Photography by
David G. Spielman
Text by William W. Starr
Foreword by Fred Hobson

A revealing pictorial of the South's leading writers

10 x 10, 160 pages
cloth, ISBN 1-57003-224-6, $24.95t

ABOUT THE BOOK

Through a series of striking photographs Southern Writers affords readers a remarkable opportunity to peer into the personal and professional lives of seventy-two critically and popularly acclaimed writers of the contemporary American South. Unlike many collections of author photographs developed from elaborate photo sessions, the photos assembled in this volume utilize available light, uncomplicated equipment, and a minimum of fuss to present truly authentic portraits of the writers on their native ground.

Working quickly and unobtrusively, David G. Spielman photographed many of the authors in the places where the creative process occurs—their special writing spaces—a "cheap motel room" for Terry Kay; a comfortable, well-furnished den for Anne Rivers Siddons, the Confederate Home in downtown Charleston for Josephine Humphreys, a cramped office for Clyde Edgerton, where he works with his bare feet propped on a book- and paper-strewn coffee table. Others are pictured in the places where they relax: Lee Smith outdoors at her home in Hillborough, North Carolina, James Wilcox in a Manhattan park not far from his writing room and Dori Sanders in the shade of her peach stand. Determined to produce a pictorial as current as it is genuine, Spielman completed all but four of the portraits for the project in just 210 days.

Longtime book critic William W. Starr offers biographical sketches to accompany each photograph. In these short essays he describes the illuminating -- and often amusing -- details of each photo session, the particular writing practices of each author, and intriguing facts that color the lives and careers of these engaging individuals.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

David G. Spielman has worked as a free-lance photographer since 1972. He has traveled throughout the world to photograph political, literary, artistic, and musical figures, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Lord Philip Mountbatten, James Taylor, Richard Nixon, and Gerry Adams. His photographs are held in private collections and museums throughout the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William W. Starr, a native of Atlanta, has been book editor of The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, for more than twenty years. He has interviewed scores of authors, including Robert Penn Warren, Walker Percy, Allen Tate, Saul Bellow, and John Cheever, in addition to the writers featured in this book.

WRITERS FEATURED

Tina McElroy Ansa • William Baldwin • Madison Smartt Bell • Wendell Berry • Doris Betts • Roy Blount, Jr. • Sheila Bosworth • Larry Brown • James Lee Burke • Robert Olen Butler • Will Campbell • Fred Chappell • Pat Conroy • Patricia Cornwell • Harry Crews • Guy Davenport • Elizabeth Dewberry • James Dickey • Ellen Douglas • John Dufresne • Clyde Edgerton • Percival Everett • Shelby Foote • Richard Ford • Connie May Fowler • John Hope Franklin • Ernest J. Gaines • George Garrett • Kaye Gibbons • Gail Godwin • Shirley Ann Grau • Jim Grimsley • Winston Groom • Allan Gurganus • Barry Hannah • Carl Hiaasen • Josephine Humphreys • John Jakes • Robert Jordan • Terry Kay • Bret Lott • Bobbie Ann Mason • Ed McClanahan • Jill McCorkle • Tim McLaurin • Robert Morgan • Willie Morris • Lawrence Naumoff • Lewis Nordan • Padgett Powell • Reynolds Price • Anne Rice • Louis D. Rubin, Jr. • Ferrol Sams • Dori Sanders • Mary Lee Settle • Anne Rivers Siddons • Dave Smith • Julie Smith • Lee Smith • Elizabeth Spencer • Mickey Spillane • John Stone • William Styron • Margaret Walker • Eudora Welty • Michael Lee West • Bailey White • James Wilcox • Miller Williams • Christine Wiltz • C. Vann Woodward

REVIEWS

"A very personable book to look through and savor time and again."—Brad Hooper, Booklist