Bill Cheng
Bill Cheng
received a BA in creative writing from Baruch College and is a graduate of
Hunter College's MFA program. Born and raised in Queens, he currently
lives in Brooklyn with his wife. Southern Cross the Dog is his first
novel.
Southern Cross the Dog is a stunning debut -- set in the
Mississippi Delta in 1927 and 1941 and teeming with lives of hardship,
music, devilment, love, toil and trouble. I heartily endorse Colum
McCann’s view that 'Cheng proves masterful in his ability to dwell in
another era and place, while still remaining rooted in the landscape of
the human heart. Cheng, almost literally, writes out of his skin.' " (Square Books Dear Reader)
Jeff Shaara
Jeff Shaara is the New York
Times bestselling author of The
Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to
Rebellion, and Gone for
Soldiers, as well as Gods and
Generals and The Last Full
Measure–two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his
father’s Pulitzer Prize—winning classic The Killer Angels. Shaara was born
into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in
Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. After many
years spent in New York City and the mountains of Montana, Jeff has returned to
Florida and resides again in Sarasota.
Bestselling historical novelist turns his formidable
narrative skills to the Siege of Vicksburg in A Chain of Thunder,
bringing to life the battle that was a crucial turning point in the
outcome of the Civil War, and the most important Civil War event in
Mississippi. (Square Books Dear Reader)
Gail Godwin
Gail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published
one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, thirteen novels, three
of which were finalists for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York
Times Bestseller List. She has also published two volumes of her journals
under the title, The Making of a
Writer.
- Godwin was born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. She graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She later attended the University of Iowa, earning her M.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and PhD in English Literature. In 1976, Godwin settled in Woodstock, N.Y., with composer Robert Starer, her companion until his death in April 2001, with whom she wrote ten musical works.
Godwin's body of work has garnered many
honors, including three times being named a National Book Award finalist, a
Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction
and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Flora is a remarkable book that precisely captures a place and a time
(the Smoky Mountains in 1945) and gives us characters that seem as real
to the reader as one's own relatives. Flora is a very special novel
that an immensely talented writer has given us as a crowing achievement
of a distinguished career, and -- I promise -- you are going to want to
tell your friends about this book. (Square Books Dear Reader)
Clyde Edgerton
Clyde Edgerton, raised in the community of Bethesda, near Durham, NC,
has published eight novels and a memoir (Solo,
My Adventures in the Air). Three of his novels have been made into
movies: Raney, Walking Across Egypt, and Killer Diller.
Edgerton’s short stories and essays have been published in New York Times Magazine, Best American Short Stories, Southern Review,
Oxford American, Garden & Gun and
other publications. Edgerton is a musician and has performed with musicians
including Jim Watson, Mike Craver, Jack King, and Matt Kendrick.
Among Edgerton’s awards are: Guggenheim Fellowship; Lyndhurst Prize; Honorary Doctorates from UNC-Asheville and St. Andrews Presbyterian College; membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers; the North Carolina Award for Literature; and five notable book awards from the New York Times.
Edgerton is a professor of Creative Writing in the MFA program at UNC Wilmington. He lives in Wilmington, NC, with his wife, Kristina, and their children.
Papadaddy offers tips that range from allowing 8 hours to install an infant car seat to advice on blocking the image of a teenage daughter riding up in the yard on a Harley, naked. Conveying both caution and joy, Edgerton writes from experience, observation, and his vivid imagination." (Square Books Dear Reader)
John R. Neff
John R. Neff is Associate
Professor of History and Director of The Center for Civil War Research at the
University of Mississippi. He
received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside.
His first book, Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation, appeared in 2005. That year, he was also named the College of Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year, and in 2009 he received the Elsie B. Hood Outstanding Teacher Award. He is currently at work on research into the legacy of the Civil War in Chicago, a project tentatively entitled City of Memory.
Ace Atkins
Ace Atkins is
the New York Times Bestselling
author of more than a dozen novels. A former journalist who cut his teeth as a crime reporter in the
newsroom of The Tampa Tribune,
he published his first novel, Crossroad Blues, at 27 and
became a full-time novelist at 30. Last year, he was selected by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the bestselling adventures of Boston’s iconic
private eye, Spenser.
As a reporter, Ace earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow, which earned raves from noted authors and critics.
Ace lives on a historic farm outside Oxford, Mississippi with his family.
Jack Pendarvis
Jack Pendarvis spent much of his childhood and adult life in Bayou
La Batre, Alabama. He is the
author of one novel and two collections of short stories. He is a columnist
for Oxford American, and The Believer. His work has appeared in
many other publications, including McSweeney’s, The
New York Times, and the 2006 Pushcart Prize anthology. His publications include Awesome, 2008, Your Body is Changing, 2007 and The
Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure, 2005.
He teaches fiction and contemporary literature in the English Department at the University of MS.
Nancy Miller
