author of The Vain Conversation
Friday, October 19, 9:40 a.m.
In The Vain Conversation, Grooms takes the viewpoint of three individuals, one of which is Lonnie, a ten-year-old boy who, after witnessing the lynching of two black couples, is led around the world in search of meaning before returning to Georgia as an adult to face the ghosts of his past. Inspired by the 1946 Moore’s Ford lynching in Walton County, Georgia, Grooms also takes on the perspectives of one of the men who was lynched and a white man who was present. A professor of English at Kennesaw State Universtiy, Grooms has also written the collection of poems Ice Poems, the short-story collection Trouble No More, and the novel Bombingham.
Did You Know?
- Grooms teaches creative writing and has taught in Stockholm, Sweden.
- He has twice received the Lillian Smith Prize for Fiction.
- He has plans for a work of science fiction.
