Images provided by Bobby Mathews
Authors Brian Panowich, left and Chris Offutt are among 14 authors scheduled to read excerpts of their work at the Noir at the Bar event at the Wild Roast Cafe in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, June 26, 2021.
People have a chance to hear book excerpts from award-winning and emerging authors at the Wild Roast Cafe in Bluff Park this Saturday night.
The event is called Noir at the Bar and will feature 14 authors sharing excerpts of stories that are full of murder, mayhem, gritty Southern crime and even some humor, said Bobby Mathews, a Bluff Park author who will be participating.
One of the headliners is Brian Panowich, a writer from Augusta, Georgia, who was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, winner of the International Thriller Award for best first novel (“Bull Mountain”) and winner of the Southern Book Prize.
Another headliner is Chris Offutt, author of “The Killing Hills” and “Country Dark” and a screenwriter for “Weeds” on Showtime and “Treme’” and “True Blood” on HBO. Offutt is from Oxford, Mississippi.
Most of the authors will read for seven to 10 minutes each, Mathews said. More than half of them are from out of state, including Mark Westmoreland, who is coming from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Other authors include:
- New York Times bestseller Rachel Hawkins (“Hex Hall” series)
- Amazon bestseller Emily Carpenter (“Burying the Honeysuckle Girls”) Christopher Swann (whose work “Shadow of the Lions” was listed as one of the Best Southern Books of 2017 by Southern Living)
- Poet and novelist Melissa Ginsburg (“The House Uptown”)
- Hank Early (“Heaven's Crooked Finger,” “Echoes of the Fall”)
- Karim Shamshi-Basha (Caldecott Honor winner for “The Cat Man of Aleppo”)
- Schuyler Randall (“Jacqueline Willoughby”)
- Haley Moon (“Katrina Tears”)
- Short story writer J.B. Stevens (“The Best of America Cannot Be Seen”)
Guests will be able to purchase books from the authors and have books autographed, Mathews said.
Brad Coltrane, an English teacher at Hoover High School, will provide musical entertainment before the readings begin and during intermission, Mathews said. Wild Roast Café will offer food and non-alcoholic drinks for sale, but people are allowed to bring alcoholic beverages to the event, café owner Bart Styes said.
Admission to the event is $10 per person, but that is only to cover costs, Mathews said. “This is not a money-making venture for us.”
The event is scheduled from 7 p.m. to about 10 p.m. Advance tickets can be ordered at wildroastcafe.com/events.
