From The Wall Street Journal to Vanity Fair, best-selling author Emily Giffin (’94) is making news in 2011. The February issue of Vanity Fair shines its spotlight on Atlanta’s “literary sorority” in the article “Belles, Books, and Candor” by Alan Deutschman.

For the photo shoot, Giffin posed with eight other female writers — all in formal gowns — on the front lawn of the Atlanta History Center’s Swan House. Writes Deutschman, “Typically, these women left the South in their 20s, heading for New York, Chicago, or San Francisco. But in time they came home. And they’re now turning Atlanta into the most vibrant new literary scene outside of Brooklyn.”

Giffin’s stops were in London and Manhattan. Her debut novel titled “Something Borrowed” made The New York Times bestseller list in 2004. Her fifth and most recent novel, “Heart of the Matter,” was released last summer. This WFU graduate, with her double major in history and English, won a lofty compliment from Deutschman, who called her “Atlanta’s modern-day Jane Austen.” In Giffin’s company at Swan House were Kathryn Stockett (“The Help” ), Sheri Joseph, Susan Rebecca White, Karin Slaughter, Amanda Gable, Joshilyn Jackson, Natasha Trethewey and Jessica Handler.

Giffin also got a mention in The Wall Street Journal this month in an article about how authors move their own merchandise through such promotions as iPod giveaways and raffles on social networks. “Last year, to show support for a less-established colleague she admired, best-selling chick-lit author Emily Giffin used her blog to offer a signed copy of one of her own books to anyone who, over a 24-hour period, bought a copy of the novel ‘Pieces of Happily Ever After’ by Irene Zutell and provided a receipt,” according the Journal. Zutell’s agent told Journal reporter Joanne Kaufman that the gesture made the book a bestseller on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.