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April 4-6, 2025

Word of South

Daniel Wallace

Daniel Wallace is author of six novels, including Big Fish (1998), Ray in Reverse (2000), The Watermelon King (2003), Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (2007), The Kings and Queens of Roam (2013), and most recently Extraordinary Adventures (May 2017).  His children’s book, published in 2014, and for which he did both the words and the pictures, is called The Cat’s Pajamas, and it is adorable. In 2003 Big Fish was […]

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Bobby Ramirez – Pan Con Bistec

For more than four decades, virtuoso Cuban-American musician, maestro Bobby Ramirez has been forging his distinctive musical persona forming a perfect harmony between the rhythms of Cuba, jazz, classical music and beyond as a flutist, saxophonist, singer, composer, arranger, bandleader, dancer, historian, educator, speaker, and book author. In addition to his extensive international career as […]

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Anne Hull

Anne Hull is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who spent nearly two decades as a National Enterprise reporter at the Washington Post. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, and she is a recipient of fellowships at Harvard University and the American Academy in Berlin. She is a fifth-generation Floridian who started her newspaper career at the St. Petersburg […]

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Anne Bogel

Anne Bogel is the creator of the blog Modern Mrs Darcy and host of the What Should I Read Next? podcast and the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. She’s also the author of five nonfiction titles, and has most recently published My Reading Adventures: A Book Journal for Kids. Anne lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her […]

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Ally Free

Ally Free is a singer/songwriter from Huntsville, Alabama who’s played at venues and bars/restaurants in the surrounding areas of their hometown such as Sidetracks Music Hall, Mars Music Hall, Rhythm on Monroe, Stovehouse, The Princess Theatre in Decatur featuring Robert Cray, to name a few.  They’ve also played Panoply Arts Festival and Microwave Dave Day […]

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Blind Boys of Alabama

The Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The Recording Academy/GRAMMYs with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and winners of five GRAMMY® Awards, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that […]

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Rising Appalachia

Rising Appalachia is an internationally touring Americana and world folk ensemble steeped in the soul of the South. It is the brainchild of Atlanta-raised sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith, rooted in the traditional folk music of their family, storytelling, songcathing, grassroots activism, lyrical prowess, and a multi-instrumental tapestry of their melodic ensemble. The band’s […]

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The Flaming Lips

Released in July 2002, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots remains the commercial high-water mark in The Flaming Lips’ wild four-decade journey, giving the GRAMMY® award-winners their first RIAA certified Gold Record. As the eagerly awaited follow-up to 1999’s masterwork, The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi proved that singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne and multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd had yet another masterpiece in […]

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Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer has been profiled by the New York Times, Audubon Magazine, and the Guardian, in large part for his environmentalism and his exploration of the nonhuman world in his fiction. His NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy has been translated into over 35 languages. The first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award, and was made into […]

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