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Photo courtesy of Lance Shores?H
Authors Hank Phillippi Ryan, left, and Megan Abbott speak at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
Author Katherine Center speaks at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo courtesy of Lance Shores?H
Author Ariel Lawhon speaks at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
Author Ariel Lawhon speaks at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo courtesy of Lance Shores?H
Hoover Public Library Director Amanda Borden speaks at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28 , 2026.
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Photo courtesy of Lance Shores?H
Author Katherine Center speaks at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
People check out books for sale at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
Authors Hank Phillippi Ryan, left, and Megan Abbott speak at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo courtesy of Lance Shores?H
Megan Abbott signs a book for Southern Voices Festival Chairwoman Carrie Steinmehl after the festival at the Hoover Public Library on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
Author Lindy Ryan speaks at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
Author Katherine Center, right, signs autographs at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
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Photo by Lauren H. Dowdle
Authors Rickey Fayne, left, and Robert Gwaltney speak at the 2026 Southern Voices Festival at the Hoover Public Library in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
While the books featured during the 2026 Southern Voices Festival ranged from literary and historical fiction to thrillers, horror and romantic comedies, the authors who took the stage Saturday all focused on how their childhoods shaped their writing.
The conference featured various bestselling and award-winning authors who spoke to a packed crowd of about 250 in the Hoover Library Theatre and to another 100 or so people in the Library Plaza. This year’s lineup included Megan Abbott, Ariel Lawhon, Katherine Center, Rickey Fayne, Robert Gwaltney, Hank Phillippi Ryan and Lindy Ryan.
Lawhon kicked off the event joking that her childhood was the perfect mashup of Laura Ingalls meets the hippy movement. Growing up in a house with no electricity or running water, Lawhon said it was there in that hard, strange and wonderful childhood where she fell in love with stories, recalling how her mother would read to her at night by a kerosene lantern.
“There is nothing more magical than being read to as a child,” Lawhon said.
Her historical fiction book, “The Frozen River,” was inspired by the true story of an 18th century midwife who investigated crimes. For attendees Caroline Adams and Louise Parsons, hearing Lawhon speak was one of the highlights of the conference, they said.
Adams, a Hoover resident, has attended Southern Voices for the past 15 years and said she has enjoyed it every time.
“I love hearing about different authors who I haven’t read yet and how everybody’s approach is different,” Adams said. “I also like seeing their personalities off of the page.”
Parsons has attended the conference close to 10 years now and said she enjoyed learning more about what goes on behind the scenes with the authors.
“I do love hearing about their writing process, how they come to writing and how they research,” said Parsons, an Irondale resident.
Finding inspiration
All of the authors at this year’s Southern Voices wrote fiction, but there were plenty of real people and experiences behind their books.
Literary fiction writers Fayne and Gwaltney shared the stage and discussed how their upbringings impacted their books. Fayne said the voice in his book, “The Devil Three Times,” comes from his father’s style of storytelling. Gwaltney’s debut book, “The Cicada Tree,” combines the Southern influences he grew up around, as well.
For others, their writing inspiration came from several generations of family members. As the first horror author to participate in Southern Voices, Lindy Ryan said the characters in her “Bless Your Heart” series were based on her grandmothers and other strong women in her life.
Having the support from family after years of work being rejected is what ultimately pushed author Center to continue pursuing her dream and publish her first novel. Coming up on 20 years of when her first book came out, Center said she’s thankful for those times she struggled with knowing if she’d become a successful author.
“I decided I was going to double down on gratitude,” Center said. “I was just going to be grateful to spend my life thinking about the thing I love to think about, which was stories.”
Now, she’s had several of her books adapted for film. Her books “The Lost Husband” and “Happiness for Beginners” are movies available on Netflix, and her novel “The Bodyguard” is expected to be released on the streaming service later this year.
But she’s not the only one. Crime and thriller writer Abbott had her book “Dare Me” adapted as a television series on Netflix, with several other projects in the works.
Though all of the authors at Southern Voices have reached countless people across the world with their words, the stories they told kept coming back to their beginnings.
Author of 16 psychological thrillers including “All This Could Be Yours,” Hank Phillippi Ryan shared how she would ride a pony as a child to visit the local library and then read the books she checked out in the barn behind her house. Characters like Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes became her inspiration early on and drove her to a career in investigative reporting and writing thrillers. While she might not be a true detective herself, she uses the same methods to put words on the page.
“In writing fiction, I’m out in search of the story,” Hank Philippi Ryan said. “Instead of tracking down clues and following leads and doing research, I’m researching my own imagination for the story.”
The 33rd Southern Voices author conference was held at the Hoover Public Library on Saturday, and tickets sold out in less than 10 minutes for the annual event. Pulitzer Prize-winning political historian Jon Meacham was the keynote speaker on Friday night. Read about Meacham’s talk here.
