December Events 

A Cappella Books, 208 Haralson Ave. NE, Atlanta 30307, 404-681-5128, Atlanta 30307,  http://www.acappellabooks.com

December 2nd, 7 p.m.–Justice While Black by Robbin Shipp and Nick Chiles, Carter Library.

December 5th, 6 p.m.–25th Anniversary Celebration and book launch. Carter Library.

To celebrate its longevity, A Cappella is publishing a book: A Cozy Infinity: 25 (Mostly) Atlanta Writers on the Never-Ending Allure of Books and Bookstores. Contributors to the volume include Pulitzer Prize-winner Hank Klibanoff, former Atlanta Magazine editor Rebecca Burns, James Beard award-winning food writer John T. Edge, popular columnist Hollis Gillespie and celebrated local novelists Thomas Mullen, Susan Rebecca White, Anthony Grooms, and Joseph Skibell. The book’s title comes from one of the 25 essays contained in it, penned by Esquire staff writer and Atlanta resident Tom Junod.

On Friday, December 5th, at 6 p.m., the book’s editor, Tony Paris, A Cappella owner Frank Reiss (who wrote a history of the store for the book) and a number of the contributing writers gather at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library for the official release of A Cozy Infinity. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing, as will books by many of the contributors. The event is free and open to the public. Following the event, the celebration continues at Manuel’s Tavern.

December 10th, 7 p.m.–The Twilight of Human Rights Law by Eric Posner. Carter Library.

January 14th, 7 p.m.–The Fierce Urgency of Now by Julian Zelizer.Carter Library.

Agnes Scott College, 141 E. College Ave., Decatur, 404-471-6000.www.agnesscott.edu

March 27th-28th–43rd Annual Writers Festival

This year’s visiting authors for the 43^rd Annual Writers’ Festival (March 27-28), the oldest continuous literary festival in Georgia, will be poet and memoirist Nick Flynn, poet Terrance Hayes and distinguished alumna playwright Louisa Hill ’09. The visiting writers will judge Agnes Scott’s state-wide creative writing competition for Georgia college students (deadline for entry Dec. 4).

Nick Flynn is the author of three memoirs, The Reenactments (Norton, 2013), The Ticking is the Bomb: A Memoir of Bewilderment (2010) andAnother Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004)—currently being published under title Being Flynn—which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir and has been translated into fifteen languages.Another Bullshit Night in Suck City has been made into a film, Being Flynn, starring Robert DeNiro as Flynn’s father, Julianne Moore as his mother, and Paul Dano as Nick. He is also the author of three books of poetry, The Captain Asks For a Show of Hands (Graywolf, 2011); Some Ether (Graywolf, 2000), which won the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award; andBlind Huber (Graywolf, 2002).

One of the most compelling voices in American poetry, Terrance Hayes is the author of four books of poetry; Lighthead (2010), winner of the 2010 National Book Award in Poetry; Wind in a Box, winner of a Pushcart Prize; Hip Logic, winner of the National Poetry Series, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and Muscular Music, winner of both the Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He has been a recipient of many other honors and awards, including two Pushcart selections, four Best American Poetry selections, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Guggenheim Foundation. His poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Fence, The Kenyon Review, Jubilat, Harvard Review, and Poetry. His poetry has been featured on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Louisa Hill ’09 received her MFA from the University of Iowa’s Playwrights’ Workshop in 2012, where she was the Iowa Arts Fellow. Her thesis play The Lord of the Underworld’s Home for Unwed Mothersreceived the Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, was selected as the keynote for the KCACTF Region 5 Conference, and is slated for production in April ’14 at Muscatine Community College. Recently her play Annette Kellerman Forever! was selected for the Blueprint Series at the Brimmer Street Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where she now lives.

To see the schedule of find out more about the Writers’ Festival, visit theWriters’ Festival webpage.

Atlanta Cyclorama and the Civil War Museum, 800 Cherokee Ave. SE (Grant Park), Atlanta 404-658-7625. http://www.atlantacyclorama.org/

Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Rd./ Atlanta 30305, 404-814-4000,  www.atlantahistorycenter.com  Tickets Required.

December 2nd, 8 p.m.–Elson Lecture:  Latino America: How America’s Most Dynamic Population is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation by Gary M. Segura.

December 15th, all day. Join the Atlanta History Center in celebrating the 75^th anniversary of the award-winning, classic film Gone With the Wind by reliving the glitz and glamour of the 1939 Atlanta premiere through real-time updates and photos chronicling the event.

To follow the live blog, visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.tumblr.com and look for posts with #GWTWATL.

December 15th, 7 p.m.–John Wiley, Jr. lecture: The Scarlett Letters: The Making of the Film Gone With the Wind. (Margaret Mitchell House)

One month after her novel Gone With the Wind was published, Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights for fifty thousand dollars. Fearful of what the studio might do to her story the author washed her hands of involvement with the film. However, driven by a maternal interest in her literary firstborn and compelled by her Southern manners to answer every fan letter she received, Mitchell was unable to stay aloof for long.

In this collection of her letters about the 1939 motion picture classic, readers have a front-row seat as the author watches the Dream Factory at work, learning the ins and outs of filmmaking and discovering the peculiarities of a movie-crazed public. Her ability to weave a story, so evident in Gone With the Wind, makes for delightful reading in her correspondence with a who’s who of Hollywood, from producer David O. Selznick, director George Cukor, and screenwriter Sidney Howard, to cast members Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel.

John Wiley, Jr. has been a Gone With the Wind fan since first seeing the movie and reading the novel at age 10, and has assembled one of the world’s largest collections of Margaret Mitchell and GWTW memorabilia. Co-author of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood, he was featured in the 2011 PBS documentary Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel. Wiley also publishesThe Scarlett Letter, a quarterly newsletter for GWTW fans and collectors.

January 27th, 7 p.m.–Die Again by Tess Gerritsen (Margaret Mitchell House)

Through April 4th, 2015–Wilbur G. Kurtz: History in Gone With the Wind, Kenan Research Center (on AHC campus). Free to the public, Monday – Saturday, 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM; Sunday, Noon – 5:30 PM.

In recognition of the 75^th Anniversary of the premier of Gone With the Wind, the Atlanta History Center presents Wilbur G. Kurtz: History in Gone With the Wind, a new exhibition revealing Kurtz’s influence as the film’s historian and technical advisor. Kurtz’s role in Hollywood was to guarantee the historical accuracy of the film’s depiction of Atlanta, Tara, and the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.

Utilizing the Atlanta History Center’s extensive collections, the exhibition features over forty images and artifacts that provide unique insight into Wilbur G. Kurtz’s vast knowledge of Atlanta history and his meticulous attention to detail. Through a presentation of his journals, correspondence, drawings, and photographs, visitors learn how Kurtz employed his expertise as an historian to guide Selznick’s production in virtually every scene in Gone With the Wind, as well as gain insight into the art of filmmaking during the golden age of Hollywood.

Recommended by Margaret Mitchell herself, Kurtz worked closely with Selznick International Pictures’ Art Department. Their collaborative effort is seen in the exhibition’s display of Kurtz’s documents juxtaposed with watercolor storyboards of iconic scenes, such as the Monster Bazaar where Scarlett O’Hara, still in mourning, scandalized Atlanta society by dancing with Rhett Butler.

Many items in the exhibition are presented to the public for the first time, including photographs of casual moments on the set and of the mammoth Atlanta Car shed prop constructed on the studio’s back lot. Other objects provide insight into the film’s production, including an original screenplay showing edits made to the script during shooting, colorful title cards created by Kurtz for the film’s opening credits, and a sample of Georgia red clay Kurtz provided to ensure that the red earth of Tara and Atlanta’s dirt streets were truly authentic as the Technicolor cameras rolled…

Atlanta Press Club, 200 Peachtree St., Atlanta 30303, 404-577-7377,  http://atlantapressclub.org/programs-events/

Atlanta Writers Club,—http://www.atlantawritersclub.org/ , Georgia Perimeter College, Bldg. NC, Room 1100 Auditorium

December 6th, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.–Books for Less hosts a 15-author book signing event. 2815 Buford Dr., Buford 30519.

December 7th, 1 p.m.–Holiday Book Sale: Deeds Publishing is hosting a multi-author holiday book sale, 1549 Asheforde Dr., Marietta 30068. All of the books will be signed. Many of the authors will be there to personalize your purchases. There is something for everyone! We are also offering a special holiday pricing – buy three books and get the fourth one free! If you cannot make that date, we are doing another event on Saturday, December 13th from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. – same location. Please tell your friends and family! Here is the link on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/events/1559122844300495/