“Georgia Reads” Kicks off March 1 with Event Featuring Author Rodger Lyle Brown
If you’re a bibliophile seeking to add a range of voices and perspectives on your reading list and engage with fellow book lovers in an entertaining and meaningful way, “Georgia Reads” has something for you.
The innovative virtual book club is being launched in partnership by the University of Georgia Press and Georgia Public Broadcasting, with support from Georgia Humanities. Each year, the partners will select two of UGA Press titles, covering topics from history, politics, culture, and biography to the environment. GPB will host “Georgia Reads” on its website (gpb.org/georgia-reads) and feature content including GPB Radio interviews with the book authors, a regular blog that highlights each title, plus news of live events with the authors and ways to interact with them through social media platforms, such as Facebook Live events.
As its first title, “Georgia Reads” has selected Rodger Lyle Brown’s Party Out of Bounds: The B-52’s, R.E.M., and the Kids Who Rocked Athens, Georgia, the 25th anniversary edition. Originally published in 1991, this cult classic offers an insider’s look at the underground rock music culture that sprang from a lazy Georgia college town and helped put Athens on the international music map as the birthplace of bands including the B-52’s, Pylon and R.E.M.
UGA Press will host a kick-off event on Wednesday, March 1, at Atlanta’s Highland Inn Ballroom featuring Brown and a panel of special guests, who will be interviewed by Paste editor-in-chief Josh Jackson. A Cappella Books will sell copies of the book during the event.
The Press will host a second event in Athens on Saturday, March 18, at the Prince Avenue Firehall #2 with Avid Bookshop. That night, producer/engineer, musician, and director of UGA’s music business certificate program at Terry College, David Barbe, will interview Brown and a panel of local musicians, including Vanessa Briscoe Hay of Pylon.
Brown was recently interviewed by Bill Nigut, host of GPB Radio’s “Two Way Street,” which airs each Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. across GPB’s 18-station statewide radio network. The interview is set to premiere on Saturday, March 4 and Sunday, March 5. It will also be made available on the “Georgia Reads” webpage at gpb.org.
“‘Georgia Reads’ is designed as a ‘book club for busy people.’ It aims to broaden our minds through the joy of sharing a good book, whether online or in person. And we have a perfect program partner in GPB,” said Lisa Bayer, Director of the University of Georgia Press.
“We’re thrilled to take part in this initiative,” said GPB President and CEO Teya Ryan. “This provides GPB with a unique opportunity to help showcase prolific authors by using our platforms in collaboration with the wonderful resources of UGA Press. We hope it encourages people to read and engage in conversations about the wide range of topics the books will cover.”
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