CL Speaks

Sarah Walters is on a quest for love and fulfillment. So the Charleston debutante moves to New York City and struggles through a series of bad relationships in Katie Crouch’s debut novel, Girls in Trucks.

Crouch’s own story isn’t that far removed from her protagonist’s. Crouch is also a Charleston native who’s lived in New York, and admits to making a lot of dating mistakes.

“The book is autobiographical emotionally,” Crouch says over the phone from her San Francisco home. “I sort of took my life and then heightened it, because if I wrote a book about my life it would be pretty dull.”

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Krista Derbecker Gilliam speaks with Katie Crouch

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Podcast produced by Alejandro Leal / music provided by the Podshow Music Network.

DAN VEACH is the editor and publisher of The Atlanta Review, and the creator of the nonprofit Poetry Atlanta. He won the Sotheby’s International Poetry Competition in 1982 and has published multiple poems in various journals. April is National Poetry Month and Veach, along with poet Turner Cassity, will give a reading Wed., APRIL 9, at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. $3-$5. 8:15 p.m. 980 Briarcliff Road. 404-872-5338. www.callanwolde.org.Download

Podcast produced by Alejandro Leal / Music for this podcast was provided by the Podsafe Music Network.

Pearl Cleage will be at Charis Books on Thurs., March 27, for a reading from her sixth novel Seen it All and Done the Rest, a Q&A and signing. Free. 7:30-9 p.m. Charis Books & More, 1189 Euclid Ave. 404-524-0304. charisbooksandmore.com.

Novelist and playwright Pearl Cleage has lived in Atlanta for almost 40 years.

She’s written several plays including A Song for Coretta, which wrapped up last month at 7 Stages, and her first book, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club pick and best seller. Cleage wrote a column for the Atlanta Tribune for a decade and has contributed to Essence, Ms., Rap Pages, Vibe and Ebony as well.

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Podcast produced by Alejandro Leal / Photo by Albert Trotman

The Bellwether Prize is an award that recognizes unpublished literature of social responsibility. Barbara Kingsolver, critically acclaimed author of multiple works including The Poisionwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, founded the prize in 2000 and names a winner biennially. The winner receives $25,000 and a book deal with a major publishing house. The most recent recipient, in 2006, was Hillary Jordan, a newcomer to the literary scene with her debut novel, Mudbound, published earlier this month by Algonquin Books.

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Hillary Jordan reads and signs Mudbound. Free. Mon. March 24. 7:30 p.m. Wordsmiths Books, 141 E. Trinity Place, Decatur. 404-378-7166. www.wordsmithsbooks.com.

Listen as Hillary Jordan speaks with Krista Derbecker Gilliam and reads from Mudbound – Download

Podcast produced by Alejandro Leal / Photo by William Coupon

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (released this week) opens with Laurel, a thirtysomething wife and mother living a peaceful existence in an upscale gated community, who wakes up one summer evening to find the ghost of her daughter’s best friend, pointing to the pool, where the ghost’s dead body floats in the water. Laurel enlists her estranged actress sister, Thalia, to help her with the aftermath, and what follows is one part mystery, one part ghost story and eight parts family interaction.

Joshilyn Jackson reads and signs The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Free-$10. Tues., March 4. 6 p.m. Margaret Mitchell House & Museum, 990 Peachtree St. 770-578-3502. www.gwtw.org.

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Photo by Gilbert King

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Podcast produced by Alejandro Leal

New York Times scent critic and author Chandler Burr once again delves into the glamorous, competitive world of perfume in his latest book, The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York. Burr will be at the Decatur Library on Friday, Feb. 21, at 7:15 p.m.

Did you consider a “scratch and sniff” version? We wanted a scratch and sniff, but my publisher Henry Holtz and the distributor and the bookstores – now, this is what I was told by the publisher; I do not have any first-degree information on this – they told me the bookstores would not do it. They didn’t like the idea. They were nervous about it. They thought the customers would be nervous about it.

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Podcast produced by Alejandro Leal