Carrrollton BookFest 2026

The fourth annual Carrollton BookFest will be held on March 27th and 28th, 2026. This exciting two day event will highlight local, regional, and national best selling authors.

​On Friday, we are once again joined by the dynamic duo of Kim Conrey and George Weinstein and the outstanding talent of Bren McClain. Jennifer Horne, the former Poet Laureate of Alabama is a new presenter and we are still working on an activity for authors of children's books. Stay turned for more details.

​Wanda Morris will be our keynote speaker on Friday evening. A reception will start at 5:30 (open to the public) with her presentation at 6:30 with book signing immediately after.

​For readers, Saturday will feature "Conversations with the Authors." Morning and afternoon sessions will give readers opportunity to visit with the authors. Coffee and pastries for the morning sessions and wine and cheese for the afternoon sessions will provide a casual atmosphere in which to learn about the authors and their works. Bring your book club and make is a social outing!

​Our Featured Author, Colleen Oakley, will speak at 1 pm. Come join us for this exciting presentation. ​

Info: How we open our stories is absolutely critical. It teaches readers what’s important, what to pay attention to. Plus, it sets their expectations right off the bat about what this story is about, the scope and who is telling it – along with giving the reader the roadmap to start the story.

We’ll look at some openings from published novels and talk about the expectations they set and what we can learn from each one. We’ll also look at some of your openings, if you’re willing to share. I invite you to bring your first two pages. Oh, your story doesn’t get good until page 10?

Info: Scenes are the building blocks of stories. Readers want to be set down inside the world you are creating, want to experience this world through their senses. I think of it as turning a drinking glass upside down on the moment and holding it still so it can unfold for the reader.

Scenes are moments, isolated, fully explored slowed down moments – vs. flying over in summary, which robs the reader of the full experience of unfolding.

In this class, we’ll examine a few published scenes to study what the writer is doing on the page. And then, we’ll turn our attention to your work with the goal of applying what you’ve learned. So, come with either an idea for a story – or something you’ve already written.

Info: Award-winning authors and Atlanta Writers Club officers Kim Conrey and George Weinstein will help you focus on what you want to write, why you want to write it, and how. They'll give you ways to overcome any obstacles impeding your progress, develop writing discipline and commitment, and come to grips with the process and mechanics of writing and editing. By the end of this workshop, you'll have a plan for achieving your writing goals.

Info: Part One: Giving Characters a Voice: Using First-Person in Poetry and Short Fiction. Some of the most memorable American writing has been written in the first-person voice: “Call me Ishmael.” Horne will discuss using first-person narrators—the advantages and the potential pitfalls. Participants will have the chance to do exercises in first-person writing and will leave the workshop with a better understanding of how and when the first-person works
Part 2: “Write What You’ve Learned” Ernest Hemingway famously said, “Write what you know.” Hemingway did a lot of writing about things that he consciously, intentionally, learned and experienced. This workshop will teach you how to make use of bodies of knowledge that you have acquired to enrich your poetry or short prose, using particular experiences or a specialized body of knowledge as subject matter, as a language trove, as a source of metaphor, and as a way of increasing the specificity of your writing.

Info: Wanda M. Morris is the 2025 Georgia Author of the Year in Mystery. She is the acclaimed author of several legal thrillers including All Her Little Secrets, Anywhere You Run, and What You Leave Behind. Her books have been reviewed by The Boston Globe, LA Times, New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Seattle Times, and South Florida Sun Sentinel among others. Her debut novel, All Her Little Secrets has been optioned for a limited series, starring and executive produced by three-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba with Wanda serving as an executive producer.
Wanda’s latest book, What You Leave Behind, has also received stellar acclaim. It was named a “Top 100 Best Books of 2024” by Amazon editors and has been featured in People Magazine, Us Weekly, The Washington Post, The Denver Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Reception at 5:30 PM

Info: Robert Gwaltney, a recipient of the 2022 Pat Conroy Writers Residency, was named 2023 Georgia Author of the Year for his debut novel, The Cicada Tree. He resides in Atlanta Georgia where he is an active member of the Atlanta literary community serving as a board member for Broadleaf Writers Association. Robert’s work has appeared in such publications as Southbound Magazine, Southern Literary Review, The Blue Mountain Review, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. His forthcoming novel, Sing Down The Moon, which has been awarded the Somerset Award for Literary and Contemporary Fiction, will be published by Mercer University Press in the Spring of 2026.

Info: TERAH SHELTON HARRIS is an author and former librarian, who now writes upmarket fiction with bittersweet endings. She is the author of One Summer in Savannah and Long After We Are Gone. Her books have been chosen as a Target Book Club pick, LibraryReads pick, Kobo Best Book, Together We Read pick, Publisher’s Marketplace Buzz Book, and a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for Best Debut. Terah was also named Target’s first Author of the Year. Her third book, Where the Wildflowers Grow, will be published in February 2026.

Info: Parul Kapur is the author of Inside the Mirror, winner the AWP Prize for the Novel, and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the New American Voices Award. She was named 2025 Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel. Her articles and reviews appear in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal Europe, Newsday, Slate, Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica and The Paris Review. The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Hambidge Center, Loghaven, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Monson Arts and Jentel have offered her writing fellowships. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and lives in Atlanta.

Info: Twice-nominated Astounding Award finalist Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, a rebellious cait sìth, and a nearly infinite number of opinions on everything from Sumerian mythology to the proper way to make a martini. After thirty years as a graphic artist, art director, and video game producer (in that order), Lyons now happily splits her time between game development and novel writing. Her geek roots run deep, beginning with first edition Dungeons & Dragons in grade school and continuing today with an ever-evolving roster of hobbies—recent obsessions include pyrography, stenography, and medieval occult manuscripts. She is also the author of the A Chorus of Dragons series, which begins with The Ruin of Kings, as well as the standalone novels The Sky on Fire and Green and Deadly Things.

Info: Colleen Oakley is the USA Today bestselling author of six novels. Her book The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a Reader’s Digest Book Club pick, a Marie Claire Book Club pick, and named a most anticipated read for 2023 by the Today Show. Colleen’s novels have been translated into 21 languages, optioned for film and have received numerous accolades including the French Reader’s Prize, Library Reads Hall of Fame, and Georgia Author of the Year. A proud graduate of the University of Georgia’s school of journalism, Colleen currently lives in Atlanta with her husband, four kids, four chickens and a mutt named Baxter.
Colleen’s sixth novel Jane & Dan at the End of the World (March 2025), is a hilarious book about a date night that goes off the rails when one couple gets wrapped up in a crime in progress.

Info: Gaby Anderson was born in Montreal, Quebec. When she was a year old, her family moved to New Jersey, then Paris, back to Canada, and finally to the U.S. where she's lived ever since. She's married to one of her best friends from college, has two amazing daughters, and many (many) animals from the local shelters. Gaby has worked in the restaurant industry, commercial and group travel, private aviation, and pharmaceutical instrumentation. She currently works in behavioral health management, and writes when she finds the time...which is why it took twenty years to complete her first book. The second book, Dream a Little Dream, was published in 2025!

Info: Emily Carpenter is the bestselling author of six suspense novels. As Isla Moore, she has a contemporary romance series, the Thornhill, Georgia Books.

Her current book from Kensington, GOTHICTOWN, a Publishers Marketplace BUZZ BOOKS Selection, was given a starred review by Booklist and is currently in development by AMC TV and Made with Love Media as a limited series TV show.

After graduating from Auburn University in Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, she moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and also as a behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family.

Info: Ralph Ellis has worked for newspapers across the Southeast, including 21 years as a reporter and editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He's a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and lives in Decatur with his wife, food writer Susan Puckett, and their greyhound, Zena. The Accident Report is his first novel. While still working as a journalist, he began writing fiction. He has completed two manuscripts about a fictional reporter named Ronald Truluck, who breaks the rules of journalism to get the story. The action takes place in the mean streets of small towns and suburbs in the Southeast—the locales Ralph knows best. His first book is The Accident Report, which is scheduled to be published in 2025 by Black Rose Writing.

Info: Lo Patrick spent several years working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles before earning her law degree at the University of Miami and becoming a novelist. She lives with her husband, two children, and two cats outside of Atlanta-her beloved hometown.

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