Southern LitFest: Keynote Speaker Rick Bragg

Please join the Newnan Carnegie Library Foundation, the Carnegie Library, and the Newnan Cultural Arts Commission as we welcome Rick Bragg to Southern Litfest 2026 for our major fundraising event of the year! This event will raise funds to support and promote the Carnegie Library and the City of Newnan Cultural Arts Commission through programs, speakers, authors and special events benefitting the local community.

This event will be held at the historic Charles Wadsworth Auditorium at 25 Jefferson St. Tickets are $35 per person plus service fees and tax and are non-refundable. Doors will open at 6:00 pm. Tickets at the door will be $40. Book signing to follow. Books will be available for purchase at the venue from Newnan Book Co.

Rick Bragg is a beloved son of the South and a Pulitzer Prize winner for Feature Writing (during his tenure with The New York Times). He's a Harvard University Nieman Fellow and a professor of writing at the University of Alabama. His trilogy of nonfiction memoirs includes bestsellers "All Over But The Shoutin'," "Ava's Man" and "The Prince of Frogtown." Other superb books penned by Bragg include "The Speckled Beauty" about his dog; "Somebody Told Me," a collection of his newspaper columns; "The Best Cook in the World" with recipes from his mother; and "Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story," a biography on the famous singer. Along with the Pulitzer, Bragg has won more than 50 writing awards, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award (twice) and the Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year (2009). His column appears in "Southern Living" and "Garden & Gun" magazines.

The Newnan Carnegie Library Foundation (NCLF) is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on supporting and promoting the Carnegie Library through programs, speakers, authors and financial backing of events benefiting the local community.

The Newnan Cultural Arts Commission (NCAC) is a standing committee for the City of Newnan, commissioned by the City Council in August 2005. This committee responds to the direction of the Mayor of Newnan and the City Council, to plan and coordinate cultural events that occur in the local community.

For more information on other events please visit southernlitfest.com.

For questions, please contact NCLFGeorgia@gmail.com, scrutchfield@newnanga.gov or call the Carnegie at 770-683-1347.

Tickets go on sale March 4th.