Alabama writer Bradley Sides is set to have an exciting end to the year. His debut collection, Those Fantastic Lives: And Other Strange Stories, releases this October and has already earned some kind early notice, with Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters, comparing Sides’ stories to “the best of Joe Hill and Ray Bradbury.”

Sides’ collection, containing monsters, ghosts, and aliens, is the ideal kind of book for readers to explore as they prepare for Halloween. I was recently able to ask Bradley about his interest in magical realism, his work as a fiction editor at a literary magazine, and, of course, his upcoming release of Those Fantastic Lives.

Alina Stefanescu: Those Fantastic Lives: And Other Strange Stories is full of magical realism and weird fiction stories. What draws you to the fantastic?

Bradley Sides: As strange as it sounds, I think it’s because of my childhood on a farm. I grew up surrounded by animals and quietness and the stars. I can remember being in my bedroom at night, and I’d, from the total silence, begin to hear bullfrogs warbling from the pond. When my father sold cows or separated the mother from her calves, there would be nights of crying. There’s a lot of room for an imagination to run wild with these kinds of happenings surrounding you, especially as you look up from your bed and see the clear, dark, sparkling sky and think about what else is out there—what else might be waiting to haunt you.

AS: As an early writer, did you already know this would be your space?

BS: Sometimes I wish I would’ve known earlier, but I didn’t. I spent some time working on southern stories and YA novels, but they never felt real to me. (I needed magic and the fantastic to find truth.) I’m grateful, though, that I was writing. I learned a lot from my early drafts; I realized what worked and what didn’t.

I was in my mid-twenties before I started really getting into magical realism short fiction—both as a reader and as I writer. When I finished my first magical realism piece (“Restored” at the end of 2013), I knew I’d found where I was supposed to be.  All of the weirdness made me feel at home. It made me feel found.

AS: Title origins are interesting. How did you arrive at Those Fantastic Lives? 

BS: Someone once asked me what I’m worst at in writing. My answer was simple: titles. I can’t begin to even guess how much time I spend on the titles I give my stories.

But back to your question. I had no idea what my collection was going to be called. Seriously. I was nearing the end of the collection’s cycle, so I knew I needed something. I was working on a story about a boy who wants to be a psychic like his grandmother, and I wrote a line near the end that I was really proud of. The titular phrase was in that sentence, so I titled that story “Those Fantastic Lives.” Even after I sat with it for a few weeks, it still felt right.

After the story came out, I realized that there are a lot of fantastic, magical lives in the other stories I had, so I went with it. I think it fits perfectly, and it’s the best title, I think, that I’ve ever come up with.

AS: Do you have a favorite story in the collection? 

BS: “The Mooneaters” is the first story I wrote that made me feel like I could really write. I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it was my first love. It’s special to me.

AS: For readers, what themes can they expect to see explored as they dive into your book?

BS: I’m a very large guy. I’m as introverted, though, as I am large. I oftentimes want to hide, but my body won’t allow it. I think this makes me naturally feel like a bit of an outsider. Like I don’t belong or something. I’m drawn to the idea of what it means to be different—to be different and to search for comfort that you’ll never find. So, that’s a natural pull for me. Growing up on a farm with lots of animals makes one reflect on loss, so that’s definitely in the book, too. I think, also, I’m interested in the idea of transformation. Flight. Escape. There are a lot of birds and wings in these stories.

AS: Here’s a tough question, but I’ll ask it anyway: Why do you write?

BS: I write because it’s the only tool I have to help me understand myself.

AS: I know you currently serve as Fiction Editor of Qu, which is the literary magazine put out by the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. What has that experience taught you?

BS: This experience, along with previously being an editorial assistant at Qu, has taught me more than I would’ve ever thought was possible. When I read through submissions, I see what works and what doesn’t. I see how important the beginning of a piece is. The whole experience makes me closely—very, very closely—observe my own writing. I look at my own stories now as not only a writer, but I also have the additional knowledge of reading like an editor. I would strongly encourage writers to read for a magazine if they can. What I’ve taken away is truly invaluable.

AS: I always love reading recommendations. What are some recent books you’ve enjoyed?

BS: My favorite books of the year are Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, Andrew Siegrist’s We Imagined It Was Rain, and Becky Hagenston’s The Age of Discovery. Each one has a balanced and beautiful weirdness.

For books outside of my usual, two others I’ve enjoyed a lot are Cliff Garstang’s Oliver’s Travels, which is a humorous novel that looks deeply at memory and philosophy, and Margaret Renkl’s Graceland, At Last, which is a collection of deeply-felt essays about the complex and complicated South.

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Bradley Sides' writing appears at Chapter 16, Chicago Review of Books, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, The Rumpus, and Southern Review of Books. He holds an MA from the University of North Alabama and is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte, where he serves as Fiction Editor of Qu. He lives in Florence, Alabama, with his wife, and he can be found on most days teaching creative writing and English in southern Tennessee. Those Fantastic Lives is his debut.

Ashley M. Jones is named Alabama’s first Black poet laureate

Although the news is everywhere now, we are still delighted to share that Ashley M. Jones has been named Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama. She will serve a four-year term from 2022-2026. She received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida’s Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer’s Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, Quiet Lunch, Poets Respond to Race Anthology, Night Owl, The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, pluck!, Valley Voices: New York School Edition, Fjords Review: Black American Edition, PMSPoemMemoirStory (where her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016), Kinfolks Quarterly, Tough Times in America Anthology, and Lucid Moose Press’ Like a Girl: Perspectives on Femininity Anthology. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. She won the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press, and she is the 2019 winner of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Jones is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and a 2020 Alabama Author award from the Alabama Library Association. She was a finalist for the Ruth Lily Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship in 2020. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine.

The Alabama State Poet Laureate Selection Committee for this term included:

• Dr. Charlotte Pence, Director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at University of South Alabama

• Dr. Jacqueline Trimble, Alabama State University

• Jay Lamar, former Executive Director of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission

• Jason McCall, University of North Alabama

• Alina Stefanescu, AWC Board Member / Recent Past President of the Alabama State Poetry Society

The selection committee chose Ms. Jones from among a stellar group of worthy nominees from all across the state. The committee was, itself, populated by an extraordinarily accomplished group of Alabama poets and literary arts advocates.

Given an extremely qualified, talented pool of nominees, the selection committee voted unanimously to advance to Ashley M. Jones to the Alabama Writer’s Cooperative membership as the official candidate.

Dr. Charlotte Pence chaired the selection committee, and she had this to say of the decision:

“The selection committee chose Ashley Jones for a number of significant reasons. Through her directing of Magic City Poetry Festival, teaching a range of ages in high school and college, as well as publishing multiple award-winning books, she has proven the ability to sustain multiple roles of educator, poet, organizer, and visionary. Jones is a nationally recognized poet who has a vision for advancing poetry in the state, as seen with her recent guest editorship position at Poetry magazine. What's more, her vision of poetry is inclusive of slam poetry, oral traditions, and outsider art. Jones is already an ambassador of poetry for the state and will elevate the visibility of all Alabama writers, including those who have been under-represented in the state's literary history. The committee praised her poetry's broad range that invites in the reader, along with an engaging tone and searing specificity. Jones's poetry is grounded in the real world, and does not shy from its complexities, complications, and challenges. In sum, her work engages Southern history and provides us with a new vision of how to interact within the arts and within our communities."

The poet laureate serves as the ambassador of poetry for the state. Roles and responsibilities include touring the state to make appearances at schools, universities, libraries and other state institutions, as well as give lectures, read poetry and hold workshops on a local and national level. This is a position of advocacy and community-building.

"In her poetry, Ashley is brilliant at knowing how to artfully 'follow the rules' of a given form or tradition and when to create her own more ingenious and elegant forms and rules. That's the way she leads, the way she teaches, and the way she advocates, too. We're so lucky she's going to be Alabama's chief advocate for poetry for the next four years."

AWC President T. J. Beitelman

MEDIA

“Ashley M. Jones selected as state’s new poet laureate” (Al.com)

“Meet Ashley M. Jones, the first Black poet laureate of Alabama” by Tira Davis (Bham Now)

“Birmingham teacher named first Black Poet Laureate of Alabama” by Sumner Harrell (ABC 33/40)

Book covers are incredibly important. In fact, they draw many of us to the books we read. We don’t often get to hear the stories of how our favorite books arrive at their respective covers, but in this fascinating conversation with T. K. Thorne, Claire Datnow and Kristina Handler take us behind the scenes and allow us to see the process of developing the perfect cover for Claire’s latest novel Red Flag Warning: An Eco Adventure.

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Claire Datnow was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, which ignited her love for the natural world and for diverse indigenous cultures around the globe. Claire taught creative writing to gifted and talented students in the Birmingham, Alabama Public Schools System. Her published works include a middle grade Eco mystery series, The Adventures of The Sizzling Six. She received numerous scholarships and awards, including, The Blanche Dean Award for Outstanding Nature Educator, the Alabama Writers Cooperative Middle Grade Award, and Monarch Mysteries (Book 6 eco mystery series) long listed for the Green Books Award. During her tenure as a teacher, Claire and her students developed a nature trail, recently named in her honor as the Alabama Audubon-Datnow Forest Preserve

We were devastated to learn that Brian Voice Porter - a prominent Alabama poet, performer, teacher, and community activist who had presented three well-received talks at our recent annual conference - passed away suddenly and unexpectedly earlier this week.

Voice was a gifted artist and an exceptionally warm and gracious spirit who couldn't help but inspire those with whom he came into contact. Here are some links to several articles celebrating Voice's enormous contribution to the literary arts in Alabama:

“Brian Porter Hawkins is an Alabama Bright Light triggering a renaissance through Ensley Alive” by Karim Shamsi-Basha (Alabama News Center)

“5 reasons why Birmingham needs to know Brian Voice Porter Hawkins” (Bhmam Now)

“Brian Voice Porter Reading for Shelter in Magic Reading Series” (Magic City Poetry Festival)

“Brian Voice Porter Hawkins” (Starbucks Stories)

“Birmingham Poet And Activist Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins Dies At 42” (WBMH)

“Brian ‘Voice Porter’ Hawkins, Birmingham artist/poet, dies at 42” (Birmingham Times)

“Birmingham mourning death of poet, activist Brian 'Voice Porter' Hawkins” (WVTM 13)

We will be posting Voice's presentations to our YouTube channel very soon. We were honored by his presence in life, and we count ourselves lucky to have these recordings as reminders of Voice's rich and deep reservoir of creative insight.

And we hold Voice’s words forward as an inspiration for Alabama writing community.

“I think success in the community depends on more community events and people. .. I think success in a community is: community.”

- Brian Voice Porter

For Immediate Release 

The Alabama Writers Cooperative invites all literary enthusiasts and word aficionados to its virtual Annual Conference on August 20th-22nd. The conference aims to strengthen and support the development of writers and poets across Alabama and beyond. Admission to the conference is free to members and non-members alike, though registration is required.

The aim of the conference is to underscore the AWC’s mission, which is to nurture and engage a diverse community of Alabama writers. 

In partnership this year with the Emmet O’Neal Public Library in Mountain Brook and the Birmingham chapter of PEN America, AWC is proud to present keynote speakers Randi Pink and Angela Jackson-Brown. Pink is the author of Into White and Girls like Us. Jackson-Brown wrote When Stars Rain Down, House Repairs, and Drinking from a Bitter Cup. 

Another highlight of this year’s conference is the expanded participation of established publishing industry professionals. Literary agent Erin Clyburn of The Jennifer DiChiara Literary Agency will review pitches by AWC members and offer feedback. There will also be a first-page reading panel, featuring Clyburn and literary agents Jemiscoe Chambers-Black (Andrea Brown Literary Agency) and Kaitlyn Johnson (Belcastro Literary Agency).

Other featured faculty in this year’s conference are Alabama Poet Laureate Jennifer Horn; 2021 Caldecott Honor winner Karim Shamsi-Basha; horror novelist Shaun Hamill; mystery writer Hank Early; screenwriter and novelist Joel Eisenberg; and literary agent Alec Shane (Writers House). 

The conference will also feature presentations by novelist and past AWC board president T. K. Thorne; Birmingham-based journalist Monique Jones, author of The Book of Awesome Black Americans; filmmaker and professor, Katie Boyer; renowned local spoken-word artist, Voice Porter; decorated poet and director of UAB’s Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop, Tina Braziel; and recent NEA Fellowship-winner and director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama, Charlotte Pence.

 In addition, AWC members will have the opportunity to submit samples of their original works in progress for free manuscript consultations offered by Mobile-based fiction writer Adam Prince; past AWC president and Alabama Poet Laureate emeritus, Sue Brannan Walker; and TJ Beitelman, who serves as current AWC president and chairs the Creative Writing department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

AWC is one of the oldest continuing writers’ organizations in the United States. Writers, aspiring writers, publishers, and members of the literary community are welcome to join. Sharing information, developing ideas, honing skills, and receiving practical advice are hallmarks of the annual conference.

Register to attend for free online.

Meet our 2021 faculty.

Questions should be directed to ACW Conference Chair JJ Jones at jjsayspoetryplz@me.com.

You can also download a copy of this press release here.

Alabama’s Poet Laureate, Jennifer Horne

I’m grateful to have the opportunity to write about my term as poet laureate, and I promise to try to keep this from being a dry “report to the shareholders.”

Statewide and nationally, these past four years have been anything but dry and dull, and I’ve seen many poets writing in response to changes political, pandemical, and cultural. That outpouring has reminded me that one of the functions of poetry is addressing, struggling with, confronting, and trying to make sense of the things we see right in front of us. Those who listened to or read Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb” saw an excellent example of how poetry can respond to the historical moment.

As poet laureate, it’s been my honor and privilege to help the poets of our state in whatever ways I can, and to introduce their work, and the many uses and varieties of poetry, to our fellow citizens.  

As I began my term, I’d expected to do a fair number of talks and workshops and introductions of other poets, and I’ve certainly done a lot of those, along with meeting with middle school, high school, and college classes, both in-person and virtually. One of my earliest meetings was with the Montgomery Rotary Club, where I was delighted to learn that their president read a poem to kick off each week’s meeting. I’ve also written endorsements (aka “blurbs”) for a number of books, advised poets on publishing and publicity, suggested poets as participants in various conferences and readings, assisted with grants panels, written letters on behalf of various people and festivals, written guest blog posts, been interviewed for podcasts, websites, and radio and print journalism, and judged national poetry contests as well as sponsoring a few for our statewide writing organizations. I even gave a commencement address, at Athens State University, in December 2019, drawing on my own experiences in becoming a writer. I was asked to contribute to a New York Times feature for Thanksgiving 2020 on what poet laureates thought their states had to be grateful for, and, along with poet laureates from around the nation, contributed a video recording of one of my poems for the Tishomingo Arts Council in Mississippi, a small arts council with big ambitions for celebrating National Poetry Month. To keep growing as a writer, I’ve read books on poetry, taken workshops and online classes, and tried to stretch myself in the forms and subjects I take on.

This past spring, I was serving as host for a hybrid in-person/virtual poetry reading of three recent MFA graduates at my local bookstore, Ernest & Hadley Books in Tuscaloosa, when the Alabama State Poetry Society announced me as their ASPS Poet of the Year. I wish I could have been there, even virtually, and thanked everyone for that honor. I was so grateful for their recognition and at least felt I had a good reason for not being able to attend!  

Simply bringing up the word “virtual,” which we’ve all gotten so used to in the past year and a half, brings up a swirl of mixed emotions. It’s been good to be able to see friends’ faces and hear their voices on Zoom, but I have so missed being in the same space with others, letting the spontaneous conversations occur, making new friends by happening to sit next to someone. I even miss that feeling of good exhaustion I get when I’m on the way home from a conference, tired but inspired, ready to get back to my desk and try out some new ideas.

The table where Horne keeps track of her various activities as Poet Laureate

When the pandemic hit last March, I’d just been given a wonderful gift: the Alabama Writers Cooperative board had, unbeknownst to me, started a Facebook fundraiser to help provide me with travel money to do events around the state. The poet laureate position is unfunded, and having that “gas money” would have helped me do some events for those who had no travel budget for visiting writers. I was humbled by their raising $1,500 in twenty-four hours, and by the level of support for the literary arts and for my projects as poet laureate, that the funds represented. Most of that money ended up staying in the bank, as we all shortly became unable to meet together, and I expect it will be carried over to the next poet laureate’s new travel budget.

In response to the shutdown, I tried to think what I could do to help bring attention to poets who had new books but whose book events had been cancelled. I decided to record a video of myself reading a poem by an Alabama poet every day in April, National Poetry Month, and post it to the poet laureate feed I started on Twitter, @ALPoetLaureate, and as a public posting on Facebook. That went well, so I kept on with a once-a-week “Mid-Week Poetry Break,” which I’ve continued for over a year now. This past April, with the help of our state arts council and the Alabama Arts Alliance, I featured young Alabama poets who participated in the state Poetry Out Loud contest, one poet for every weekday of the month, with a mix of their recordings and my readings. In that month, I learned that there’s a lot of talent and heart on its way up, and that Alabama’s teachers are doing a wonderful job of supporting their young poets. To support our state’s young people at the beginning of the pandemic, in May 2020 I wrote and recorded a graduation poem for Alabama’s seniors, “Beyond the Numbers,” which I shared to social media and have also contributed to the Alabama Department of Archives and History pandemic recording project, “Collecting a Crisis.”

I did have a couple of disappointments: I tried for two Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships, and even though I thought I had good proposals with strong letters of recommendation, my applications weren’t selected. Every writer knows, though, that you submit many more pieces of work than get chosen for publication, and it’s good to remember that you don’t always have to have external funding or validation to get on with your work.

As a final project, I’m excited to be helping with on-the-ground advising for the essay contest and documentary “Poetry Unites Alabama,” directed by Ewa Zadrzynska. Inspired by Robert Pinsky’s “Favorite Poem Project,” Ewa makes documentaries about how people connect to poems and to one another through poetry, and so far she’s made films in Bulgaria, Germany, and Poland, and now in New York, Kansas, and Kentucky. Alabama is only the fourth U.S. state where she is making a film, and I hope everyone reading this will submit a short essay or encourage a poetry-lover in your life to submit one. More details on the contest and film are at https://poetryunitesamerica.com/.

Being poet laureate has been a rich and rewarding experience. I’ve learned that a poet laureate serves as a kind of repository for people’s thoughts on poetry, a useful place to put ideas and ask questions. I receive unexpected poems via email, poems shared to my Facebook page, touching responses to poems I read online, even the occasional poetry-related gift.

I sometimes try to put myself in the position of someone who’s never read poems or who, long ago, was told they didn’t “get” poetry and abandoned trying. If someone said to me, “Here are some wonderful math problems. If you just open yourself up, you’ll get so much out of them,” I can easily imagine the walls that would go up, how I’d think it would just be frustrating and demoralizing to try to understand them. I know a lot of people feel that same way about poetry, and so getting to be an interpreter of poetry, to explain what I find wonderful about an individual poem or to find a poem that’s just the right one for a particular person to relate to, gives me great satisfaction.

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Jennifer Horne served as the twelfth Poet Laureate of Alabama, 2017-2021. During that time, she published a chapbook of poems, Borrowed Light; compiled and edited, with her sister, Mary Horne, a collection of their late mother’s poetry, Root & Plant & Bloom: Poems by Dodie Walton Horne; and completed a biography of Alabama writer Sara Mayfield, Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield, Author, forthcoming from the University of Alabama Press in Fall 2022. She is at work on a new collection of poems, Letters to Little Rock, based on her father’s life. She intends to continue being an advocate for Alabama poetry and looks forward to reading all the books of poems yet to be.

Description: This 90-minute Zoom presentation and workshop will discuss various facets of the poetry-writing process from invention to final revision. Participants will come away with effective strategies for generating poetic material, accessing authentic subject matter, and refining the sonic and imagistic contours of their verse.

All participants receive an autographed copy of Little Armageddon with $20 registration fee. 

To register, please download the following form and
send or postmark payment of $20 by July 15, 2021

PayPal: gfraser1963@gmail.com

Personal Check: Gregory Fraser, 438 N. Lakeshore Dr., Carrollton, GA 30117

Sponsored by Highland Avenue Eaters of Words

The AWC’s own Karim Shamsi-Basha recently won a Caldecott Honor for his children’s book The Cat Man of Aleppo. Bradley Sides caught up with Shamsi-Basha to talk about the award, the real-life Cat Man, and the joy of writing about home.

First of all, congratulations, Karim, on having The Cat Man of Aleppo chosen as one of this year’s Caldecott Honor books. That’s incredible recognition. I’m curious to know how you heard the news of your award.

Stacey Barney, Executive Editor with Penguin Random House, did a Zoom call with Irene Latham and me and told us. She was elated. We were freaking out. She said in her 16 years with Penguin, this was her first.

For this to be your first children’s book, I’m sure there has to be an extra special feeling in receiving such an accolade. You join some elite company, with classic books such as Tomie de Paola’s Strega Nona and Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline also being awarded the Caldecott Honor.

Really it’s beyond an honor. There are great stories everywhere, positive stories that communicate the goodness in all of us. It just feels good to have such story from my country of Syria recognized like this.

You teamed up with fellow Alabama writer Irene Latham to write the book—and with Yuko Shimizu to illustrate it. How did these partnerships come about, and whose idea was it to tell this specific story?

Actually it was Irene’s idea. She alerted me to the story and asked if we could collaborate on a children’s book. I jumped on the idea. Then Stacey Barney gave us three choices for an illustrator, and Yuko was obviously the one. I have to recognize Yuko here. She did so much research and illustrated the book in a way that earned us this honor. Her work really told the story in an authentic way. She showed people true grit and beauty, amid war and horror.

For readers who haven’t yet heard about The Cat Man of Aleppo, how would you describe it?

Cat Man of Aleppo is an actual person, Alaa Mohammed Al-Jaleel, who saved cats during the civil war in Syria. He’s an ambulance driver, and he noticed everyone was leaving their cats behind when fleeing Aleppo because of the war. So he began taking care of them. It’s a simple, yet a wonderful story about war, about animals, about humanity. How often have you heard of humanity out of a Muslim and Arab Country? The media loves to point out the wars and terrorism and all the negative things out of the Middle East. But we have as much humanity as everyone else.

I know you’ve developed a friendship with the Cat Man, Alaa, himself. Have you spoken with him since the award? How does he feel about seeing his own story being honored in this way? 

He was thrilled. I called and told him, he was super excited. Later he sent me a picture of himself with children holding the award. Alaa now has built an orphanage. This man is incredible. He is the Mother Theresa of Syria. He now lives on a farm with nearly a thousand animals. He called me a few months ago to let me know he was smuggling four monkeys to Turkey so they get adopted instead of killed. Who does that? My daily dilemma is whether to get the cappuccino or the latte, his is smuggling animals across dangerous borders. It definitely sets your priorities straight.

To receive this kind of award for a book set in Aleppo, a place you know intimately, I’m sure there has to be a special kind of happiness in that, right? A sense of home pride?

Absolutely. It lets the West know we are ok, Muslims and Arab. We are not just Terrorists. We love, we long for peace, we laugh and cry, we tell jokes and care for each other and have fun and work hard and do what everyone else does. My next book is about a man building schools for orphans and refugee children in Idleb – Syria. It’s another story of humanity. My country is full of that. War is terrible, but it drives some to rise above it and show the world true goodness.

Finally, I have to tell you how moved I was by The Cat Man of Aleppo. It’s full of goodness and kindness, and it’s really beautiful. I’m glad to see it honored with this wonderful recognition. Congratulations again, and thank you for taking the time to talk with me.  

You are welcome. I just want to spread the word about this story. The focus should not be about me, it should be about this incredible man. Please see his donation page link and help anyway you can. And thank you.

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Karim Shamsi-Basha immigrated to the United States from Damascus – Syria in 1984. He attended the University of Tennessee and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Karim admits that was not his forte! So he did what he loved: Telling stories. His children’s book, Cat Man of Aleppo, Penguin, has won the 2021 Caldecott Honor. His upcoming novel, Cactus Pear, is about a 15-year-old Muslim boy in love with a Christian girl amid the Syrian Civil War. One of the highlights of his career was an essay he wrote for Alabama Christmas, along with legendary writers Helen Keller and Truman Capote. Karim’s desire for people to love one another is where his personal and professional goals intersect. He lives in Birmingham and is a father to three grown children: Zade, Dury, and Demi. Karim lives with the motto Carpe diem, squeezing the nectar out of this beautiful thing we call life.

Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days by T. K. Thorne is a remarkable look at a historic city enmeshed in racial tensions, revealing untold or forgotten stories of secret deals, law enforcement intrigue, and courage alongside pivotal events that would sweep change across the nation.

An note from the author on how this book came about

Four men who loved the city of Birmingham, Alabama asked me to write a book. I look back on that day when I met them in the high-rise office of a prominent attorney. They were all strangers, decades older. They had lived through pivotal nation-changing days. Three of them had been in the thick of happenings. 

As I sat at the polished hardwood table, I thought possibly they assumed I was a scholar of civil rights because I had recently written a book about the investigation of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young black girls in Birmingham in 1963 (Last Chance for Justice), but to my surprise, the gentleman who invited me to that meeting said he had done so because of a totally different book, a historical novel set thousands of years in the past in ancient Turkey (Noah's Wife). I had to ask him why he thought that qualified me. He said, “If you could write a book about Noah's wife and make me believe that was what really happened, then you can tell the true stories of what happened here.” 

To say I was reticent was an understatement. What they were asking me to do seemed a huge commitment, and so much had been documented about the era, what could I possibly add? Then one of the men sent me his notes about a day in 1962 when he pushed through the double glass doors of The Birmingham News, weary from an all-night stakeout with police, and his eccentric, powerful boss shouted for him to join him for breakfast. What was said at that breakfast changed a young reporter's life and affected the tangled web of history. 

I was hooked.

After the better part of a decade, it is done. Regretfully, three of the fine gentlemen who trusted me to write this did not live to see it. I only hope I have been true to their vision.

Author T. K. Thorne

Available for pre-order from New South Books, Behind the Magic Curtain takes the reader inside Birmingham, Alabama, the city which spawned the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and affected world history. But that is not why it is known as The Magic City. It earned that nickname with its meteoric rise from a cornfield valley to an industrial boomtown in the late 1800s. Images of snarling dogs and fire hoses of the 1960s define popular perception of the city, obscuring the complexity of race relations in a tumultuous time and the contributions of white citizens who quietly or boldly influenced social change. Thorne reveals little-known or never-told stories of an intriguing cast of characters that include not only progressive members of the Jewish, Christian, and educational communities, but also a racist businessman and a Ku Klux Klan member, who, in an ironic twist, helped bring about justice and forward racial equality and civil rights. Woven throughout the book are the firsthand recollections of a reporter with the state’s major newspaper of the time. Embedded with law enforcement, he reveals the fascinating details of their secret wiretapping and intelligence operations. Thorne paints a multihued portrait of a city that has figured so prominently in history, but which so few really know.

What folks are saying

T. K. Thorne has hit another home run with Behind the Magic Curtain. For five and a half decades we have read accounts of the civil rights era in Birmingham and Selma written by those with a particular ax to grind. Thorne is an excellent reporter, recognizing the nuances that “outsiders” or opinionated writers could not see or chose to overlook. Her reading and especially her interviews over the past several years have been remarkable, allowing her to give far more accurate details than we have seen before. For those who want to know the secrets of what really went on behind the “magic curtain” in those pivotal nation-changing days, days that brought the Civil Rights Bill in 1964 and the Voting Rights Bill in 1965, this is an important book to read.
—Douglas M. Carpenter, Retired Episcopal minister and son of Alabama’s Episcopal Bishop, C. C. J. Carpenter.

In Behind the Magic Curtain, T. K. Thorne introduces us to those who operated behind the scenes in the civil rights movement in Alabama, shedding light on the individual moral complexities of these participants—some firebrands, some reluctant players, and some predators who worked for their own gain. This journalistic exploration of a complicated time in Alabama’s social history will sit comfortably on the shelf next to histories by Dianne McWhorter, Glenn Eskew, and Taylor Branch.
— Anthony Grooms, author of Bombingham and The Vain Conversation

Deeply engaging, Behind the Magic Curtain tells a forgotten part of the Birmingham story, prompting many “real time memories” for me. The lively and descriptive writing brought the characters and settings to life, while diving into the white community’s role in all its complexities. This is a treasure trove of stories about activities and perspectives not well known to the general public. In particular, journalist Tom Lankford’s sleuthing and the machinations of the Birmingham Police Department, along with the risk-averse role of the local newspapers, and a full blown portrait of the inscrutable Birmingham News VIP, Vincent Townsend, make for a fascinating read.
—Odessa Woolfolk, educator, community activist, and founding president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

“T.K. writes like a seasoned news editor, meticulously hunting down facts and laying out the context in a colorful, intriguing way. Behind the Magic Curtain documents many untold stories and faithfully relates my own personal, unforgettable memories of a time of racial transition in Birmingham.”
—Tom Lankford, journalist for The Birmingham News

“Novelist and former Birmingham Police Captain T.K. Thorne demonstrates there was more to Birmingham of the Civil Rights Era than Bull Connor, Klansmen, and African-American protestors.  Behind that “Magic Curtain,” an ethnically diverse group from downtown to the surrounding bedroom communities of ministers, priests, rabbis, newspaper reporters, and housewives comprised a community belying monikers like ‘Bomingham’ and ‘Murder Capital of America,’ and fighting for justice in the Magic City.”
—Earl Tilford, author of Turning the Tide: The University of Alabama in the 1960s

Available for Preorder now!

NewSouth Books
Amazon.com
BarnesandNoble.com

If you’d like to request a review copy of this book, please email Suzanne LaRosa at NewSouth Books: Suzanne@newsouthbooks.com

About the Author

T. K. Thorne has been passionate about storytelling and writing since she was a young girl, and that passion only deepened when she became a police officer. Graduating with a master’s in social work from the University of Alabama, Thorne served for more than two decades in the Birmingham police force, retiring as a precinct captain. She then became the executive director of City Action Partnership, a downtown business improvement district focused on safety, until retiring to write full time. Her books and essays include two award-winning historical novels (Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate); two nonfiction civil rights era works (Last Chance for Justice and Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days); and a dally with murder, mystery, and magic in House of Rose, the first novel in the Magic City Stories trilogy. She writes from her mountaintop home northeast of Birmingham, often with a dog and cat vying for her lap.

Executive Director, Ashley M. Jones

The annual Magic City Poetry Festival has arrived, and you can learn more about it and coming events from this fantastic feature piece by Jesse Chambers for Magic City Ink. A few excerpts:

In the popular mind, poets are often stereotyped as idealistic, otherworldly types who live — and write — solely in a world of their own fantasies.

But not Birmingham poet Ashley M. Jones.

“My poetry is about real life,” Jones said. “I write about myself, my family, my God, my state, the country in which I live.”

One should not turn to her work for cheap comforts, either.

“I write the truth — there is no room, in my mind, for sugar coating or avoiding what some folks think is difficult,” she said. “If I have something to say about lynching, I’m writing about lynching. If I have something to say about love, I’m writing about love.” 

Jones is a young writer  — she’s only 30 — but is also very confident, not just in her work but in her very being.

“At the root of it all is a deep commitment to spirit and to authenticity — I listen for what it is I need to say, and I say that thing as Ashley M. Jones,” she said. “I am enough, in life and on page.”

The Magic City Poetry Festival will include zoom and virtual events open to the entire community, wherever they may live. And it is free.

It’s a Magic City Poetry Festival annual tradition to host a reader who speaks truth, power, and justice into the space of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Remembrance, This year, they are thrilled to host poet and creator Faylita Hicks. The reading will take place between 4:00 and 6:00 pm Central Standard Time on April 3rd!

It is free and open to the public. You can register for this event right here.

Other exciting events to add to your National Poetry Month celebration include conversations, poetry readings, workshops, and open mics.