FAIRHOPE, Ala. - A Harper Lee Award-winning author held a reading at Faulkner State Community College Tuesday to raise guests’ spirits and to raise funds during a benefit for the Alabama Writers’ Forum.

Rick Bragg, author of the books, “Ava’s Man,” “All Over but the Shoutin’,” “The Jessica Lynch Story,” “The Most They Ever Had” and “Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg,” kept approximately 150 attendees smiling and laughing with his innuendos and commentary during the event.

Guests listened to Bragg as he read descriptions of Central Alabama tornadoes in an upcoming “Southern Living” article. They rolled at witty answers to audience questions, lined up to have books signed and perused silent-auction items that included signed books by Carolyn Haines, Albert Murray and Sena Jeter Naslund.

AWF is an organization that teaches writing programs, holds literary events and publishes a literary journal and book reviews, to name a few.

The author praised the forum as a resource for writers.

“Good writers seem to grow from the very dirt here, but often for them to succeed, for their beautiful words to be heard, there had to be an apparatus that aids them, encourages them, gives them a platform or at the very least shines a light on their work,” Bragg said in a quote on the event program. “In our state, the Alabama Writer’s Forum is such a mechanism.”

The forum’s Executive Director Jeanie Thompson spoke of Bragg’s willingness to help the group.

“Rick said, ‘you just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it,’” she said.

Fundraising is necessary because, according to Thompson, the Alabama State Council on the Arts has cut AWF funding by six percent for next year.

She explained after the event that, “just like every other state agency, the Alabama State Council on the Arts was cut 25 percent, therefore grantees such as Alabama Writers’ Forum were cut.”

“In the coming year, we’ll have to do some innovative fundraising,” she said. “This is our first event centered around one writer and with a silent auction.”

Thompson tried to ensure that the group’s efforts didn’t come across as ingratitude.

“It’s not about politics, it’s about shrinking resources,” she said. “We’re thrilled to have what we have from the Arts Council, it’s just the loaves and fishes are about depleted.”