Meet the Authors!

Christopher Coleman

Christopher Coleman was pronounced dead at birth, but miraculously survived. Though he struggles with cerebral palsy, he knows his disability is a gift.
It was a breech birth with twins eight weeks premature — and the delivery was not going well. The doctor untangled the slippery umbilical cord wrapped around the baby boy’s neck. There were no vital signs. Placing the lifeless body on a steel table at the back of the delivery room, the doctor mentally noted the time: 8:21 p.m., Oct. 20, 1973. Christopher Coleman was pronounced dead at birth, and a nurse placed a sheet over his tiny body. As the doctors turned their attention to the second twin, a girl, they heard it — a cry from the back of the room. The first twin was struggling for air.
He was alive, but his prognosis was grim. Christopher had gone for at least 15 minutes without breathing and had undoubtedly suffered extensive brain damage. Doctors diagnosed him with cerebral palsy and concluded that he would never walk, talk, move or even think for himself.
At the age of five, Christopher enrolled in an elementary school with a special class for handicapped students 40 miles from home. Three afternoons a week, his mother also drove him to speech and physical therapy. But any hope he had evaporated when he entered a state-run school for the disabled at six years old. “I remember the blank walls,” he says. “I stared at them for hours while I sat strapped like a prisoner in my wheelchair. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t move. No one talked to me. No one even wiped my nose or took me to the bathroom. I often sat in my soiled clothes for an entire day, embarrassed and frustrated.”
His mother never knew how badly he was treated at school. He couldn’t communicate with her. Although he always felt his mother’s love, he defined himself by the way the world treated him. “I never felt I was worth much,” he says.
By this time, his twin sister was learning to read — and Christopher felt left out. At night, when his family was asleep, he crawled into the bathroom and studied the letters on the pages of his sister’s books. It wasn’t until he was 14, however, that his mother discovered he could read. He revealed his ability to read by reading a weather bulletin off the TV during a bad storm. “My mom rushed over to me, crying and laughing at the same time,” he recalls.
He entered Nichols State University’s pre-law program after graduating from high school. At the end of his sophomore year Christopher made the bold move to Marietta, Ga., to finish his education at Southern Polytechnic State University. It was at Southern Polytechnic that Jonathan Carter became his personal assistant. “Jonathan helped me confront my fear of who I was, disabilities and all,” he says.
Jonathan spoke to him kindly, never becoming frustrated or annoyed with his physical limitations. One day, when Christopher sneezed all over him uncontrollably, Jonathan just softly said, “It’s OK.” Those simple words echoed in his head. “It’s OK. It’s OK that I can’t move my body the way other people move. It’s OK that I can’t speak as clearly as other people. I’m OK just the way I am,” he thought.
Christopher no longer resents his wheelchair or his physical condition. He says, “It hasn’t been easy living a life in a wheelchair, but it has been a life of freedom rather than confinement. I can truly say that I have joy in my heart.”

George Weinstein

George Weinstein is a local author whose work has appeared in Atlanta-area newspapers, regional anthologies, and nationally in A Cup of Comfort for Writers and with the motivational adventure novel for kids, Jake and the Tiger Flight jakeandthetigerflight.com). He served as president of The Atlanta Writers Club (atlantawritersclub.org) for two terms and now schedules speakers and events for the club as its VP and Program Chair. Born in Washington, DC, and raised in Maryland, he lives with his wife and two furry, four-legged muses in Roswell, Georgia.

Jackie Cooper

Jackie K Cooper was born in Clinton, South Carolina. He attended Erskine College where he received a BA in History/Social Studies. He also attended the University of South Carolina School of Law where he received a Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD).

Cooper provides entertainment reviews for his web site www.jackiekcooper.com as well as other web sites and newspapers. He is a frequent guest on a variety of radio shows and is a frequent after dinner speaker. He recently began providing commentaries for Georgia Public Radio.

Cooper recently taught a four hour course on “Writing Memoirs” at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. He also taught a one hour version of this subject at the South Carolina Book Festival. He will also be teaching this course at various book stores and book events this fall.

Jackie K Cooper is the author of five books: JOURNEY OF A GENTLE SOUTHERN MAN, CHANCES AND CHOICES, HALFWAY HOME, THE BOOKBINDER and THE SUNRISE REMEMBERS. The latest was published in September 2008 by Mercer University Press. His next book, BACK TO THE GARDEN, will be published by Mercer University Press I 2011. All of his books are “memoirs” composed of short stories about growing up and living in the South.

Cooper and his wife Terry live in Perry, Georgia.

Lauretta Hannon

Lauretta Hannon is the author of The Cracker Queen—A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life (Gotham Books, April 2009) and a commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, where her stories reach 25.5 million listeners. Since 2000 she has also been known for her Georgia Public Radio stories, many of which celebrate strong, authentic Southern women (Cracker Queens). Her memoir became a Southern Indie Bestseller three weeks after its release.

The Cracker Queen has received praise from literary legends such as Lee Smith. “I raced through this book—horrified, laughing out loud, and weeping by turns,” says Smith. “I say, let’s throw out all the self-help and inspirational books in the country, and put up The Cracker Queen displays instead! Hannon really made me think…”

Lauretta is currently working on a darkly comic novel set in Middle Georgia. She also gives seminars for writers through her Down Home Writing School and performs a one-woman show based on The Cracker Queen. You can learn more about her at thecrackerqueen.com.

Patti Callahan Henry

Patti Callahan Henry is the National Best sellingauthor of six novels with Penguin/NAL : Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Between the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, and Driftwood Summer.

Patti is hailed as a fresh new voice in southern fiction. She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and has been nominated for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Fiction Novel of the Year. She is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs and women's groups where she discusses the importance of storytelling and anything else they want to talk about.

Patti grew up as a Minister’s daughter, learning early how storytelling effects our lives. She grew up spending her summers on Cape Cod where she began her love affair with the beach, ocean, tides and nature of the coast. Moving south at the tender age of twelve, she found solace in books and stories. While attending Auburn University, she met a southern boy who later proposed on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, next to a historic lighthouse overlooking the Sound. After earning her Master’s degree in Child Health, Patti worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist until her first child was born.

Patti is a full time writer, wife and mother living with her husband and three children outside Atlanta on the Chattahoochee River where she is working on her next novel.