Published Monday, August 31, 2009
Author Kay will speak at Thursday celebration
The Newnan Times-Herald
The Newnan Reading Circle is celebrating its 100th birthday by bringing noted Georgia writer Terry Kay to Newnan.
Kay, author of "The Year The Lights Came On" and "To Dance With the White Dog," will speak Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts on Lower Fayetteville Road. Kay's talk, which is free and open to the public, is part of a daylong celebration of the Reading Circle's Centennial.
The Reading Circle is an exclusive women's group with limited membership that has been meeting, reading, discussing and socializing since 1909.
Kay's talk will follow an invitation-only reception given by the Reading Circle.
In conjunction with the centennial celebration, two exhibits will be open to the public at the Centre.
The Driftwood Garden Club, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, will be holding a small-standard flower show in the entrance gallery from 1-6 p.m. During the same hours, the Francoise Gilot Gallery will feature "Edwardian Clothing from the collection of the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society." Longtime NCHS volunteer Dorothy Pope is curating the clothing exhibit, which will look back at fashions in the day when the Reading Circle was formed.
Thursday evening at 7, Susan Neill will speak in the arts center auditorium. Neill is curator of textiles and social history at the Atlanta History Center. Her topic will be "Gone with the Girdle," and the evening program is sponsored by the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society.
Kay, the author of 10 published novels, has been to Newnan several times. He has autographed books at Scott's Bookstore and spoke in 2006 at a program at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. He was also scheduled to speak at an event sponsored by the now defunct Coweta Press Club but had to bow out because of health concerns.
Three of Kay's books have been produced as Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. His books have been published in more than 15 foreign languages, and his bestseller, "To Dance with the White Dog" sold two million copies in Japan.
An essayist and regional Emmy-winning screenwriter as well as a novelist, Kay's work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. LaGrange College and Mercer University have recognized his work with honorary doctorate degrees, and Kay is recognized as a gifted speaker.
A Methodist minister's son, Kay grew up in Royston. He attended LaGrange College and graduated in 1957 from the University of West Georgia. After selling insurance, he followed his love for writing into the journalism field.
His friend, Pat Conroy, pushed him to write his first novel, "The Year The Lights Came On."
Kay was the recipient of the 2009 Governor's Award in the Humanities. He also is a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame at the University of Georgia and received the Stanley W. Lindberg Award from the Georgia Center for the Book last year.
Kay received the 2004 Townsend Prize for Fiction for "The Valley of Light," the 1991 Southeastern Library Association Outstanding Author of the Year Award for "To Dance with the White Dog," and the 1981 Georgia Author of the Year Award for "After Eli."
Kay also won an Emmy in 1990 for his original teleplay "Run Down the Rabbit."
His other novels include "Taking Lottie Home," "The Kidnapping of Aaron Greene," "The Runaway," "Shadow Song," "Dark Thirty" and "The Book of Marie." He also wrote a children's Christmas book, "To Whom The Angels Spoke."
Kay's books often begin with a memory that inspires the rest of the tale. "I don't want to tell a story. I want to discover a story," he said during his talk at St. Paul's.
