Georgia Author of the Year Speaks In Athens

Even when he was writing stilted briefs about securities transactions, Grady Thrasher wrote poetry. Nothing serious, no J. Alfred Prufrock, just light verse, with rhythm and rhyme suitable for children. Just something that let him imagine he was back at his grandmother’s house on Hancock Avenue, turning dirt in the vegetable garden.

After 40 years of working in corporate finance—including a stint with the SEC in Washington—he retired from his law firm. He said good-bye to the stop-and-go-and-stop-stop-stop traffic of metro Atlanta, and in 2001 he moved to a small farm he had brought years before in Oconee County. It was close to where his people had lived in the 19th century, when Clarke included all of Oconee County.

A longtime friend, writer Terry Kay, took Grady to a party one evening, at which he met artist Kathy Prescott. She had worked as a food stylist in Miami before moving back to Athens. They married, and began splitting their time between a house in Athens and the farm off Highway 15 in Oconee.

At last, Grady had time to write the light verse for children he had always enjoyed. He decided to focus on something near and dear to his heart: his gardening grandmother. He wanted to tell children—including his four grandchildren—how one plants, tends and enjoys a vegetable garden. The lessons would be easy to handle, because they would be in rhymes, and would tell the story of two children, Tim and Sally, along with their parents and their dog, Flip.

Athens friend Bonnie Ramsey suggested Grady ask artist Elaine Rabon to do the illustrations. They worked well together. In 2007, Tim and Sally’s Vegetable Garden was published, first to great local and, then, to regional acclaim.

It was followed by Tim and Sally’s Beach Adventure, which is based on Grady’s childhood memories of riding from North Georgia to the Florida Panhandle for a seaside vacation. On a book promotion tour in Florida, they learned that Tim and Sally’s Vegetable Garden had gotten Grady named the 2008 Georgia Author of the Year for Children’s Picture Books.

“I was blown away by it,” he says. “We had been gone for a few weeks, and didn’t even know I had even been nominated.”
This year saw the publication of Tim and Sally’s Year in Poems, and another honor for Grady, named the 2011 Georgia Author of the Year for Children’s Picture Books.

“I like knowing kids have enjoyed my books,” he says.

His current project isn’t targeted at children. Working with digital designer Matt DeGennaro, Grady and Kathy are creating a documentary about Grady’s high-flying father and uncles, who for years operated Thrasher Brothers Aerial Circus out of Elberton. But that’s another story. (To see a trailer for the film, click here.)

This afternoon at 4:30, Grady Thrasher will join Pat Priest and the participants in the at the Athens Land Trust headquarters on Pope Street.

“I don’t really know what to expect, or what I will say,” Grady says. “I’m one of the few humans who admits we’re part of nature. It’s a conceit that we are any more special than any other creature on earth.”