Author Carolyn Curry to Visit PTC Library

Author Carolyn Curry will visit Peachtree City Library on Tuesday, September 30, at 1 p.m. to discuss her latest book, Trudy’s Awakening (Mercer Press, 2025).

A historical novel set in the latter half of nineteenth-century Georgia, Trudy’s Awakening tells the story of three women whose lives intermingle as they work to overcome society’s barriers to their progress and success. Gertrude Thomas, “Trudy” to her friends and family, grew up in wealth and privilege but lost it all in the aftermath of the war. Amanda “Mae,” along with her mother Lurany, were enslaved to Gertrude’s family and yearned for freedom. Lizzie Jeter was a middle-class young woman who dreamed of being a professional artist. All three faced tremendous obstacles in a world that wished to limit and suppress their talents. Carolyn Curry uses her own research from the award-winning biography, Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1834-1907, to imagine the way these women’s paths crossed in their fight for freedom, civil rights, and successful careers. In 2015, Suffer and Grow Strong was selected One of the Books all Georgians should read by the Georgia Center for the Book. In that same year, Curry received Georgia Author of the Year from the Georgia Writers Association.

Curry’s talk will be followed by a book signing in the Floy Farr Room in the lower level of the library. Books will be for sale at the event courtesy of Book Miser. The event is free and open to the public.