2025 JCLF Keynote + Catnote!
NYT Bestseller Karen White headlined Johns Creek Literary Fair Nov. 15, 2025
Karen White discusses her obsession with birds that reinforced a mother-daughter connection.
Karen White served as the keynote speaker at the 2025 Johns Creek Literary Fair, where she unveiled her brand-new release, “The Lady on Esplanade,” the third novel in the beloved author’s Royal Street series. With nearly 2 million books in print in 15 different languages, she is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 36 novels.
White traces her love of books and strong female characters to the third grade, when a librarian handed her “The Secret of the Old Clock,” a Nancy Drew mystery. Although she grew up largely in London, England, the writer’s roots run deep in the South, where many of her novels are set.
After pursuing a career in business for a decade, “in a weak moment” she wrote her first book, “In the Shadow of the Moon,” published in 2000. Thirty-five more titles have so far followed. Referred to as “grit lit” and nominated for numerous national contests including the Southeastern Booksellers Alliance Fiction Book of the Year, White’s intricate plot lines and compelling characters always deliver a mix of family drama, mystery, intrigue and romance.
Regarding “The House on Prytania,” Kirkus Reviews said, “White’s second Royal Street book, a spinoff of her bestselling Tradd Street series, continues the tradition of haunted houses, evil ghosts and fraught romances.”
Her latest releases include “The Author’s Guide to Murder,” a collaboration with authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig, and “The House on Prytania,” the second book in her New Orleans-set mystery series.
Former Gov. Nathan Deal details his cat-focused children’s book
Former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal was the JCLF’s special “catnote” speaker, discussing his children’s book, “Veto, the Governor’s Cat.” An on-site pet adoption will add to the festivities.
Calling all historical fiction fans! The 2025 Johns Creek Literary Fair will spotlight a panel of award-winning authors well-versed in the art of telling tales from bygone days.
A panel of renowned historical fiction authors will also be featured, along with themed snacks throughout the day.
Writers of the Present, Women of the Past – Historical Fiction Panel
This year’s featured authors will include moderator Kimberly Brock in conversation with novelists Meagan Church, Carolyn Newton Curry and Piper Huguley.
Brock is the award-winning author of “The Fabled Earth” and “The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare,” which spent three weeks on the Southern Independent Booksellers bestseller list. Both novels have been shortlisted for the prestigious Townsend Prize for Fiction. Her debut title, “The River Witch,” won the Georgia Author of the Year Award. In addition to speaking widely on the creative life and Southern and historical fiction, Brock has been featured on the History Channel’s “History’s Greatest Mysteries.”
Church is the author of the instant New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel “The Mad Wife,” as well as “The Girls We Sent Away” and “The Last Carolina Girl.” Her emotionally charged, empathy-driven fiction explores women’s inner lives and the silencing of their stories. She is an adjunct faculty member in Drexel University’s MFA program and lives in the Charlotte area with her family
Curry is an award-winning author, historian and founder of a nonprofit women’s support organization, which she directed for 22 years. Her books include “Trudy’s Awakening,” published in September, “Sudden Death” and “Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907,” which was on the Georgia Center for the Book’s 2015 list of Books All Georgians Should Read. Curry also was named 2015 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association.
Huguley, a literature professor at Clark-Atlanta University, is the author of “American Daughters” (2024), which tells the unknown story of the decades-long interracial friendship between the rebel teenage daughters of President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington. Her novel, “By Her Own Design: a novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register” (2022), was selected as the historical fiction winner for 2022 by the American Library Association’s Reading Council and has been optioned by Sony/Tristar with Ruth Carter and Serena Williams as producers.
The free panel discussion will be Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. at Johns Creek City Hall, 11360 Lakefield Drive.