FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Page & Palette, 32 S. Section St. in Fairhope, will host poet P.T. Paul today for an author signing. From 2–4 p.m., she will sign her book “To Live & Write in Dixie.”

What does it mean to be a Southerner? Is it about where you were born or where you live? Is it about how you perceive yourself or how others perceive you?

This is the question Paul attempts to answer in the book. It is a hybrid of poetry and prose that considers the South and Southern-ness in both historical and contemporary terms.

Frye Gaillard, in his foreword, calls it “a thoughtful body of work, soaring in places, earthy in others, touching the heart and soul of the South.”

John Egerton refers to it as “a winning mixture of poetry and prose” in which answers emerge “from the bits and pieces of her (the author’s) own life, and from the long and painful history of her place.”

In “To Live & Write in Dixie,” Paul considers the people, places and events — local and national — that formed and inform her life.

As Jonathan Daniels, former Raleigh newspaper editor, states in the article “Pop Culture, Y’all Come: Exhibit Focuses on Southern Stereotypes,” (Leigh Dyer, McClatchy Newspapers, Sept. 20, 2007), “We Southerners are a mythological people created half out of dream and half out of slander.”

In the book, Paul attempts to separate the myths from history, the dreams from reality and the slander from personal experience.

Born and raised in Whistler, just north of Mobile, Paul received her bachelor of arts in English from the University of Montevallo in 2007, and her master of arts in creative writing from the University of South Alabama in 2009.

She is president of the Pensters Writing Group (celebrating its 45th year on the Eastern Shore), is a member of the International English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta and is Eastern Shore coordinator for Region One Coordinator Dr. Sue Brannon Walker with the Poetry Out Loud program for high school students.

Page & Palette will then host author Flossie Phelps Allen on Tuesday, June 15, from 4 until 6 p.m. She will sign her book, “The Ladder of Life.”

A Texas native, the author tells the gripping true story of her journey of courage, endurance and triumph.

The daughter of a sharecropper and the granddaughter of a slave, Allen has mesmerized and inspired many an audience with her original inspirational genius of “An African Woman.”

As an award-winning speaker and storyteller for Toastmasters, International and a member of the Oasis Senior Drama Ensemble, Allen has graced the stage before hundreds, as a writer and producer with her stage play, “The Liberty Banner.”

Allen is an active member of the Sister’s Breast Cancer Network, an organization dedicated to supporting women coping with breast cancer. She promotes the organization by speaking to women’s groups about breast cancer awareness and the importance of early detection.

She has practiced Religious Science for more than 30 years, and is well-known throughout the community for her many talents and giving spirit.

Allen, a retired nurse and dedicated caregiver, has been married to her husband, Jonathan, for 45 years. They are the proud parents of two adult children and the grandparents of three.

She resides in Los Angeles with her family, where she is busy writing her second book.

For more information, call (251) 928-5295.