In Conversation with John Williams and Rheta Grimsley Johnson

John M. Williams is a mentor in the Reinhardt University MFA Creative Writing program. He was named Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel in 2002 for Lake Moon (Mercer UP). He has written and cowritten numerous plays, with several local productions, and published a variety of stories, essays and reviews over the years. His and coauthor Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s play Hiram: Becoming Hank, about the formative years of singer Hank Williams, was performed at the Monroe County, Alabama courthouse in April 2021.

Writer Rheta Grimsley Johnson  studied journalism at Auburn University and graduated in 1977. While on staff at The Auburn Plainsman, she was awarded the 1974-75 National Pacemaker Award. She worked for several years as a general reporter for several newspapers before being hired at the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 1980. Her columns became nationally distributed in 1983 and were published in approximately 300 papers. In 1994 she was hired at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where she worked for seven years. Over the years she has won numerous other awards for her writing including the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award for human interest reporting in 1983, the Headliner Award for commentary in 1985, the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award for commentary in 1982. In 1986 she was inducted into the Scripps Howard Newspapers Editorial Hall of Fame. In 1991 Johnson was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.