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Each month Gwinnett County Public Library-Adult Services brings bestselling and award-winning authors from a variety of genres to the library, offering readers exclusive opportunities to meet in person or virtually and engage with their favorite writers. In addition, Adult Services offers a variety of programs, writing workshops, community and book discussion groups, and community outreach services.
Visit GCPL Adult Services website to see a list of all the upcoming adult programs.
Join award-winning author Kimberly Brock as she discusses her newest historical fiction novel, The Fabled Earth.
Inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island, The Fabled Earth is a sweeping story of family lore and the power of finding your own voice as Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide with a changing world.
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend – and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost–someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.As a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape and shifting tides reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect to illuminate the life-changing power of finding truth in a folktale.
Books will be available for purchase and signing from The Book Bird of Avondale Estates.
Kimberly Brock is the bestselling author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare and her award-winning debut, The River Witch, which was honored with the Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2013, by the Georgia Writers Association.
A former actor and special needs educator, Kimberly received her bachelor’s degree from the University of West Georgia in 1996. In 2014, Kimberly founded Tinderbox Writer’s Workshop, a transformative creative experience for women in the arts. Kimberly has served as a guest lecturer for many regional and national groups, including The Women’s Fiction Writer’s annual conference and The Pat Conroy Literary Center. A native of North Georgia, she now lives near Atlanta, Georgia.
The moderator will be Rosalyn Metz, the Chief Technology Officer for Libraries and Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, where she leads technology initiatives and contributes to open-source projects to support libraries. She lives with her sassy nine-year-old daughter, Genevieve, her nerdy husband, Eston, and her cheese-loving dog, Noly.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Author Talk & Book Signing with Kimberly BrockGwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA
Join award-winning author Kimberly Brock as she discusses her newest historical fiction novel, The Fabled Earth.
Inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island, The Fabled Earth is a sweeping story of family lore and the power of finding your own voice as Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide with a changing world.
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend – and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost–someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.As a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape and shifting tides reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect to illuminate the life-changing power of finding truth in a folktale.
Books will be available for purchase and signing from The Book Bird of Avondale Estates.
Kimberly Brock is the bestselling author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare and her award-winning debut, The River Witch, which was honored with the Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2013, by the Georgia Writers Association.
A former actor and special needs educator, Kimberly received her bachelor’s degree from the University of West Georgia in 1996. In 2014, Kimberly founded Tinderbox Writer’s Workshop, a transformative creative experience for women in the arts. Kimberly has served as a guest lecturer for many regional and national groups, including The Women’s Fiction Writer’s annual conference and The Pat Conroy Literary Center. A native of North Georgia, she now lives near Atlanta, Georgia.
The moderator will be Rosalyn Metz, the Chief Technology Officer for Libraries and Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, where she leads technology initiatives and contributes to open-source projects to support libraries. She lives with her sassy nine-year-old daughter, Genevieve, her nerdy husband, Eston, and her cheese-loving dog, Noly.
- Finding Agency Through WritingGwinnett County Public Library - Duluth Branch, Duluth, GA
Join internationally bestselling author Alka Joshi for an engaging writing workshop.
Alka Joshi will lead a writing workshop using the act of writing as a tool to discover and express your own voice, perspective, and power. She will share insights into her writing process and the inspirations behind her stories.
The Jaipur Trilogy is vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between traditional and modern India, the novels open a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.
Registration is requested. REGISTER HERE
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Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times Bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick, an LA Times Bestseller, a Toronto Star Bestseller, an Indie Bookstores Bestseller, a Cosmopolitan Best Audiobook, and an Amazon and Goodreads favorite. It was Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and has been translated into 29 languages. languages. It’s currently in development at Netflix as an episodic series. Alka’s writing career began at the age of 62. In 2023, Forbes selected Alka as one of 50 Women Over 50 who are shattering age and gender norms across America. Alka was born in India and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts. Her fourth novel, Six Days in Bombay, releases April 15, 2025.
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