The Alabama Writers’ Forum
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, works to cultivate our state’s literary culture. We do that through supporting writers at all stages. We encourage our young writers to find their creative voice through the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!–and through our Alabama High School Literary Arts Awards. We support the work of our state’s literary community through our Alabama Authors Directory, First Draft magazine, and other programming and opportunities for writers across the state. And we celebrate our state’s rich literary legacy through the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. We are, above all, a community of writers united by our desire to advance the literary arts in Alabama. If that describes you — join us! There are many ways to get involved.
Ruby Falls
Ruby Falls By Gin Phillips Grove Atlantic; 2026 Hardcover: $28.00 Genre: Mystery Fiction Reviewed by Edward Journey Signs advertising “Ruby Falls” are ubiquitous in the southeastern United States on barns, birdhouses, and billboards, especially as the roads get closer to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain. The preponderance of Ruby Falls signage rivals that for Rock City, its sister attraction up the mountain. Many have followed the siren call of the barns and visited the cave with its 145-foot underground waterfall – the tallest and deepest waterfall open to the public in the United States. It’s a chilly place to begin with. On my visit to Ruby Falls as a preschooler, a grown-up prodded me to ask the tour guide to turn on the heater; I did and was the victim of good-natured teasing for the rest of the tour. Gin Phillips, the author of seven novels, including The Well and the Mine and Fierce Kingdom, followed the call and was inspired to turn up the chills in her latest novel, Ruby Falls, a captivating mystery set in Depression-era Tennessee, in the early days of Ruby Falls’ tourist-attraction incarnation. The book is mostly set in the depths of the cavern complex that houses the famous cascade. Ada Smith, [...]
