Atlanta Magazine

Most state fairs began as livestock exhibitions, featuring demonstrations of farming practices and introducing new agricultural products. Through the years, carnival rides, colorful games, and indulgent foods joined the mix and became a staple...

This spring, 10 baby possums arrived by cardboard box to a newly opened wildlife rescue center in Johns Creek. The now nine-week-old joeys had been in their mother’s marsupium when she was killed by a car. Here, state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator Jess Legato gives one of them water with a syringe.

In 2022, when he and his business partners opened the Mexican restaurant El Valle in Midtown, Luis Damian was clear on what he didn’t want for the space: “I didn’t want to open another tequila bar with a theme of sombreros, skeletons, and mariachi that Americans think of when they picture Mexico.”

University spirit permeates this college town. A massive tiger paw dominates the main square downtown, sidewalks are adorned with diamond plaques honoring former star athletes and coaches (look for Charles Barkley and Bo Jackson),...

Atlanta’s long-neglected subterranean corridor is having yet another renaissance, this time as a DIY arts destination. But as redevelopment looms, the creative community wonders: how long can it last?

Little Sparrow will officially open in the former JCT space on October 2. Inspired by Parisian bistros and old Brooklyn neighborhood taverns, it will be an American brasserie serving simple fare using premium ingredients and classic techniques.

When interior designer Amber Guyton first visited Shanelle Walker’s Grove Park home, she noticed lots of art propped up against the walls—but that didn’t surprise her. “My client, Shanelle, is a woman of many talents,” says Guyton. Walker is a freelancer in Atlanta’s booming TV/movie industry and owner of the local apparel line Freedom Company, a brand “rooted in Black Empowerment and Love.” She’s also a writer, an activist, and a podcaster. Guyton says, “Her home is the core of all this creativity. She wanted it to be a place where ‘Dreams Don’t Sleep.’”

Tayari Jones—author, professor, and griot of the American South—has a lot on her plate. She teaches a creative writing class at Emory University, she has book blurbs due and forewords to file, and she has words in a just-released craft book, How We Do It, where her Emory colleague Jericho Brown gathered Black writers to explain “how they go about making what they make.” “I know I have a novel,” Jones writes, “when I have a question to which I don’t know the moral/ethical answer.” She is also putting the finishing touches on her fifth and forthcoming novel, Old Fourth Ward, which is set squarely in Black Atlanta’s centers of gravity: the historic neighborhood adjacent to downtown Atlanta (and the book’s namesake) and Cascade Heights (her old stomping grounds).

A roundup of independent bookstores, essential books that explain today’s Atlanta, and book events.

How several Atlantans build community through storytelling and literature, including YATL's Kimberly Jones and Vania Stoyanova, A Cappella's Frank Reiss, Charis's E.R. Anderson, and more.