Editor’s Pick: the eclectic Granville Wyche Burgess, on the Road

Granville Wyche Burgess, like all CPB authors, is one of our favorite writers, and he has an eclecticism that defies categorization, and also may defy finding an easy audience: his most well-known works are Conrack, a record-breaking musical based on the life on Pat Conroy, which played at Ford’s Theater some years ago, and is still frequently performed around America today; and Tales from the Darkside, the beloved TV horror anthology series, which has an avid cult following today.

“My writing simply reflects who I am,” he tells us. “My mother loved Winnie-The-Pooh, so I adapted it to a musical. I was born and raised in South Carolina in the days of segregation, and I felt keenly the injustice of how African-Americans were denied the basic rights that I enjoyed, so I have written about this injustice. My next project is a play about Maine, because a friend of mine wants me to adapt her favorite book, and so I am going to challenge myself again by writing about something I know nothing about.”

His upcoming schedule reflects this attitude. In the next couple of months, he’s wrapping up his Rebecca Zook tour, speaking at an art gallery in Connecticut and a library in Maryland about his bestselling series of books about a young Amish woman in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His wife, Reba Beeson, who was raised in the Amish community, will join him for a question and answer. If you’re in Connecticut, see him on Saturday, November 17 at 4 pm, at the Downing Yudain Gallery, 357 Old Long Ridge Road in Stamford, CT; if you are in Maryland, see him on December 11, 7 pm, at the Hagerstown library 100 South Potomac Street.

All this will be followed by the publication in May of his new book, The Last At-Bat of Shoeless Joe, a baseball novel, which imagines Shoeless Joe Jackson in his twilight.

Definitely, a tough fellow to pin down.

One last word from Granville:

“I thought some of our readers might want to know what I look like, so here is a picture of me and my wonderful wife, Reba.  It’s not a true picture, I confess: Reba doesn’t wear glasses!”

Granville Wyche Burgess is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, playwright and Amazon-bestselling novelist. He is the author of the Rebecca Zook novels.  His new baseball novel, The Last At-Bat of Shoeless Joe, will be published by Chickadee Prince Books in 2019.