Between the Pages of WELL READ Magazine

Frank Reddy writes fiction and nonfiction. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel Eyes on the Island, published in 2016 by Fiction Advocate. As a veteran journalist, he writes freelance articles for a wide range of mostly Atlanta-area publications. He has won multiple awards from the Associated Press and Georgia Press Association for business writing, feature writing, and hard news coverage. He grew up an hour north of Atlanta, in the poultry capital of the world, Gainesville, Ga., where the chicken trucks clog thoroughfares and Volkswagen-sized catfish swarm the depths of Lake Lanier. Now an Atlanta resident, he still feels the pull of the lake from time to time.

Anya Liftig, author of the memoir Holler Rat, is a performance artist and writer. Her performance work has been in venues around the world including MOMA, Tate Modern, Queens Museum, Stedjek Museum, New Museum and many others. She has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo. She is an avid book and dollhouse miniature collector.

Tom Vellner is a writer, editor, and, yes, a tennis player. A former staff writer at BuzzFeed, he has also contributed to VICE, Thrillist, ACLU Magazine, and more. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his husband and two dogs. Thirty Love is his debut novel.

Kalela Williams is an author, a proud auntie, a cat mama, and a "Black History Maven." She is the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book and directs the Virginia Festival of the Book and other events. She has created and produced literary events for the Philadelphia library system, a youth writing non-profit, a university poetry center, and other institutions. Kalela grew up in Atlanta, but now she calls the cute, artsy town of Staunton, Virginia home, where she and her partner run a community arts organization, The Off Center.
In addition, her debut novel Tangleroot was published in October 2024, and is an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce and an Indie Next Pick, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2024.
The Virginia Festival of the Book is a multi-day celebration of literature, storytelling, and ideas held annually in Charlottesville. Bringing together acclaimed and emerging authors, the festival features readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community events across a wide range of genres. With a strong emphasis on accessibility and engagement, the festival creates a welcoming space where readers and writers connect.

Author Amy Pence’s work spans poetry, hybrid, fiction, interviews, and essays. Her full-length poetry collections include Armor, Amour (Ninebark, 2012) and The Decadent Lovely (Main Street Rag, 2010). Her hybrid book, [It] Incandescent (Ninebark Press, 2018), winner of the Eyelands International Poetry Award in Athens, Greece, blends fiction, poetry, and scholarship.
In 2019, Amy launched her chapbook, Your Posthumous Dress: Remnants from the Alexander McQueen Collection (dancing girl press), with a unique fashion/art reading that supported a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis.
We Travel Towards It, released by Serving House Books in Spring 2025, explores both loss and the necessary resilience and insight needed in the face of climate change-induced natural disasters. Yellow (Red Hen Press) is her debut novel.

Deborah Goodrich Royce's literary thrillers examine puzzles of identity. 
Reef Road, a Publishers Weekly’s Bestseller, was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews, an Indie Next Pick by the American Bookseller’s Association, and one of Good Morning America’s Top 15 for January 2023. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist in 2021. Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America’s “best of” lists in 2019. Her newest, Best Boy, will be published on February 24, 2026.
In addition to writing, her Ocean House Author Series brings world-class authors like Sarah Ferguson, Emma Straub, Chris Bohjalian, and Katie Couric to Watch Hill. 
With fellow authors, Luanne Rice and Amy Scheibe, she created the Deer Mountain Writers’ Retreat in the Catskills. 
She began her career in the arts as an actress on All My Children and in multiple films, before transitioning to the role of story editor at Miramax Films, developing Emma and early versions of Chicago and A Wrinkle in Time. 
With her husband, Chuck, Deborah restored the Avon Theatre, Ocean House Hotel, Deer Mountain Inn, United Theatre, Martin House Books, and numerous Main Street revitalization projects in Rhode Island and the Catskills.

This month’s INSIDE VOICES is a fun surprise as Jeffrey Dale Lofton along with guest author, Paulette Kennedy, interview this month’s featured author, Robert Gwaltney to talk about his newest novel, Sing Down the Moon.
Robert Gwaltney, a graduate of Florida State University, was named 2023 Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel, and was recipient of the 2022 Pat Conroy Writers Residency. 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. 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. His forthcoming novel, Sing Down The Moon, will be published by Mercer University Press on March 3, 2026.
 
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Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Donna Everhart
Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking challenges of the heart and the complex heritage of the American South in her acclaimed novels When the Jessamine Grows, The Saints of Swallow Hill, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, The Forgiving Kind, The Road to Bittersweet, and The Education of Dixie Dupree. A finalist for the Southern Book Prize, she is the recipient of the prestigious North Carolina Society of Historians Award of Excellence, the SELA Outstanding Southeastern Author Award from the Southeastern Library Association, the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award from the General Federation of Women's Clubs of North Carolina, and her novels have received a SIBA Okra Pick, an Indie Next Pick, and three Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selections.
Her latest novel, Women of a Promiscuous Nature, releases January 27, 2026. Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, she now lives with her husband in the small town of Dunn, North Carolina where she is currently working on her next novel.

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Susan Gregg Gilmore.
Susan Gregg Gilmore is the author of the novels The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove, and The Funeral Dress.  She has written for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor. Born in Nashville, she lives in Tennessee with her husband.
WELL READ MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2025 ISSUE NO. 40 www.wellreadmagazine.com

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce James Wade.
James Wade is the award-winning author of Beasts of the Earth, All Things Left Wild, and River, Sing Out. He is the youngest novelist to win two Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, and the recipient of the MPIBA’s prestigious Reading the West Award. James’s work has appeared in Southern Literary Magazine, The Bitter Oleander, Writers’ Digest, and numerous additional publications. James lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and children. His lates novel, Narrow the Road, was released August 26, 2025 with Blackstone Publishing.
WELL READ MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2025 ISSUE NO. 39 www.wellreadmagazine.com