Daniel Wallace’s novel Big Fish was turned into a successful motion picture by Tim Burton and is now to be a Broadway musical. Wallace has also produced a short film from his short story Full Boat and has a new fanciful, mythical novel The Kings and Queens of Roam. This interview was recorded at The Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, Alabama.

Cassandra King is a novelist who writes with eloquence and insight about the experience of living as a woman in the South. Her first book Making Waves in Zion was published in 1995. The Sunday Wife followed in 2002, The Same Sweet Girls in 2005, and Queen of Broken Hearts in 2006. Her latest is Moonrise. She was born in south Alabama and now lives with her husband Pat Conroy in the Low Country of South Carolina.

Gay Talese is the distinguished New York-based author of Honor Thy Father about mafia life, Thy Neighbor’s Wife about marriage and changing morality, and The Kingdom and the Power, a behind-the-scenes view of the New York Times. He worked for the Times earlier in his career writing noted pieces on Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio among others. He got his start writing for the student newspaper at the University of Alabama. His latest is The Silent Season of a Hero: The Sports Writing of Gay...

Nick Taylor is a North Carolina native now living in New York who as a non-fiction writer has been prolific and diverse. Sins of the Father is about a mobster in the witness protection program. American Made is his latest about the history of the New Deal’s WPA program. He has also written biographies of John Glenn and Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser, and a book on the culture of Bass Fishing.

Jill McCorkle is a North Carolina native who made her debut with the publication of two books--The Cheer Leader and July 7th-- on the same day in 1984. She studied with Lee Smith and others at UNC Chapel Hill, now teaches at North Carolina State, and lives in Hillsborough, NC. Her latest novel is Life After Life.

Originally from Mississippi, the author has lived an adventurous life. In addition to writing, he has worked as a college professor, a playwright and theater owner, and a lawyer, including a stint as a public defender in Las Vegas. The author of Two Loving Couples and An End to War, his latest is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, an analysis of its language and biblical references. He teaches at Athens State University in north Alabama.

Most famous for his partly autobiographical novel Rocket Boys which was made into the film October Skies, the West Virginia native was a former NASA engineer. His many works include The Dinosaur Hunter: A Novel, Red Helmet, and Sky of Stone: A Memoir.

Growing up this author led two lives. She lived part of the year with her mother and military father in New Jersey and part with her grandmother in her native Puerto Rico. The experiences have fueled a dozen books in several genres including the novel, The Meaning of Consuelo and a memoir, Silent Dancing.

Inman Majors, the author of four books, discusses his life and writing including Wonder Dog, set in Tuscaloosa, and Love’s Winning Plays, a satire of SEC football culture which he learned first-hand as the nephew of former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors.

Barbara Brown Taylor is a former Episcopal pastor who attracted wide attention for her first book Leaving the Church. She left her pulpit but not her faith. Her second memoir, An Altar in the World, is about finding the spiritual in everyday life and human interaction.