Staff photo
Jim Brown, a retired history professor from Samford University, talks about the types of salamanders kids are holding during the annual Friends of Shades Creek Salamander Festival at Homewood High School on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023.
Local writer and scholar Jim Brown has been selected by the Alabama Center for the Book as the Alabama Adult Great Reads Selection for 2025 National Book Festival.
His book, Distracted by Alabama: Tangled Threads of Natural History, Local History, and Folklore, will serve as a representation of Alabama's literary heritage.
Distracted by Alabama: Tangled Threads of Natural History, Local History, and Folklore, is a collection of twelve captivating essays about Alabama and the South by Samford University writer and scholar Jim Brown, a former president of the Alabama Folklife Association.
During his decades living and teaching in Alabama, Brown followed his curiosity down myriad pathways about Alabama and the region, including the state’s majestic landscape, plants and animals found nowhere else, history, and rich folkways. In the tapestry of Alabama culture, Brown traces the threads of Native American, African slave, and European settler influences, woven over the centuries into novel patterns that surprise and fascinate.
Writing in the voice of a learned companion, Brown reveals insights and stories about unforgettable facets of Alabama culture, such as Sacred Harp singers and African American railroad callers, the use of handmade snares and stationary fish traps to catch river Redhorse and freshwater drum, white oak basket making and herbal medicine traditions, the evolution of the single-pen log cabin into the impressive two-story I-house, and a wealth of other engrossing stories.
An instant classic, Distracted by Alabama is a keepsake that readers who love, visit, or are curious about Alabama and Southern culture will return to again and again."
The University of Alabama Press
While Brown's book is one of many representing the state of Alabama, the Festival will also feature a list of books representing the literary heritage of all 50 states and U.S. territories. The list is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book. Each book a state affiliate or state library and most are for children and young readers. Books may be written by authors from the state, take place in the state, or celebrate the state’s culture and heritage.
This year the Festival will return to the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on September 6 , and is free for all to attend. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. A selection of programs will be live-streamed, and video of all presentations can be viewed online after the Festival concludes.
