Biographical note:

For over 40 years, Southern Living magazine has delivered definitive Southern food, decorating, gardening, and entertaining ideas to its readers, making it one of the most trusted sources in the country. It reaches more than 16 million readers monthly. Readers use it, keep it, live by it.

Writer Tanner Lathem spent 10 years as a Travel editor at Southern Living magazine. He covered the entire South and told the region's stories through its food, destinations, and characters. Since then, he has worked as a freelance writer and multimedia storyteller, contributing sound- and motion-rich stories to NPR, Southern Living, Coastal Living, Preservation, and Cooking With Paula Deen, among other outlets. Tanner is currently producing a podcast - The Authentic South -- that explores the culture of the South through food, art, music, the landscape, quirky characters and big personalities.

Spokesperson Kimberly Schlegel Whitman is a veteran of the CMT Awards, having represented Southern Living for the past three years. Kim is a TV host, author, radio personality, public speaker, blogger, and social media expert. She has represented several previous Southern Living books in national media.