• Tim Burton was celebrated for several days by Wetumpka, Ala., a town known for its connection to the director's 2003 movie "Big Fish." A screening of the fantasy flick was set for Saturday in Wetumpka, where the movie starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Helena Bonham and Jessica Lange was largely filmed. Festivities began with a cake marking Burton's 63rd birthday, and there were trivia and character tie-ins around town. Burton's decision to film "Big Fish" in Wetumpka has been credited with a resurgence that included the town being featured on the HGTV show "Home Town Takeover." The publicity has helped bring new life and tourists to the town of 8,200 people, which sits along the Coosa River north of Montgomery. "Big Fish" tells the story of a man's quest to sort out the fact and fiction of stories told by his father. Wetumpka was the setting for the town of Ashton. The movie also was filmed at Jackson Lake Island in Millbrook, where part of the set created for the fictional town of Spectre still stands. Burton has directed or produced nearly 70 films including "Batman," "Batman Forever," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Beetlejuice."
• Honoree Fanonne Jeffers' debut novel, "The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois," is now an Oprah Winfrey book club pick. Published last week, Jeffers' novel traces centuries of Black history through a family in the American South and its contemporary narrator, young Ailey Paul Garfield. Named for the canonical Black scholar and activist, the book has received praise from Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson and Stephanie Powell Watts, among others. "I was so enraptured by the story of this modern Black family, and how author Honoree Fanonne Jeffers wove the larger fabric of historical trauma through the family's silence through generations," Winfrey said. "It's a combination of historical and modern and it consumed me. I look forward to discussing with our community of readers and speaking with Honoree herself to discuss the themes that run throughout this special novel." Jeffers, 54, is already an acclaimed poet whose "The Age of Phillis" was on the long list for a National Book Award last year. A professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, she has championed stories and achievements of Black women, including Winfrey. "I first encountered the beauty, brilliance, and empathy of Ms. Oprah Winfrey from afar, by watching her talk show on my television in the 1980s," Jeffers said. "She made me believe that so many great things were possible for a young, African American woman like me. That I could do anything if I just set my hands, mind, and spirit to the task. As a creative writer, it was my secret dream that I would one day write a book that this 'phenomenal woman' -- to quote from the great poet, Dr. Maya Angelou -- would read, enjoy, and present to the members of her book club."