Georgia’s Literary Festival is held in a different part of the state every year. Last year it was in Statesboro, prior to that it was in Rome. This year it is in a very special place – Sautee Nacoochee. Located between Helen and Clarkesville in North Georgia, Sautee Nacoochee has a post office, an active and cohesive community center, a coffee house and a few very good restaurants, several art galleries and unique stores, some wineries and some terrific views.

Among those views are the gazebo built on the little Indian mound and Crescent Hill Baptist Church, said to be among the most photographed places in the state. The Nacoochee Valley has the Chattahoochee River at its center and Mt. Yonah in the distance. The Sautee Valley is shadowed by Mt. Lynch. The view from the Stovall House, an 1837 bed and breakfast located in the Sautee Valley and shadowed by Mt. Lynch is so pretty it was on the cover of Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook.

The literary connections of this area are being celebrated at this 13^th annual Literary Festival. Barbara Brown Taylor, author of New York Times best sellers Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith and An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith is the keynote speaker. She will open the festival at 10 and sign books at 11:30. This area is inspiring to many – poets, writers and artists. Two poets will speak and read at the festival – Mildred Greear, author of Moving Gone Dancing and Doris Davenport, author of Eat Thunder & Drink Rain and Madness Like Morning Glories: Poems will speak and sign their books. (The Sautee Nacoochee Center is holding a Poets Live! event Friday evening, at which there will be even more poets. See the website for tickets.)

Other authors from the area who will speak include John Burrison, author of Brothers in Clay, the story of Georgia Folk Pottery and From Mud to Jug: the Folk Potters and Pottery of Northeast Georgia; Linda Anderson, artist and author of Flashes of Memory, an Appalachian Self-Portrait; Brian Jay Corrigan, author of The Poet of Loch Ness; Steve Harvey, author of A Geometry of Lies, Lost in Translation and Bound for Shady Grove and Winton Porter, author of Just Passin’ thru: A vintage Store, the Appalachian Trail and a Cast of Unforgettable Characters (see last month’s blog, Culture in the Mountains.) There will be expert presentations about Lillian Smith (1897-1966), one of the first prominent white Southerners to speak out against segregation and Foxfire, the student oral history project that has followers all over the country. (Foxfire will have their latest book available at the festival.)

There is no admission charge to attend the festival, which runs from 10 until 4 October 15 and will be held on the ground of the Sautee Nacoochee Center, located at 283 Hwy 255 North in Sautee Nacoochee.