Southern Writers Directory 

ALABAMA

1.Tom Franklin

Books: Hell at the Breech, Poachers

Born in Dickinson, Alabama, near setting of his novel Hell at the Breech

Lives in Oxford, Miss., with wife, poet Beth-Ann Fennelly

2. Vicki Covington

Books: Bird of Paradise, Gathering Home, Night Ride Home, The Last Hotel for Women

Born in Birmingham, Alabama

Lives in Birmingham with her husband, Dennis Covington, writer of nonfiction and young adult novels

3. Cassandra King

Books: The Sunday Wife, Making Waves in Zion

Born in Alabama

Lives in South Carolina with her husband, best-selling novelist Pat Conroy

4. Elizabeth Dewberry

Books: Many Things Have Happened Since He Died, Break the Heart of Me, Sacrament of Lies

Novelist and playwright

Born and raised in Birmingham

Lives in Florida with her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Olen Butler

5. Michael Knight

Books: Divining Rod, Goodnight, Nobody, Dogfight & Other Stories

Born in Mobile, Alabama

Teaches writing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

6. Mark Childress

Books: A World Made of Fire, V For Victor, Tender, Crazy in Alabama, Gone for Good

Born in Monroeville, Alabama

7. Mary Ward Brown

Books: It Wasn't All Dancing, Tongues of Flames

Born in Hamburg, Alabama

Lives in Browns, Alabama

8. Sena Jeter Naslund

Books: Ahab's Wife, Sherlock in Love, Four Spirits, The Disobediance of Water

Born in Birmingham

Teaches at the University of Louisville,

9. Suzanne Hudson

Books: In a Temple of Trees, Opposable Thumbs

Born in Brewton, Ala.

Lives in Alabama

FLORIDA

1. Padgett Powell

Books: Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men, Edisto, A Woman Named Drown, Edisto Revisted, Typical

Born in Gainesville, Florida

Teaches writing at the University of Florida

2. Scott Morris

Books: Waiting for April, The Total View of Taftly

Born in Jacksonville, Florida

Lives in Oxford, Miss., teaches at Ole Miss

3. Connie May Fowler

Books: Before Women Had Wings, Remembering Blue, River of Hidden Dreams, Sugar Cage

Raised in St. Augustine, Florida

GEORGIA

1. Mary Hood

Books: How Far She Went, Familiar Heat, And Venus is Blue

Born in Brunswick, Ga.

She lives in Jackson County, Ga.

2. Philip Lee Williams

Books: The Heart of a Distant Forest, The True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorsett, The Song of Daniel, Perfect Timing

Born in Madison, Ga.

Lives in Watkinsville, Ga. Teaches writing at University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

3. Shay Youngblood

Books: Soul Kiss, Black Girl in Paris, The Big Mama Stories

Born in Columbus, Ga.

4. Terry Kay

Books: The Year the Lights Came On, After Eli, To Dance with the White Dog, Taking Lottie Home, The Valley of Light

Born in Vanna, Ga.

Lives in Athens, Ga.

5. Tina McElroy Ansa

Books: You Know Better, The Hand I Fan With, Ugly Ways, Baby of the Family

Born in Macon, Ga.

Lives on St. Simons Island, Ga.

6. Augusta Trobaugh

Books: Swan Place, Sophie and the Rising Sun, Resting in the Bosom of the Lamb, Praise Jerusalem!

Born in Atlanta, Ga.

Lives in Athens, Ga.

7. Janice Daugharty

Books: Earl in the Yellow Shirt, Pawpaw Patch, Necessary Lies, Dark of the Moon, Whistle

Born outside Valdosta, Ga.

Lives in Echols County, Ga

8. Harry Crews

Books: A Feast of Snakes, Celebration, Karate is a Thing of the Spirit, Blood and Grits, Scar Lover

Born in Alma, Georgia

Lives in Gainseville, Florida

KENTUCKY

1. Chris Offutt

Books: The Good Brother: A Novel, Kentucky Straight,

Out of the Woods

Grew up in Haldeman, Ky.

2. Dwight Allen

Books: The Green Suit, Judge

Born in Louisville, Ky.

Lives in Madison, Wisconsin

3. Silas House

Books: Clay's Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, Coal Tattoo (forthcoming)

Born in Lily, Ky.

Lives in Lily, Ky.

4. Wendell Berry

Books: Nathan Coulter, A World Lost, Remembering, The Memory of Old Jack, Jayber Crow

Born in Newcastle, Ky.

Lives in Port Royal, Ky.

5. Crystal Wilkinson

Books: Water Street, Blackberries, Blackberries

Raised in Indian Creek, Ky.

Lives in Lexington, Ky.

LOUISIANA

1. James Wilcox

Books: Modern Baptists, Sort of Rich, Polite Sex, Plain and Normal, Heavenly Days

Born in Hammond, La.

Directs creative writing program at Louisiana State University

2. John Ed Bradley

Books: Restoration, Tupelo Nights, My Juliet, Love and Obits, Smoke

Born in Opelousas

Lives in New Orleans

3. John Gregory Brown

Books: Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, Audubon's Watch, The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur

Born in: New Orleans

Lives in Virginia with wife, novelist Carrie Brown, teaches writing at Sweet Briar College

4. Mark Richard

Books: Fishboy, Charity, The Ice at the Bottom of the World

Born in Lake Charles, La.

Lives in California

5. Olympia Vernon

Books: Eden, Logic

Born in Louisiana-Miss. Border town

Lives in Louisiana

6. Patty Friedmann

Books: Eleanor Rushing, The Exact Image of Mother, Secondhand Smoke

Born in New Orleans

Lives in New Orleans

7. Tim Gautreaux

Books: The Clearing, Next Step in the Dance, Welding with Children, Same Place, Same Things

Born in Morgan City, La.

Lives in Hammond, La.

8. Valerie Martin

Books: Property, A Recent Martyr, The Great Divorce, Alexandra

Grew up in New Orleans

Lives in New York

9. Louis Edwards

Books: Ten Seconds, N: A Romantic Mystery, Oscar Wilde Discovers America

Grew up in Lake Charles, La.

Lives in New Orleans, La.

MISSISSIPPI

1. Brad Watson

Books: The Heaven of Mercury, Last Days of the Dog-Men

Born in Meridian, Miss.

Lives in Pensacola, Fla.

2. Bev Marshall

Books: Right as Rain, Walking Through Shadows

Born in McComb, Miss.

Lives in Ponchatoula, Louisiana

3. Barry Hannah

Books: Never Die, Boomerang, Hey, Jack!, Captain Maximus, Ray, Airships, High Lonesome

Born in Clinton, Miss.

Lives in Oxford, teaches writing at Ole Miss

4. Elizabeth Spencer

Books: Fire in the Morning, The Snare, The Salt Line, The Night Travellers, On the Gulf , The Voice at the Back Door

Born in Carrollton, Miss.

Lives in Chapel Hill, NC

5. Ellen Douglas

Books: Can't Quit You, Baby, A Lifetime Burning, Apostles of Light

Born in Natchez, Miss.

Lives in Jackson, Miss.

6. Ellen Gilchrist

Books: The Annunciation, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, Victory Over Japan

Born in Vicksburg, Miss.

Lives in Fayetteville, Ark. and Ocean Springs, Miss.

7. Larry Brown

Books: Fay, Father and Son, Joe, Dirty Work, Big Bad Love

Born in Oxford, Miss.

Lives near Oxford, Miss.

8. Lewis Nordan

Books: Lightning Song, The Sharpshooter Blues, Wolf Whistle, Music of the Swamp

Born in Forest, Miss.

Teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh

9. Steve Yarbrough

Books: Visible Spirits, The Oxygen Man, Veneer, Mississippi History

Born in Indianola, Miss.

Lives in Fresno, Calif., teaches writing at California State University, Fresno

NORTH CAROLINA

1. Clyde Edgerton

Books: Raney, Walking Across Egypt, The Floatplane Notebooks, Killer Diller, In Memory of Junior, Redeye, Where Trouble Sleeps

Born in Durham, NC

Lives in Orange County, NC

2. David Payne

Books: Ruin Creek, Gravesend Light, Early From the Dance, Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street

Born in Henderson, NC

Lives in Hillsborough, NC

3. Fred Chappell

Books: I Am One of You Forever, Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You, Brighten the Corner Where You Are, Look Back All the Green Valley

Born in Canton, NC

Lives in Greensboro, NC

Teaches at the University of North Carolina

4. Jim Grimsley

Books: Boulevard, Winter Birds, Dream Boy, My Drowning, Comfort and Joy

Born in Rocky Mount, NC

Lives in Atlanta

5. John Holman

Books: Luminous Mysteries, Squabble

Born in Durham, NC

Lives in Atlanta, Ga.

Teaches writing at Georgia State University

6. Michael Malone

Books: The Last Noel, Handling Sin, Foolscap: Or, the Stages of Love, Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Twelve Stories of Southern Women

Born in Durham, NC

Lives in Hillsborough, NC

7. Nancy Peacock

Books: Life Without Water, Home Across the Road

Born in Wilmington, Del., Raised in North Carolina and Alabama

Lives in Pittsboro, NC

8. Pamela Duncan

Books: Moon Women, Plant Life

Born in Asheville, NC

Lives in Graham, NC

9. Ron Rash

Books: One Foot in Eden, Raising the Dead, Casualties, Saints at the River (forthcoming)

Grew up in Boiling Springs, NC

Lives in South Carolina, teaches at Western Carolina University

10. T. R. Pearson

Books: True Cross, Polar, A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me a River, Off for the Sweet Hereafter

Born in Winston-Salem, NC

Lives in Virginia and New York

11. Tony Earley

Books: Jim the Boy, Here We Are in Paradise

Born in San Antonio, Texas, grew up in North Carolina

Lives in Nashville, Tenn. Teaches writing at Vanderbilt

12. Randall Kenan

Books: A Visitation of Spirits, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead

Born in Brooklyn, NY. Grew up in Chinquapin, North Carolina

SOUTH CAROLINA

1. Dorothy Allison

Books: Bastard Out of Carolina, Cavedweller, Trash

Born in Greenville, SC

2. George Singleton

Books: These People Are Us, The Half-Mammals of Dixie

Raised near Ninety Six, South Carolina

Lives in Pickens County, South Carolina

3. Josephine Humphreys

Books: Nowhere Else on Earth, Dreams of Sleep, Rich in Love,The Fireman's Fair

Born in Charleston, SC

Lives in Charleston, SC

4. Pam Durban

Books: All Set About with Fever Trees, The Laughing Place, So Far Back

Born in Aiken, SC

Lives in Chapel Hill

Teaches writing at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

TENNESSEE

1. William Gay

Books: The Long Home, Provinces of Night

Born in Hohenwald, Tenn.

Lives in Hohenwald, Tenn.

2. Madison Jones

Books: The Innocent, Nashville, 1864: The Dying of the Light, Herod's Wife, To the Winds, A Cry of Absence, Last Things

Born in Nashville, Tenn.

Lives in Alabama

VIRGINIA

1. Anthony Grooms

Books: Bombingham, Trouble No More

Born in Charlottesville, Va.

Lives in Atlanta, Ga.

Teaches at Kennesaw State University

2. Lee Smith

Books: The Last Girls, Oral History, Black Mountain Breakdown, Fair and Tender Ladies, The Christmas Letters

Born in Grundy, Va.

Lives in Hillsborough, NC

WEST VIRGINIA

1. Pinckney Benedict

Books: Dogs of God, Town Smokes, The Wrecking Yard

Born in Lewisburg, West Virginia

2. Denise Giardina

Books: Storming Heaven, The Unquiet Earth

Born in Bluefield, West Virginia

Lives in Charleston, West Virginia