This month kicks off TrailFest ‘09 on the Southern Literary Trail. The Trail is a loose association of 18 southern towns in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi that celebrate famous writers and playwrights from the twentieth century and the hometowns that inspired them. Georgia trail sites include Atlanta’s own Joel Chandler Harris and Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O’Connor, Lillian Smith, Erskine Caldwell, Carson McCullers and Alice Walker. In Mississippi, they’re celebrating the Eudora Welty Centennial this year, a very big deal indeed; although I’m disappointed that there’s no field trip to the post office. I once got to wait in a hallway at the Algonquin Hotel with Ms. Welty when our magnetic cardkeys wouldn’t work. It turned out a lot of things in that hotel room didn’t work, but it was all worth it because I got to chat with Eudora Welty.

1. Georgia Writer Flannery O’Connor
2. Staycation Ideas
3. Atlanta Area Author Talks–Where to Find Them!