Celebrated Local Author ANN HITE Launches Her New Book I AM A GEORGIA GIRL

Ann Hite is an award-winning Southern writer and admits to being a storyteller from birth. The author of the award-winning Black Mountain series, Ghost on Black Mountain, her debut novel, was one of ten finalists for The Townsend Prize in 2012 and won Georgia Author of the Year in 2012. The Storycatcher is the second novel in the Black Mountain books. Where the Souls Go, the third book in the series, was a finalist for IndieFab in the Historical Fiction category 2016, and Sleeping Above Chaos, the fourth book in the series, was a finalist for Georgia Author of the Year 2017 and also was a finalist in IndieFab in the Historical Fiction category.

Many of us know the story of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan – the M**der, tabloid trial, “guilty” verdict, and lynching, which led to a rise in antisemitism, a rebirth of the Klan, and the birth of the Anti-Defamation League. But the story we don’t know is that of Leo’s wife, Lucille’s. Now, for the first time, Ann Hite’s I’m a Georgia Girl gives Lucille a voice, and it’s a poignant one rendering a heart-breaking story. No longer bound by society and forced to bear silent witness to the events that surrounded her husband, Lucille (and Ann) gives an indictment on race, class, religion, gender, and history that must not be ignored. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself. Jeff Clemmons, author of Rich’s: A Southern Institution

“I Am A Georgia Girl, Hite’s nonfiction feat, gleams with precision, humanity, and expert story-telling. This tautly rendered, compelling account of the courageous life of Lucille Selig Frank and events surrounding the 1915 lynching of her husband, Leo Max Frank, weaves the timely and momentous story of gross injustice, anti-Semitism, and the suppression of women’s voices. Lucille Selig Frank would be proud.” Robert Gwaltney, award-winning author of The Cicada Tree

In her new book, I Am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank 1888-1957, Ann Hite re-examines the horrific lynching of Leo Frank which occurred in Georgia on August 17, 1915. He was accused of murdering the thirteen-year-old factory worker, Mary Phagan. With extensive research and meticulous writing, Hite looks at the hatred, antisemitism, and mob violence of vigilantism which was rampant at the time. But Hite concentrates on the life of the young wife of Leo Frank, Lucille, who spent the rest of her life trying to prove his innocence. Her life was shattered, too. This is an important book for which Hite should be commended. Carolyn Curry, award winning author, new book Trudy’s Awakening coming September 2, 2025

The late University of Georgia law professor Donald Eugene Wilkes, Jr., introduced generations of his students to the horrifying story of injustice that Ann Hite so well recounts here, with excellent research and narrative, in her book “I Am A Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank 1888-1957.”

I was shocked to be reminded how relatively recently this happened, Ms. Frank being my grandparents age. I have friends who are descendants from families on both sides of this horror story, and a statue of one of the most culpable in causing this horrific injustice still stands on the state capitol grounds.

We must keep this story, raw and painful to read today, ever-present in our minds, as Professor Wilkes was intending. The words of George Santayana, who said ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’ underline the importance of reading this book.” McCracken Poston, Jr. Author, “Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom” (Citadel, 2024)

“I am a Georgia Girl” is the story Ann Hite has yearned to tell since she was nine years old. That’s when her grandmother shared with her the horrific experience of seeing Leo Frank’s body hanging from a tree limb, the victim of a lynch mob avenging the M**der of Mary Phagan.

Ann delves into this sad chapter of Georgia history by focusing on Frank’s wife, Lucille. It’s a remarkable portrait of a quiet but strong young woman courageously defending her beloved husband against insurmountable forces that ultimately ripped him from her forever. The roles of Lucille Frank and other women swept up in the Leo Frank saga have often been underreported. Thanks to Ann Hite for so vividly bringing their stories to life against the backdrop of one of Georgia’s most infamous episodes. John Pruitt Retired WSB-TV news anchor and author of Tell It True, A Novel.

Carolyn Curry is an award-winning author, historian, and non-profit founder and director of Women Alone Together®. She holds a BA from Agnes Scott College and a MA and PhD from Georgia State University. In 2014, she published Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907. In 2015, it was selected One of the Books all Georgians should read by the Georgia Center for the Book. In that same year, Curry received Georgia Author of the Year from the Georgia Writers Association.

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