Lauretta Hannon

Join us as Lauretta Hannon Reads The Cracker Queen at Outwrite!
About The Book:
A poignant memoir of a life on the wrong side of the tracks, with a colorful cast of misfits, plenty of belly laughs, and lessons for finding joy in spite of hardship Move over, Sweet Potato Queens. Thanks to Lauretta ... (more)Hannon the Cracker Queens are finally having their say. From her wildly popular NPR segments to her colorful one woman show Hannon is showing the world a different kind of girl raised in the South – a strong, authentic, fearless, flawed, resourceful and outrageous woman –the anti-Southern Belle. Marking the debut of a powerfully original Southern voice, The Cracker Queen begins with the childhood experiences and adventures of Lauretta in backwater Warner Robins. Her mama on the edge and jazz musician daddy have a deep and disorderly love with years of booze, infidelities and nervous breakdowns but through it all she feels cherished. The stories of her deeply dysfunctional family include chain gangs, guns, ghost hunting, moonshine stands, scooterpootin', the famous Goat Man of Georgia and Crazy Aunt Carrie who is arrested for assaulting a police dog. The early years of hardship and hard living all gave Hannon the resilience and humor that are now the hallmarks of her Cracker Queen way of life. From Warner Robins she moves to Savannah's most eccentric neighborhoods and its lively crew of hellions, heroines, bad seeds, thugs and renegades including a lady who keeps the Baby Jesus chained up in her front yard, a woman who looks like a rutabaga, and the root doctor that works a hoodoo on her. Full of warmth, outrageous wit, and world-class storytelling, The Cracker Queen is, at its core, about finding meaning in painful, desperate situationsand discovering the joys that can sprout from such ragged terrain. A celebration of living out loud and loving life to death, The Cracker Queen shows that the greatest humanity, the loudest cackles and the best stories can come from where you might least expect them.

Georgia Literary Festival. The 11th annual festival, a "moveable feast" that celebrates Georgia's rich literary heritage in a different city each year, will be held in Rome. It marks the festival's first appearance in Northwest Georgia. More than 30 authors will be lecturing, appearing on panels and ... (more)signing books including Terry Kay, Hollis Gillespie, Virginia Willis, Robert J. Norrell, Lauretta Hannon, Patricia Sprinkle, Eric Haney, Joshilyn Jackson, Raymond Atkins and Kim Siegelson. The festival also will pay a special tribute to four Georgia writers: Anthony Grooms, Melanie Sumner and the late Calder Willingham and Jeanne Braselton. All events are free; no tickets required. For details, go to www.georgialiteraryfestival.org. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m., Saturday, October 17. Locations in downtown Rome.

Lauretta Hannon, who grew up in Warner Robins and now lives in Atlanta, has written a wonderful first book that is getting lots of attention: The Cracker Queen. It's an unflinching, poignant, warmly humorous memoir that takes readers on a wild ride from central Georgia to Savannah with a cast of dysfunctional ... (more)families and a lively crew of hell-raisers and renegades.Hannon is best known for her engaging commentaries on NPR. Monday, May 4, 7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium.

Lauretta Hannon will read from and sign copies of her new book, The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life. This is a story filled with true-life tales about growing up and living in the South—on the wrong side of the tracks. Born in Warner Robins, Georgia—-a desolate landscape populated ... (more)by a colorful tribe of hellions, heroines, bad seeds and renegades—-Hannon's childhood is marked by a distinctly dysfunctional family, including a mama on the edge, a father who refuses to wear a shirt, and a crazy aunt who is jailed for assaulting a police dog. These early years of hard living give Hannon the resilience, humor, and joy that are the hallmarks of her Cracker Queen approach to life.