Cover To Cover is the anchor program for GPB’s literary coverage. Cover To Cover features a collection of distinctive Southern voices interviewing Georgia writers, Southern writers, and writers dealing with the South. The GPB Southern Lit Cadre will provide you with a varied, weekly glimpse at fiction, non-fiction, history, poetry, and even the occasional ‘old school’ nod to Flannery O’Connor or William Faulkner.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Cover to Cover on NPR.org

Recently I was contacted by an NPR web producer named Trey Graham who wanted to know if I'd be interested in being part of the lead-off installment of NPR's member-station Summer Books package on NPR.org.

The debut of this Web-exclusive feature focuses on shows that celebrate local or regional authors, and Trey (who incidentally described himself as "a proud raised-in-Augusta, worked-at-WACG-in-college boy) told me that three carefully selected member-station book shows were being invited to participate.

As the host and producer of Cover to Cover, I was asked to contribute short reviews or essays, of 150 to 200 words each, about three recently published (or soon-to-be-published) books or authors that I was considering featuring on the show this summer.

I was flattered by the invitation and said I was certainly up for the challenge. The deadline for the content NPR required was pretty tight so I set about deciding which books to showcase. I wanted to focus on books by Georgia authors that truly give a taste of the South and began sorting through the shelves in my office.

Besides writing a short review for each book, I also had to record myself reading a short excerpt from each, and provide a bio of myself and a description of Cover to Cover.

Well, I got everything done and sent up to Trey at NPR, and last Friday I got an email from him saying the whole package "is up and live and out there." It looks really good, and so I invite you to take a look at what book lovers around the country and the world will see when they come to NPR.org.

And in case you're wondering, the three books I chose are:

Man Martin, Days of the Endless Corvette (Carroll & Graf, 2007)

Patti Callahan Henry, Between the Tides (NAL, 2007)

Ferrol Sams, Down Town (Mercer University Press, 2007)

Follow this link to see Cover to Cover in the Book Talk From NPR Member Stations section on NPR.org:

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12495388

I'm grateful to NPR for the chance to show Cover to Cover off to a much wider audience, and I'm excited to showcase these three excellent Georgia authors to book lovers all around the world. I hope it pays dividends and reminds book lovers what an impressive literary heritage we have here in the Deep South.

Remember, if you have comments or questions about today's blog entry, please email me at covertocover@gpb.org. I look forward to hearing from you.
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