Local Authors

Fayette County Public Library is proud to feature the work of local authors. For more information or to find books by these authors, please contact us.

Robert Burch was a Fayette County native who wrote many children’s books including Queeny Peavy, a winner of the Children’s Literature Association’s Phoenix Award. According to Library Journal, “the warmth of family relationships, the sound values, homely humor and careful attention to detail make (Tyler, Wilkin and Skee) a story to join the “Little House” books….” Atlanta Weekly praised him as “the author of some of the finest, most satisfying books for young people to be written in the South in this century.”

Bruce Jordan, author of the popular true crime books Death Unexpected: The Violent Deaths of Fayette and Murder in the Peach State: Infamous Murders from Georgia’s Past, is a former local police officer.  Jim Minter, former editor of The Atlanta Constitution, said of the stories in Murder in the Peach State: “I found it almost impossible to begin one of these stories and lay it aside before finishing it…Bruce Jordan is just getting started as a writer. I eagerly anticipate the future.”

Margaret Mitchell, though an Atlanta resident, has a special connection to Fayette County and the “Fayetteville Library.” Mitchell had been visiting the Fayetteville cemetery in 1938 and stopped at Beadle’s Drug Store, which was owned by the husband of library board member Annie Beadles. The author of Gone With The Wind learned of the existence of the Fayetteville Library from Beadles, who told her of its hard-luck past. Mitchell then visited the library and became a supporter until she died in 1949, donating many books and over $1,000. The library was named the Margaret Mitchell library in 1942, with the author’s permission.

Ferrol Sams has deep roots in Fayette County: his family can be traced back 150 years. Author of bestseller Run with the Horsemen and The Whisper of the River, Widow’s Mite and Other Stories, and Christmas Gift, he didn’t write for publication until he was 58. His first trade is being an MD, but a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review called Sams’ writing “elegant, reflective and amused. Mr. Sams is a storyteller sure of his audience, in no particular hurry, and gifted with perfect timing.”   His first book, Run with the Horsemen, grew out his experiences growing up in Fayette County.  His latest book is “Down Town.”

Nea Anna Simone’s was acclaimed by Border’s Bookstores in a national ad campaign as an “Original Voice of Fiction” for her novel “Reaching Back.”  This Fayette County resident’s first work of fiction was also reviewed as a “Great Literary Work” by Black Expressions, and chosen as “Reader’s Choice Best in Fiction” in the Atlanta Daily World” and Borders’ Celebration of Books.  Four out of five Amazon.com reviewers gave Simone’s latest book, “Reborn,” five stars. (The fifth review was four stars). Simone began writing after her best friend said”…God wants you to write…if you’ll do that, he’ll take care of everything else.”