John Egerton, contributor to NewSouth’s Where We Stand and author of the forthcoming Ali Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves, will appear at the Atlanta Journal Constitution Decatur Book Festival this weekend, September 2 and 3. Egerton will speak on the panel “Tricksters of the New South” with Roy Blount, Jr. and George Singleton, as well as “Writing Around the Edges of Southern Foodways‚Äù with John T. Edge and Marcie Cohen Ferris.

John Egerton has been a ‚Äúprofessional South-watcher‚Äù for half a century. Beginning in high school in the 1950s, through two years in the U. S. Army, five years earning two college degrees, five more as a college news bureau reporter, six as a magazine writer, and for the past thirty-five years as an independent journalist and author, he has seldom strayed far from his life‚Äôs work: following the social and cultural, political and economic trends that forever have made the American South the unique place that it is, for better and worse. Until the publication of Ali Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves, all his published writing, including more than fifteen books, has been classified as nonfiction. He calls his new book ‚Äúa fable … a parable … a cautionary tale‚Äù in the genre of ‚Äúpolitical science-fiction,‚Äù and he claims that he ‚Äúdid not so much author it as synthesize it from hundreds of sources, compile it, and become by default the one to present it to the reading public. Fables don‚Äôthave authors. They‚Äôre found, heard, passed down.‚Äù

Ali Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves will be available in mid-September 2006; pre-order now from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

To learn more about the Atlanta Journal Constitution Decatur Book Festival, visit www.decaturbookfestival.com

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