Session Description
Four historical fiction writers (T.M. Brown, Robert Gwaltney, Carolyn Curry, and Piper Huguley) will discuss research techniques and the major elements of their genre. They will also discuss some common mistakes writers should avoid when developing their books and offer suggestions for finding appropriate topics to research. Moderated by Kristine Anderson, PhD.
Kristine Anderson, PhD
Kristine F. Anderson earned a Ph.D. in Communicative Arts from Georgia State University. Crooked Truth, a coming-of-age novel set in 1948, received the Ferrol Sams Fiction Award from Mercer University Press. It was nominated for the 2021 Willie Morris Southern Fiction Award, and she was nominated for the GEORGIA WRITERS 2021 Author of the Year Award in the debut novel category.
Outside the Diamond, her second novel, focuses on several characters from Crooked Truth, but takes place in the early 1960’s, against the backdrop of the civil rights movement. The novel received the Honorable Mention Award, which is equivalent to second place, in the 2024 William Faulkner Literary Competition. Her manuscript was one of sixty-eight entries in the novel category.
She lives with her husband and a house full of books in the Atlanta area.
T. M. Brown
T. M. Brown, known as Mike to friends and family, cherishes his Georgia roots and the lessons imparted by his father and grandfather: “The testament of a man lies not in the magnitude of possessions left to his heirs, but the reach of his legacy long after his death.” His childhood memories of visiting his great-uncle’s farm near Stone Mountain, GA—navigating red clay roads, sipping cool well water, and enduring washtub baths—infuse his storytelling with authenticity and Southern charm. Mike is the author of the acclaimed Shiloh Mystery Series, which includes Sanctuary: A Legacy of Memories, Testament: An Unexpected Return, and Purgatory: A Progeny’s Quest. In 2023, he released The Last Laird of Sapelo, a historical novel published by Koehler Books. He is an active member of the Atlanta Writers Club, Southeastern Writers Association, and American Christian Fiction Writers Association, and is President Emeritus of the Hometown Novel Writers Association in Newnan, GA. Now residing in Milledgeville, GA, with his wife, Connie, Mike continues to draw inspiration from his Southern upbringing and heritage, crafting stories that celebrate faith, family, and enduring legacies.
Carolyn Curry
Dr. Carolyn Curry is an author, historian, and teacher. She has a BA from Agnes Scott College and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Georgia State University. She has taught at Westminster and the University of Kentucky. In 2014 she published Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907 which won Georgia Author of the Year Award and was selected as One of the Books All Georgians Should Read by the Center for the Book. In 2019 she published her first novel, Sudden Death, which is a murder mystery set in the world of football. Her next book, Trudy’s Awakening, a historical novel, is scheduled to come out in September of 2025. Whether writing about the past or present, her primary interest is the well-being of women.
In 2002, Curry also founded a non-profit foundation, Women Alone Together®, which she directed for twenty-two years. Through seminars, book programs, and special events, the goal was to help women who were alone because of death of spouse, divorce from spouse, alone by choice, or alone because of separation disease or estrangement, however, all women were invited.
Through the years, Carolyn has served on a wide variety of boards. In Lexington, Kentucky, she was on the Cardinal Hill Hospital Board. In Georgia, she has served on the boards at Tallulah Falls School and Young Harris College. Currently, she is on the Advisory Board of Breakthru House.
Carolyn and her husband Bill are parents of two children. Dr. Kristin Hunter teaches at Westminster. She and her husband Bob have two daughters. Their son Bill Curry, Jr. works for Boston Scientific, and lives in Charlottesville, Virgina. He and his wife Kelly have five boys. Carolyn and Bill Curry have been married for sixty-two years.
Robert Gwaltney
Robert Gwaltney, a graduate of Florida State University, was named 2023 Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel. He resides in Atlanta Georgia where he is an active member of the Atlanta literary community serving as a board member for Broadleaf Writers Association. By day, he works as Vice President of Easterseals North Georgia, Inc., a non-profit supporting children with disabilities and other special needs. Robert’s work has appeared in such publications as Southbound Magazine, Southern Literary Review, The Blue Mountain Review, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. He was awarded the 2022 Pat Conroy Writers Residency, and his debut novel, The Cicada Tree, won the Somerset Award for Literary Fiction. His forthcoming novel, Sing Down The Moon, will be published by Mercer University Press in the Spring of 2026.
Piper Huguley
Piper G. Huguley’s most recent biographical historical fiction book, American Daughters (2024), is the story of the decades-long interracial friendship between Alice Roosevelt and Portia Washington, the rebel teenage daughters of President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, respectively.
