From Agnes Scott’s Alumnae Facebook page…

Fall authors coming to Agnes Scott

(co-sponsored by the GA Center for the Book)

• Tuesday, October 29 – Garrison Keillor reading
• Tuesday, November 19 – Amy Tan reading

Both readings will be held in Gaines Chapel, Presser Hall.

Start time: 7:15 p.m.

Event is free and open to the public; tickets will be distributed at the door (no reservations)

h/t: Decaturish

A little advanced warning never hurt anyone.

According to the Georgia Center for the Book, Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor will be discussing his new novel Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance in Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College on Monday, September 28th at 7pm.  And it’s free!  First come, first serve.

If I’m not mistaken (UPDATE: and I am) this would mark Keillor’s first trip back to Atlanta after a bunch of drunk revelers at Chastain convinced him he would never return to Atlanta with PHC again.  In fact, I think I wrote a post about it back during this blog’s infancy.  Yep, here ’tis.

After a bunch of wealthy, drunken table revelers ruined a performance of A Prairie Home Companion at Chastain Park in the summer of 2005, Garrison Keillor snubbed his nose at Atlanta by relocating his show to Columbus, GA in April 2007. While the Columbus audience may have behaved better than the corporate lushes in Atlanta, his take away from that show may have been even worse.

Apparently at that performance, Keillor was unlucky enough to gain the attention of one Andrea R. Campbell, 43, of Hawkinsville, GA. Campbell’s subsequent”transcendental” love of Keillor compelled the mother of five to send the radio host a myriad of strange gifts (like alligator feet and dead beetles) along with unwelcome letters of fantasized sexual encounters. After trying to break into Keillor’s home in St. Paul (perhaps in an attempt to get him to read a hilarious “greeting” to her kids during the intermission of his next broadcast?) he obtained a restraining order against Campbell.

Even with a restraining order against her, the Hawkinsville resident is inclined to believe that its not Keillor who does not desire her taxidermy-laden affections. The AP quotes her saying “I believe that he’s paranoid, or some woman, his wife, is upset and told him he has to do something about it,”.

Sigh.

So, all of this begs the question…will Keillor ever return to the Georgia or has the parade of love-starved locals and unappreciative transplants scared him away forever? If he never returns, his trips will be sorely missed. Not only by me, but also by local son Roy Blount Jr., who will have to make due with “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me” appearances to showcase his wit.

MSNBC