Every other year, the Southern Literature Alliance holds a family reunion of sorts, where the South’s leading writers and most avid readers gather to talk literature, swap stories and generally have a good time.
Author Allan Gurganus, who has attended four earlier conferences, says he expects to do a lot of laughing while he’s here (the festival starts today, April 16, and runs through Saturday, April 18). In addition to talking about his work, he’ll show scenes from films that have been made from his writing.
“The conversation is [always] heated and hilarious,” he says. “This go-round, Charles Frazier, Ron Rash and I will show clips of movies made from our novels. We will then likely explain why we write books, not films. It should be lively fun. It always is. Like a family reunion for the ‘cool’ cousins.”
Chattanooga Film Festival founder Chris Dortch will moderate the trio’s discussion, called “Books to Film: Their Role in the Southern Experience.” Anecdotes will include the scoop on “Cold Mountain” (Frazier), “Serena” (Rash) and “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” (Gurganus).
The discussion is “about the journey from page to screen,” Dortch says. “It’s something I’m really curious about, being a reader and a cinephile.”