One of the frequently asked questions of authors is "Where do your ideas come from?" While the answer to that question is fascinating, what is more interesting is the lives of these great people. Come have a conversation and get to know them as the interesting individuals they are.
Conversations
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10:00 - 11:30 AM​
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​ Terah Shelton Harris
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, was published in February 2026.​
Parul Kapur
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.
Robert Gwaltney
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.
Jenn Lyons
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.
Featured Author
Colleen Oakley
1 PM
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. ​
Conversations
with ...
2:45 - 4:15 PM​
Gaby Anderson
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 July 2025!
Emily Carpenter
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.
Ralph Ellis
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.
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Lo Patrick
LO PATRICK is a former lawyer and current novelist living in the suburbs of Atlanta. Her debut, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and was a Reader's Digest Editor's Pick.
FEATURED AUTHOR
1:00 - 2:30 PM
FEATURED AUTHOR
Collen Oakley
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.
Wine and Cheese
3:00 -4:30 PM
Terah Shelton Harris
From Librarian to best selling author, (One Summer in Savannah and Long After We Are Gone) how did she do it? She is also a fabulous photographer. Come visit with this warm and charming lady.​​