Bookmark with Don Noble

Rick Bragg won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1996 for his work at The New York Times. Born in Piedmont, Alabama, in 1959, Mr. Bragg is the author of two best-selling memoirs, All Over But the Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man, as well as his newly released The Prince of Frogtown. He credits his writing ability to the oral storytelling of family and friends in his childhood in the Appalachian foothills of Alabama, saying: “My grandfather on my daddy’s side and my grandma on my momma’s side used to try and cuss their miseries away. They could out-cuss any damn body I have ever seen. I am only an amateur cusser at best, but I inherited other things from these people who grew up on the ridges and deep in the hollows of northeastern Alabama, the foothills of the Appalachians. They taught me, on a thousand front porch nights, as a million jugs passed from hand to hand, how to tell a story.” Bragg has told stories and taught writing at Harvard University, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Boston University, the University of South Florida, and other colleges. Bragg became a domestic correspondent in The New York Times’ Atlanta office in October 1994. Before joining The New York Times he worked at several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the St. Petersburg Times, covering murders and unrest in Haiti as a metro reporter, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesboro killings, the Susan Smith trial, and more as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He later became the paper’s Miami bureau chief just in time for Elian Gonzalez’s arrival and the international controversy surrounding the Cuban boy. Bragg attended Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow from 1992 to 1993 (“the only real college I ever had”) and beside his Pulitzer Prize, he is the recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and 31 other national, regional and state writing awards. He has had stories included in Best Newspaper Writing 1991, Best of the Press 1988, and two journalism textbooks on good writing and foreign reporting. He now works as a writing professor at the University of Alabama’s journalism program in its College of Communications and Information Sciences.

Alabama author Daniel Wallace joins Don Noble to talk about his new book "The Kings and Queens of Roam"

Allan Gurganus broke onto the American literary scene with a giant novel, The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. This week Alan joins Don to talk about his collection of three novellas - Local Souls. This episode was taped at the Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, AL.

Born in Illinois the author traveled extensively as a military wife. Reading was a solace in times of strife, and led to an MFA and a career in writing. Her latest novel, her fourth, is Z, the fictionalized biography of Zelda Fitzgerald.

A North Carolina native now living in New York who as a non-fiction writer has been prolific and diverse. Sins of the Father is about a mobster in the witness protection program. American Made is his latest about the history of the New Deal’s WPA program. He has also written biographies of John Glenn and Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser, and a book on the culture of Bass Fishing.

This week Bookmark has a very special guest, Don's wife Jennifer Horne to talk about her new book on Sara Mayfield, the eccentric Tuscaloosa socialite and author.

Hank Lazer has published nineteen books of poetry, including N24 (2014) and N18 (2012), Portions (2009), The New Spirit (2005), Elegies & Vacations (2004), and Days (2002). Pages from Lazer’s shape-writing handwritten notebooks have been performed with soprano saxophonist Andrew Raffo Dewar, most recently at the University of Georgia and in two concerts in Havana, Cuba. Lazer’s Selected Poems in translation will be appearing in books in the coming year in China, Cuba, and Italy. Over the past fifteen years, Lazer has collaborated with various jazz musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, and visual artists in seeking new ways to present poetry. In 2015, Lazer was selected to receive Alabama’s most prestigious literary prize, the Harper Lee Award, for lifetime achievement in literature, joining past recipients of the award such as Winston Groom, Fanny Flagg, and Rick Bragg. Lazer retired in January 2014 from his positions as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Executive Director of Creative Campus, and Professor of English. He is now able to teach more frequently, and to spend more time reading, writing, taking his dogs for walks, playing golf, and traveling on his poetry passport. He continues to serve as a Senior Fellow with the Blount Undergraduate Initiative.

Don Noble sits down with author Lauren Denton as they discuss her work along with her book "The One You're With."

Don is joined by Alabama author Daniel Wallace to talk about his novel "Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician"

Now the author of four novels, Inman Majors has shown his serious and comic sides. Swimming in Sky is a young man's coming of age novel. The Millionaires tells the story of the Bankers, two Tennessee brothers who put on the Nashville World's Fair. Wonderdog, set in Tuscaloosa, is the hilarious story of a reluctant young lawyer. While the latest, Loves Winning Plays, is a satire of both SEC football fever the Boosters and the Bloggers and women's book discussion groups. No one is safe.  Don spoke with Inman Majors on the campus of the University of Alabama.

Young is an author a playwright an actress,  a social activist, an attorney,  and a MacArthur Fellow. Billie Jean Young is the author of the one-woman show This Little Light in which she portrays the courageous civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

Today's guest is Birmingham poet Ashley M. Jones.  Jones is the author of three volumes of poetry, most recently Reparations Now!

Author Anthony Grooms, best know for his Bombingham, a novel addressing issues faced during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.   In addition to his writing, Grooms teaches at Kennesaw State, and has also taught in Ghana and Sweden.  Don spoke with Anthony in Studio UA, on campus at the University of Alabama. 

Readers of Cassandra King novels, such as Queen of Broken Hearts, have come to expect variations on the story of a middle-aged woman whose life falls apart, but who was then comforted and supported by a group of loyal girlfriends.  In Moonrise, her newest, King has a protaganist who marries a slightly older man, a widower, and the dead wife's friends are awful to her, cold and mean.   Don spoke with Cassandra King at Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville, AL. 

R.P. Finch, after a long career as a mergers and acquisitions attorney in Atlanta, has produced a remarkable debut novel Skin In The Game.  Set partly in the offices of a law firm, young associates fight over making partner, but it's also a racy, comic romp involving the inventing and licensing of a quantum super computer, the CIA, the mafia, and an imaginative thug entrepeneur looking to build a strip mall completely comprised of strip clubs.