Viral Literature: Alone Together in Georgia

Viral Literature: Alone Together in Georgia assembled 32 writers from Georgia's creative community to encounter the COVID-19 pandemic with the best of their art. Inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, a collection of 100 stories told by ten young friends in seclusion from the 14^th-century bubonic plague, this anthology shares fiction and memoir, verse and reflection from some of the best storytellers and poets in the state. Some of the work directly confronts the challenges of the global coronavirus health crisis in 2020, while others do not. But every entry circles the same theme, seen through the lens of observation and the filter of imagination: how we all deal with the isolation and transcendent camaraderie of our shared experience in Georgia, brought into focus by the pandemic of our time. Here, at the intersection of life and art, we may yet find needed perspective and meaning.

Clayton H. Ramsey is a former two-term president and current VP of Contests, Awards & Scholarships of the Atlanta Writers Club (AWC), a community of more than 1,000 writers that was founded in 1914. Collectively, the AWC Board knows that we've all felt many different emotions during this time of pandemic-fear, boredom, helplessness, hopelessness, uncertainty, and they trust this anthology will give readers a chance to laugh and ponder and cry and reflect. Instead of division and hurt, they want to promote creativity and healing. They hope in some small way our part of the commonwealth of writers can help rebuild our corner of the world disrupted by the virus. The proceeds will go to charity, but our highest purpose is giving an opportunity for the constructive power of art to do its work in our distressed lives and society.