The Alumni Grill Anthology of Southern Writers has grown out of Sonny Brewer's Southern Writers Reading series in Fairhope, Alabama, and is the companion volume to Brewer's Stories from the Blue Moon Café, now in its fourth year. This year's Grill features twelve Blue Moon veterans and is an eclectic assortment of fiction, poetry, and essays. In keeping with MacAdam/Cage's and Sonny Brewer's commitment to new writers, The Alumni Grill, Volume II, includes writers with first books on the way - such as Jack Pendarvis, whose story, "The Poet I Know," is a hilarious inside look at a writing conference, and Brad Vice, who shares a quirky take on the 1950s KKK in Tuscaloosa - as well as writers whose first books are still in the works. About the author: Tom Franklin is the author of Poachers and Hell at the Breech, both published by William Morrow. His new novel, Smonk: A Southern, will be published next year by HarperPerennial. Beth Ann Fennelly is the author of two books of poems, Open House (Zoo Press, 2002) and Tender Hooks (W. W. Norton, 2004), and a forthcoming collection of essays, Letters to a Young Mother (W. W. Norton, 2006).