Fresh Loaf

Atlanta author Paul Hemphill, a celebrated columnist for the Atlanta Journal and the author of a popular biography of Hank Williams, died today at the age of 73, from cancer that had spread from his mouth to his lungs.

According to his AJC obit:

As a columnist and author, Hemphill entranced readers chronicling the blue-collar South. He wrote about stock cars and country music, church burnings and church evangelists. His 15 books, including nonfiction work and novels, reverberated with all the twang and tears of a Hank Williams tune.

UPDATE: JKelly writes in the comments that Hemphill’s “memorial will be [held] at A.S. Turner & Sons in Decatur. Visitation is Tuesday July 14 from 6-8PM, and the service is Wednesday July 15 at Noon.”

In a 2005 profile of Hemphill, former Creative Loafing Senior Editor Doug Monroe opened with a moving anecdote of the talented writer:

Paul Hemphill lifts the chewed-up piece of Nicorette gum out of his mouth and sticks it in a paper napkin. This is a man who used to fire up 20 of those mean little nonfiltered Camels a day and now he chews pellets of doped-up gum. It is an indignity.

Hemphill is at Manuel’s Tavern on a Tuesday night — government-in-exile night — with Democratic politicos, cops and ex-newspapermen. He’s at a big round table with his wife, Susan Percy, and a circle of friends. They’re passing around an early copy of his new book, Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams. They’re all pulling for it to be a hit.

Hemphill is 69, recovering from a stroke, his face pale and gaunt. But you look at the book cover and then at him. You can see a bit of the late Hank Williams in his new biographer. The resemblance is uncanny: Two boys rising up out of blue-collar Alabama, born 13 years apart, both with big ears, both 6-1, 150 pounds, with a tendency to shrink into the 130s when the booze kicked in. And, boy, did the booze kick in.

Continue reading “Hemphill’s return” …

(Photo by Jim Stawniak)

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Four writers for Tyler Perry’s TBS series “House of Payne” will be picketing tomorrow’s opening of Perry’s new Atlanta studio.

The writers claim they were retaliated against after they got involved with a union organizing campaign with the Writers Guild of America, West. The writers sought a contract that would give the them health care, pensions, and residual

According to a Writers Guild of America press release:

On Tuesday of this week he fired the writers, after warning them some weeks ago that they should “be careful about pushing the WGA deal or you could be replaced.”

“We’re asking all those who had planned to attend the opening of Tyler Perry’s new studio not to cross our picket line,” said writer Christopher Moore. “It’s very disheartening considering that this is a studio run by African Americans. What Tyler Perry is essentially saying to us is that ‘you’re black and there’s not a lot of opportunities for you so you’ll take what I give you’ – whether it’s fair or not.”

The show’s head writer, Kellie Griffin, added, “A lot of people who fought for civil rights and social justice never really saw what eventually came out of their work. While I’d like to see something positive come out of this for us, if this fight helps future black writers get what they deserve, that’s a good thing.”

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God, I love our Legislature.

State Rep. Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, moonlights as a romantic suspense writer who scribes under the nom de plume of Selena Montgomery. (She’s also a deserved winner of our illustrious Arnie Awards.) Her new novel, Reckless, recently hit stores.

Here’s the plot:

Atlanta attorney Kell Jameson has just won yet another acquittal for a famous, if guilty, client. Then one frantic phone call wrenches her back Hallden, Georgia, a place she’s spent years trying to escape. The head of her childhood orphanage has been accused of murder, and Kell is her only hope for freedom. Unfortunately for Kell, she is forced to work with Sheriff Luke Calder to prove her client’s innocence – but perhaps at the cost of revealing a secret Kell has worked a lifetime to keep hidden. And a secret a murderer will kill to protect.

The book’s garnered rave reviews and is sure to include thinly veiled references to xenophobic, money-hungry and asphalt-lovin’ state lawmakers.

To read excerpts or purchase the novel, click here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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