MACON, Ga. — Mercer University Press will host its 35th Annual Authors Luncheon on Saturday, Dec. 13, at the InterContinental Buckhead in Atlanta, featuring book signings with several acclaimed authors. The event also features a luncheon with presentations by authors Emily Carpenter, John T. Edge and Thomas Maier, who will also be signing books.
Emily Carpenter is the best-selling author of suspense novels including Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies and Gothictown. Formerly, she worked in New York City as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows As the World Turns and Guiding Light.
John T. Edge, author of House of Smoke: A Southerner Goes Searching for Home, was elected to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2019 and is a two-time winner of the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. Edge also writes and hosts the television show TrueSouth, broadcast via the SEC Network and ESPN, and is a widely published magazine writer, serving as a columnist for Garden & Gun.
Thomas Maier is the author of The Invisible Spy: Churchill’s Rockefeller Center Spy Ring and America’s First Secret Agent of World War II. Fundamentally about the origins of U.S. intelligence, Maier’s surprising biography is acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs Magazine, and it was featured at a 2025 FDR Presidential Library Forum. Award-winning author, investigative journalist and Emmy-winning television producer of Showtime’s Masters of Sex and Paramount’s Emmy-nominated Mafia Spies, both based on his books, Maier is the recipient of many journalistic awards, including the 2022 Columbia University Journalism School Award for career achievement.
The luncheon and author presentations begin at noon.
Beginning at 10:30 a.m., authors will be available to sign their works, including:
- Carmen Agra Deedy, The Peanut Man
- Carolyn Curry, Trudy’s Awakening: A Novel
- Andrew Greer, More than a President: Sundays with Jimmy Carter
- Ann Hite, I Am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank, 1888-1957
- R. William Johnstone, Wyche Fowler: A Political Life in Georgia, Congress, and Abroad
- Stacia Pelletier, The Deliverance of Barker McRae: A Novel
- Jennifer Pitt, The Barnstormer and the Lady: Aviation Legends Walter and Olive Ann Beech – 15th Anniversary Edition, updated by Jennifer Pitt
- William Rawlings, The Dawson Pond Murders: A John Wesley O’Toole Novel
- Ronda Rich, A Merry Chatty Christmas: A Stella Bankwell Story
Event Details
Date & Time: Saturday, Dec. 13, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Where: InterContinental Buckhead, 3315 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta
Admission: Mercer faculty, staff and students receive a discounted rate.
Registration: The last day to register is Monday, Dec. 1.
To purchase tickets: Visit mup.mercer.edu/authors-luncheon
Proceeds from the event benefit Mercer University Press.
About Mercer University Press
Mercer University Press, established in 1979, has published more than 1,800 books in the genres of Southern Studies, Biography and Memoir, Fiction, Poetry, History, Civil War History, African American Studies, Appalachian Studies, Religion, Biblical Studies, and Philosophy. Publishing authors from across the United States and abroad, Mercer University Press focuses on topics related to the culture of the South. The reputation of the Press significantly enhances the academic environment of Mercer University and carries the name of Mercer and Macon, Georgia, throughout the world. For more information, visit mupress.org.
