Sign up to win prizes and for exclusive updates about this year’s festival
April 26-28, 2024
Elnora Spencer was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and began singing at the age of four. Music was a family affair, as Elnora was strongly influenced by her mother who was a noted gospel singer in the 1950s, a talented grandfather, and two aunts who performed on a local television morning program. At 12, she was […]
Dylan Leblanc is an American original. In early 2010, LeBlanc released his first album Paupers Field. The song If the Creek Don’t Rise features Emmylou Harris. In support of the album, LeBlanc toured with and opened for acts such as Lucinda Williams, the Civil Wars, George Ezra and Calexico. LeBlanc’s second album, Cast the Same […]
GRAMMY Award Winner, Two-Time EMMY Nominee, 2019 WAMMIE Award Winner- Dom Flemons is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He is known as “The American Songster” since his repertoire of music covers over 100 years of American folklore, ballads, and tunes. Flemons is a music scholar, historian, record collector […]
Colleen Oakley is the critically acclaimed author of Before I Go, Close Enough to Touch, and the recently released You Were There Too. Colleen’s novels have been longlisted for the Southern Book Prize twice and shortlisted for the French Reader’s Prize. Her books have been translated into 18 languages, optioned for film, and have received […]
Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then, he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, […]
Beatriz Williams is the bestselling author of ten novels, including The Summer Wives, A Hundred Summers, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, A Certain Age, and The Golden Hour. A native of Seattle, she graduated from Stanford University and earned an MBA in finance from Columbia University, then spent several years in New York and […]
Caleb Johnson is the author of the novel Treeborne— an honorable mention for the 2019 Southern Book Prize. He grew up in rural Alabama and currently lives in North Carolina, where he teaches creative writing at Appalachian State University. Caleb has received fellowships and grants from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Jentel Artist Residency, and […]
Ann Powers is NPR Music’s critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR’s music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR’s newsmagazines and music programs. Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior […]
Lee Bains hails from Birmingham, a city torn apart by some of the South’s most tragic events, and the singer isn’t shy about expressing the area’s shortcomings and flaws, while also delivering a dose of don’t-forget-where-you’re-from pride. One thing is certain, this band likes to rock. Lee Bains and the Glory Fires wrap commentaries and […]
Rita Coolidge, “The Delta Lady,” has been a force on the music scene ever since she graduated from Florida State University with an art degree in the 1960s. Coolidge began as a backup singer who toured and recorded with many of the rock stars of the 1970s. Friends say she actually wrote the piano solo […]