping for a Second Civil War”, was chosen as one of the “Top Twenty-Five New Yorker Stories of 2024”. Read more about the Top 25 list HERE
He lives in Atlanta and goes mountain biking a lot.

Get your TICKETS HERE or at the door

Books about the history of The New Yorker and a selection of anthologies will be available for sale onsite!

Read on for more about The New Yorker and The Learning Center…

Join us at The Learning Center, a frequent author event partner with us at The Book Lady, for a multiple speaker event combining the best the South has to offer!

Social Roots, published by The University of Georgia Press, connects nature and culture via foodways and art of the Georgia and Carolina Coasts. Cultural expressions of Native Americans and enslaved Africans lie uneasily alongside European colonial traditions to create a tragic yet rich tapestry. Sarah Ross and Roosevelt Brownlee introduce southeastern foodways while Betsy Cain mirrors the experience with her unforgettable art. *Books will be available for sale onsite, and are also available now at The Book Lady!

Sarah Ross served as executive director of UGA’s Center for Research and Education at Wormsloe, president of the Wormsloe Foundation, and director of the Wormsloe Institute for Environmental History.

Roosevelt Brownlee is a private chef who worked formerly preparing food for musicians on the jazz circuit in Canada and Europe, and has been called a “Soul Food Master” by Southern Fork.

Betsy Cain is a Savannah-based artist influenced by coastal vistas. Her works have been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the High Museum in Atlanta, and the Jepson Center for the Arts in Savannah.

Get your TICKETS HERE or pay at the door.

READ ON for much more about Social Roots, our speakers and The Learning Center…

The Georgia Poetry Circuit returns to Savannah with National Book Award finalist and Whiting Award winner (and so many other awards too!), Shane McCrae.

SHANE MCCRAE is the author of ten books of poetry, including New and Collected Hell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), a book-length poem; The Many Hundreds of the Scent (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023); Cain Named the Animal (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), a finalist for the Forward Prize; Sometimes I Never Suffered (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), a finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Award, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the Rilke Prize; In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), winner of the 2018 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Award as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and The Animal Too Big to Kill (Persea Books, 2015), winner of the 2014 Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor’s Choice Award.

McCrae’s critically acclaimed 2023 memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping (Simon & Schuster), was lauded by Pulitzer Prize winning author Hilton Als, “Shane McCrae’s powerful, indelible poet’s voice has now extended to the memoir, and how fortunate are we that the very things that distinguish his verse—truth-telling, sharp observation, more than a sense of the moment, profundity worn lightly—grace his harrowing and enlightening tale about race, and what makes an American family, and why. An essential story for our times.”

Shane McCrae, “peer to the peerless” (New York Journal of Books), takes up and turns on its head the mantle of Dante in his newest poetry collection, New and Collected Hell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), acontemporary vision of Hell.
Of death the muse is death the muse of Hell
Is death the muse of Heaven I don’t know
O muse of where howcan I hope to go
To where I pray I’ll go sing at least tell

McCrae, one of the most prophetic and powerful poetic voices of our time, has created a twenty-first-century epic in New and Collected Hell. As David Woo wrote in Poetry, “McCrae’s poems allude to literary precursors like Dante, Milton, and the Bible, but the voice is unabashedly of our time . . . By seeking to heal the rift in his own identity, McCrae has listened intently to the literary echoes emanating from the English language and transmuted them through his own dynamic voice.” Here, he gathers new and previous work as a culmination of his long-standing poetic project: a new and unforgettable journey through Hell. McCrae’s work is indelible, and this collection brings his searing vision to new depths.

*This FREE (but come early for a good seat) public event is brought to you by Savannah State University's Department of English Languages and Cultures, The Book Lady Bookstore, and Estuary Creative Arts Club.

READ ON for more about Shane McCrae and The Georgia Poetry Circuit…

The crew at Seersucker Live Presents: The Resolutions Episode!

Thursday, January 9th, 5:30 PM at Front Porch Improv on Savannah's Victory Drive. Kick off 2025 with The Book Lady and the most entertaining author event group on the planet!

1st, New York Times bestelling author and #1000wordsofsummer founder Jami Attenberg will be offering a creativity workshop at 5:30 p.m., followed by a social hour (that means a bar, folks!) and our fun-filled signature show at 7 p.m. The Resolutions Episode also features acclaimed YA author Keith F. Miller, Jr. and award-winning author of historical fiction Denny S. Bryce.

Authors' books available for pre-purchase now at The Book Lady bookshop or pick up your copies at the show and get them signed.

Get your tickets HERE: https://frontporchimprov.fourthwalltickets.com/shows/seersucker-live-the-resolutions-episode

Tickets for workshop and show: $20
Show only: $15 online, $18 at the door
Show only (students): $10

Read on for more about the authors and Seersucker Live…

Coming up THIS week at The Book Lady bookshop in downtown Savannah!

This event is open to the public!

LESLIE SAINZ is the author of Have You Been Long Enough at Table (Tin House, 2023), winner of the 2024 Audre Lorde Award and a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, the New England Book Award, and the Vermont Book Award. The daughter of Cuban exiles, her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, the Yale Review, Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.

Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, says,
"Have You Been Long Enough at Table is both a question and an invitation in Leslie Sainz’s marvelous debut. Sainz probes spirituality with the verve and vitality of Emily Dickinson if Dickinson had been born Cuban American at the end of the last century. Sainz probes the overlap of imagination and experience like Sylvia Plath if Plath was born to a Cuban American landscape between “field crickets, memory, lesser parasites” and “the stain of guava on a plastic cutting board.” Have You Been Long Enough at Table articulates the bonds and tensions of independence and tradition, spirit and form, home and exile. Leslie Sainz is a poet who has been long at the table reading and writing poems and long at the table listening to the poetry of culture and family. She makes questions invitations and memory visible… Come bear witness to a remarkable poet bearing witness."

*This FREE (but come early for a good seat) public event is brought to you by Savannah State University's Department of English Languages and Cultures, The Book Lady Bookstore, and Estuary Creative Arts Club.

READ ON for more about Leslie Sainz and The Georgia Poetry Circuit…

Savannah’s most entertaining literary group is back and they are bringing THREE terrific authors and the hilarious Seersucker Live crew to Front Porch Improv. And of course The Book Lady is partnering up again and will have lots of wonderful books available onsite for sale and signing.

Social hour (yep, a cash bar, and conversation is free) begins at 6 pm; then curtain is up at 7 pm, featuring readings from:

KRISTEN ARNETT , two-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and author of the NYT bestseller Mostly Dead Things and With Teeth: A Novel

SAM RUSH, National Poetry Slam finalist and Georgia Author of the Year nominee

KEITH F. MILLER, JR., author of the novel Pritty and an award-winning educator, artist, and researcher

Get your TICKETS here!

Read on for more info about the authors, the venue, and Seersucker Live…

Georgia Poetry Circuit is traveling back to Savannah, bringing another nationally acclaimed poet both to Savannah State University to meet with students, and then to The Book Lady Bookstore for a free, public event with poet Chen Chen. These readings are some of the most dynamic events all year, so don’t miss it!

Chen Chen’s second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is out from BOA Editions and Bloodaxe Books (UK). His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA, 2017; Bloodaxe, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. Chen is also the author of five chapbooks, including Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023), and the forthcoming book of craft essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God (Noemi Press, 2024). His work appears in many publications, including Poetry, Poem-a-Day, and three editions of The Best American Poetry (2015, 2019, & 2021). He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists.

Chen Chen earned an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He has taught in the University of Massachusetts Boston MFA program and at Brandeis University as the 2018 to 2022 Jacob Ziskind poet-in-residence. He teaches in the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Chen edits the journals Underblong and the lickety~split.

*This FREE (but come early for a good seat) public event is brought to you by Savannah State University's Department of English Languages and Cultures, The Book Lady Bookstore, and Estuary Creative Arts Club.

Read on for more about The Georgia Poetry Circuit…

Join us at The Learning Center for another fascinating talk!

Susan Terrio’s Forced Out (NYU Press) tells the stories of undocumented mothers who reunite with their children in the US years after fleeing violence at home. Facing escalating chaos and violence in their home countries, many Central American mothers have found that a desperate flight to the north was their only choice. Many left their children behind in order to spare them the hardships of the journey. If they made it across the border without getting locked up or deported, they entered a country increasingly unwilling to recognize claims of asylum.
Featured are the stories of women who crossed the border without encountering immigration authorities, in some cases several times, and settled in the greater Washington, DC, area, living in the shadows for years. By centering on the voices of the women themselves, it offers an intimate look at what drove them from home and the challenges they face in reuniting years later with their children.

This program is presented in partnership with the Savannah Council on World Affairs. The Savannah Council on World Affairs’ promotional partnership with The Learning Center does not imply endorsement of the content of any lecture or printed work (that means, let’s hold our horses on the social media gripes, please). The Book Lady will be onsite with copies of Forced Out available for sale and signing.

REGISTER HERE

Read on for more about the author and The Learning Center…

It’s not every day that a new chapter in Georgia’s colonial history is written. Most Georgians know (and brag about) Georgia as the lone colony in British North America founded without slavery. Largely unknown, though, is founder James Oglethorpe’s personal evolution on the subjects of slavery and freedom before the era of abolition. Michael Thurmond discusses his new book, James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder’s Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist (University of Georgia Press).

Join us at The Learning Center for Thurmond’s lunchtime talk and book signing (yes, The Book Lady will be onsite), and while you are there learn about The Learning Center’s other wonderful talks and programs offered throughout the year!

This program is a partnership between TLC and the Savannah-Yamacraw Branch of the Association for the Study of African American History (ASALH). REGISTER HERE

Read on for more about Thurmond and The Learning Center…

Annual Savannah Local Author Day & the Flannery O’Connor Birthday Party are back! Local Author Day is sponsored by The Book Lady Bookstore and we are once again joining forces with the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, because after all, Flannery is Savannah’s most famous local author!

2024 is Flannery’s 99th Birthday and there will be a “Fair in the Square” with games, live music, crafts, cake, and a quirky costumed parade strolling around beautiful Lafayette Square. So don your best Flannery or Flannery-fictional-character costume, pack up the kids, and join the fun.

Come meet and mingle with local and regional literati: over 40 authors will be selling their latest books and sharing stories about their creative process.

Enjoy a Sunday afternoon among the azaleas with artsy activities, a Flannery look-alike contest, a Panhandle Slim exhibition & silent auction, chicken-cornhole (you’ll just have to see it), a random gorilla (can you decipher why?), a Moon River Opera sing-along, Starlandia craft and sign-making table, Sweet Thunder Band at the peacock bandshell, and so much more.

Read on for more about this free public event…

Georgia Conservancy’s annual Oyster Roast at beautiful Grove Point is coming up soon!

Where? Live Oaks, saltwater marsh and historic buildings - Savannah's Grove Point makes the perfect backdrop for celebrating Georgia's Coast. Graciously donated by Great Dane Trailers, the Oyster Roast is a rare opportunity for guests to enjoy this historic property overlooking the Little Ogeechee.

Oysters you say? Hands down, Charlie Phillips and Sapelo Sea Farms harvest some of the best clams and oysters we've ever enjoyed. Straight from Charlie's dock in Crescent, Georgia on Pelican Point, these bivalves could have landed in some of the finest restaurants on the East Coast - instead, they found your table at our 2024 Oyster Roast! 

Books too? Yes, indeed! We are proud to once again join Georgia Conservancy at The Book Lady tent with lots of terrific books on offer about the history and conservation of the Georgia Coast. Take home some fantastic reads about the saltmarsh, sea islands, Atlantic Right Whales, Longleaf conservation, Georgia waterways and much, much more.

*Get your GA Conservancy Oyster Roast tickets here! Oysters and Books on the Marsh!

READ ON for more information…

The Georgia Poetry Circuit is coming back to Savannah with another nationally acclaimed poet!

PATRICK ROSAL is the author of five full-length poetry collections including The Last Thing: New and Selected Poems, winner of the William Carlos Williams Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. He currently serves as Campus Co-director of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers-Camden, where he coordinates the programming series Occasions for Gathering and Quilting Water, a five-year public art project collecting interviews about water from around the world. He is also Professor of English teaching courses on poetry, performance, improvisation, collaboration, and community art. He has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Research Scholar program. and the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. He is co-founding editor of Some Call It Ballin’, a literary sports magazine.

Rosal has recently completed a setting of the Lucille Clifton poem “sorrows” for voice and piano. He has provided recorded arrangement and live accompaniment for his wife, soprano Mary Rose Go. He is well versed in hip hop production techniques as well as analog and digital synthesis. He is a student of Afro-Cuban percussion, sacred music, improvised/creative modes, and many folkloric traditions from the Philippines, the Pacific, South America and the Caribbean.

*This FREE (but come early for a good seat) public event is brought to you by Savannah State University's Department of English Languages and Cultures, The Book Lady Bookstore, and Estuary Creative Arts Club.

*Books will be available for sale & signing after the talk and Q&A

READ ON for more about The Georgia Poetry Circuit and Patrick Rosal…

The mission of the amiable environmental warriors at Coastal WildScapes is to “connect residents to the habitats of coastal Georgia and empower them to be stewards of their natural environment”. What could be more fundamental to the future of our beautiful coastal home?!

Join us for a day of terrific talks on “Coastal Native Plants and Their Uses” and discover fascinating new environmental books at The Book Lady’s curated table (lots for both the more experienced and novice science/nature readers). Speakers include Miya Timmons on “Exploring Gullah Geechee Plants Through Illustration and Personification”; Lauren Dorminey on “Native Wild Herbs for Wellness and Reciprocity in South Georgia Communities”; Lou Thomann on “Ceremony, Medicine and Caffeinated Tea”; and Betsy Harris on “I Eat Flowers (and other things)…A Year of Seasonal Eating Along the Southeast Coast”.

*This ticketed event will be held at the handsome Richmond Hill City Center and lunch is also provided with your online registration: www.coastalwildscapes.org/EVENTS

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This Savannah book launch kicks off the new year with cookbook author and gifted storyteller, Johnathon Scott Barrett. In his first novel, Ship Watch, as author Cassandra King (award-winning author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy) says, “…Barrett mixes up a delightful brew of Southern eccentricities and serves it with a dash of romance, adventure and intrigue. Ship Watch is a colorful and rollicking good read!”

Johnathon Scott Barrett is a seventh-generation Georgian with a deep appreciation for the South’s literary and culinary traditions. He is the author of three acclaimed cookbooks, which critics hailed for their entertaining stories and extensive recipes. Barrett is a CPA and has worked as a nonprofit executive for the past three decades; he is the director of development for the State Botanical Garden of Georgia at UGA. He splits his time between two Georgia homes: Winterville and Savannah.

*This is a ticketed event hosted by The Learning Center, and ticket price includes hors d’ouevres and cocktails (of course, y’all, or it wouldn’t be Savannah!) Get your tickets HERE

*Books will be available for sale and signing at the event by The Book Lady Bookstore (if you can’t make it, give us a call and we’ll get one signed for you, 912-233-3628

Read on for more info…