MONROEVILLE, Ala. - When Wayne Flynt, acclaimed Auburn University history professor and champion of the poor in Alabama, rose from his seat in the Old Courthouse in Monroeville – made famous in the climatic courtroom scene of “To Kill a Mockingbird” – and began speaking slowly in his deep voice, it was as though a modern-day Atticus Finch had stepped from the pages of Harper Lee’s book.

Flynt had moderated a panel the day before at the 14th Annual Alabama Writers Symposium, with Wayne Flynt of Montgomery, who has just released his latest nonfiction book, “Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama.”

In that historic courtroom on the last day of the conference, Flynt stood to ask a question of Sena Jeter Naslund, originally of Birmingham, and Roy Hoffman, of Point Clear, about how to make characters come alive in both fiction and nonfiction works, while staying true to their lives and times.

Naslund has written a novel about civil rights set in Alabama, and Hoffman has traveled the state for the Press Register, writing compelling profiles of its famous and not-so-famous residents, which are captured in his recent “Alabama Afternoons: Profiles and Conversations.”

One of Hoffman's stories is about Ms. Johnnie Carr, an important leader of the civil rights movement In Montgomery that began with the bus boycott there.

Sitting a few pews up from Flynt in the two-story courtroom, with its overhanging balcony where Scout watched the trial of an innocent black man, was Frye Gaillard, writer in residence at the University of South Alabama and Mobile native, who returned home several years ago to write “Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America.”

Flynt sat down to listen to Hoffman and Naslund talk about their craft. His own memoir, “Keeping the Faith” comes out in August.

There were many moments like these during the three-day conference this past weekend in the town known as Maycomb in Lee’s iconic novel.

On Friday, Point Clear’s Winston Groom received this year’s Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Alabama Writer.

Groom, while best known for writing “Forrest Gump,” is also a renowned author of history, with his latest, “Kearny’s March: The Epic Creation of the American West 1846-1848,” coming out this fall.

Writers with South Alabama roots such as Tom Franklin, Watt Key, Michael Knight, and others, read from their works and talked about writing during the conference.

The movie version of Key's book "Alabama Moon," based on his experiences as a child in the Point Clear area, recently premiered at the historic Crescent Theatre in downtown Mobile.

The festival began Thursday night, May 5, with Monroeville native and novelist Mark Childress and concluded Saturday with Fairhope writer and editor Sonny Brewer.

Childress' new novel is “Georgia Bottoms,” and Brewer’s latest is an anthology of nonfiction essays, “Don't Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit.”

Several times during the three days, you could hear people wondering whether Harper Lee, who turned 85 last month, might make an appearance at the conference. They knew it was unlikely, they said, but could not help hoping it might happen.

One woman, standing in a group outside the Old Courthouse, said she planned to stop by the place just a few blocks away, where she had been told that you can still look up into a grove of trees and imagine the treehouse where the young Nelle Harper Lee first began writing.

For photos from this year’s Alabama Writers Symposium, visit the Facebook page of Alabama Southern Community College.