Noteworthy

A few notes on the Atlanta-Decatur scene:

Tom Mullen

The January issue of Atlanta Magazine ran a preview of Decatur novelist Thomas Mullen’s upcoming The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers along with a brief interview with the author. You can download the whole issue on the magazine’s website for under a dollar or you can see Mullen’s book tour opener at the Decatur Public Library on Wednesday, February 3rd. Mullen also keeps a blog on some of his activities. I am still waiting on his follow-up response to the Atlanta Magazine interview or perhaps read his thoughts about Boston Red Sox revamping the left side of their infield (he’s big fan of the BoSox since he grew up in Rhode Island). I’ve heard Mullen at the library before and he has kind of dry Yankee wit, which can be entertaining.

Kymaerica

While pounding through the backlog of my Believer magazines, I read a fine article entitled “Discover Kymaerica”  in the November-December Art issue by Emory University’s Michael A. Elliott. Kymaerica is a mythical parallel universe that intersects our planet at various locations. Elliot begins his article about an Kymaerican historical marker located on the Atlanta industrial West side, but the feature story evolves into an essay on the timelessness of past civilizations (real and fictitious). Elliot is a professor of English and author of Custerology: The Enduring Legacy of the Indian Wars and George Armstrong Custer.

Gilbert vs. Phillips

And finally, The Battle of the Big Name Authors is set for Monday, January 11th in Decatur.  Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray and Love fame makes a tour stop for her new book Committed at Agnes Scott College while National Book Award Finalist Jayne Anne Phillips, is at the Decatur Public Library at approximately the same time. Again, a kind of intersection of two universes. These collisions are bound to happen once in a while, I guess, especially when the orbits of some writers are so big.