Marion Barnwell

Marion Barnwell A native of Indianola, Mississippi, Marion Barnwell now lives in Jackson. She has recently retired after a long teaching career at Delta State University as Assistant Professor of English. She is editor of an anthology A Place Called Mississippi (1997), which won a Special Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters in 1998. With Patti Carr Black, she is author of Touring Literary Mississippi (2002). Her short stories have appeared in Tapestry, a faculty journal, and in two collections, Christmas Stories from Mississippi (2001) and On the Way Home (1996).

Carolyn Elkins

Carolyn Elkins Carolyn Elkins is the author of two books of poetry, Daedalus Rising from Emrys Press (2002) and Coriolis Forces, which won the Palanquin Press Chapbook Contest in 2000. Her poem "High Lonesome" won First Place in Red Rock Review�s 2001 poetry contest, and three of her poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She has published over 100 poems in journals in the United States and abroad, including Asheville Poetry Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Chattahoochee Review, Gargoyle, Psychopoetica, Red Rock Review, Tar River Poetry, and American Studies in Denmark. Elkins is the poetry and fiction editor of POMPA, editor of The Best of Poetry Night, and is a founding editor of Ruby Shoes Press. She received a Mississippi Humanities Council teaching award in 1999, the Excellence in Teaching Award at Delta State in 2005, and has taught in the Poets in Person Program sponsored by the NEH and Poetry magazine. Elkins has taught poetry workshops for the Mississippi Community College Creative Writing Association, the Mississippi Literary Competition, the Mississippi Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of Tennessee. She received her B.A. in English from Wells College and the M.A. in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Elkins lives in Cleveland and teaches at Delta State University.

Allyn Mitchell Evans

Allyn Mitchell Evans Allyn Mitchell Evans, author of Grab The Queen Power: Live Your Best Life! is an emerging voice revealing how cultural messages influence women's choices. Evans is founder of QueenPower.com, a dynamic website for women. She lives with her husband and eight-year-old daughter in Oklahoma where she is at work on her next book. A larger Biography of Allyn Mitchell Evans can be found Here.

Bill Fitzhugh

Bill Fitzhugh Bill Fitzhugh is the author of the comic thrillers, Pest Control, and Cross Dressing, now in development at Warner Brothers and Universal Studios respectively. He also wrote the The Organ Grinders, an ode to human organ trafficking. Reviewing Fender Benders, The New York Times said, "Fitzhugh is a strange and deadly amalgam of screenwriter and comic novelist and his facility and wit, and his taste for the perverse, put him in a league with Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard."

Clyde W. Ford

Clyde W. Ford Clyde Ford is a much sought after public speaker with frequent appearances at bookstores, educational institutions, business and professional associations, and civic organizations around the country. He has taught Swahili at Columbia University, African American history at Western Washington University, and, somatic psychology at the Institut f�r Angewandte Kinesiologie in Freiburg, Germany. He was the editor of Leading Edge Bulletin , a monthly newsletter of personal and social transformation, published by Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy (Tarcher, 1980). Ford is an author whose works of nonfiction include, Where Healing Waters Meet, Compassionate Touch, We CAN All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism, and The Hero With an African Face.

MaryBeth Gokee

MaryBeth Gokee MaryBeth Gokee has spent much of her life in Florida; however, through her travels to horse shows across the United States, she developed an interest in "watching people." The Deep South seemed to be calling her name more and more, so she up and moved to Yazoo City, MS to "write about these good folks." Willie Morris-with his endearing stories of the area--was the main reason she moved here. The weddings of Yazoo sort of fell into her lap last summer, when she was amazed at the number of parties that these ladies had! The generosity of the locals intrigued Mary Beth, whom set off on a journey into "BRIDES LAND" for the summer-following brides and taking pictures to beat the band! MaryBeth has been published in many magazines, including Ocala, Delta, Chronicle of the Horse, and Blue Ridge Traditions. Other than her current wedding book, MaryBeth has published an Equine Journal, and is pursuing the publication of her first children�s book, "Cowgal Colbi." MaryBeth has made her living by teaching elementary kids to read and write, but her true passion is listening to locals tell stories. When she isn�t writing, you can find Mary Beth at the barn, with her "pet" horse ITCHY and her two neurotic dogs, Mackenzie and Snaffle. Some of her friends say that if you see her with her pink, legal pad in hand, to WATCHOUT because she�s writing about you.

Carolyn Haines

Carolyn Haines Carolyn Haines is a multi-genre author whose latest works are Kudzu Christmas (a collection of short stories) Judas Burning (Oct. 1, 2005) River City Publishing and Penumbra (February, 2006) St. Martin�s Press. She is the author of Hallowed Bones, Crossed Bones, Splintered Bones, Buried Bones, Them Bones-mysteries all set in the Mississippi Delta. Bones to Pick is set for release July, 2006. Touched and Summer of the Redeemers, two general fiction novels, have been reissued in trade paperback. Her first non-fiction book, My Mother�s Witness: The Peggy Morgan Story (River City), tells the story of a woman who testified against Byron De La Beckwith. Along with Rebecca Barrett, she edited a collection of memories of Mobile author, Eugene Walter, titled Moments with Eugene. Writing under the pseudonym Caroline Burnes, she has written thirty-eight Harlequin Intrigues, many of them featuring Familiar, the black cat detective. The author was awarded a 1998 writing fellowship by the Alabama State Arts Council. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She has published short fiction in journals and magazines. "Miracle Bones" is included in Kudzu Mysteries, a collection of holiday mystery stories released by River City Publishing this fall. Another short story, "The Perfect Tree," was published in a collection, Christmas in the South, by Algonquin in 2004. A founding member of the Deep South Writer�s Salon, she currently teaches fiction at the University of South Alabama. An avid animal lover, she lives on a farm with her husband and numerous cats, dogs, and horses. Haines is a native of Mississippi.

Beth Boswell Jacks

Beth Boswell Jacks A resident of Cleveland for over 55 years, Beth Boswell Jacks is a graduate of Millsaps College and the University of Mississippi. A former teacher in the Cleveland public schools, Jacks writes for children's magazines and literary journals. She has had stories and poems published in Simon & Schuster's Chocolate series and in Delta Magazine, Ladybug, Hopscotch, Devo'Zine, Pockets, Boys' Quest, Story Mates, Story Friends, and a number of others. A weekly personal essay columnist for 15 Southern newspapers, she has also published two books. The first book, Grit, Guts, and Baseball: The Stories of Coach Sank Powe, is a story of sports and race relations in the Mississippi Delta. The second, Snippets, is a collection of 61 of her newspaper columns. Jacks is also the editor of USAdeepsouth.com, a web site she created initially to feature her columns, but which now hosts the stories of more than 100 Southern writers.

Gayden Metcalfe

Gayden Metcalfe A native of Greenville, MS, Gayden Metcalfe is steeped in the traditions and rituals of the Delta. She was born in Greenwood, MS (only because the family doctor there and her mother, Anne Gayden Call, one of the Delta's great conversationalists, could not bear the idea of changing doctors) and grew up in Greenville, where she has risen, as night follows day, from holding down several key offices in Dirt Daubers, a pre-teen Garden Club, to executing various duties in the Greenville chapter of the Garden Club of America. She has served as vice president of the Delta Council, a regional organization devoted to economic development, and as publisher of Delta Wildlife magazine. She is especially proud of having been on the founding board of the Greenville Arts Council and her work as the chairman of the St. James Episcopal Church Bazaar.

Robert S. McElvaine

Robert S. McElvaine A native of New Jersey, Bob McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts and Letters and Chair of the Department of History at Millsaps College, where he has taught for more than thirty years. He is the author of nine books, including Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man"; The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941; Mario Cuomo: A Biography; and Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History (http://evesseed.net). Two of his books have been named among the "Notable Books of the Year" by the New York Times Book Review. Eve�s Seed was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction. He is currently at work on a book on America in the 1960s, Oh Freedom!, which is under contract with W.W. Norton, and is completing a novel and screenplay. McElvaine's articles appear frequently in such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times Book Review, Newsweek and The Nation. He has been a guest on many television and radio programs, including NBC's Today, ABC World News with Peter Jennings, NBC World News Tonight, NPR�s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and BBC television and radio. He has lectured to enthusiastic audiences around the United States and Europe, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and Korea.

Robert Hitt Neill

Robert Hitt Neill Robert Hitt Neill is a native of Brownspur, MS, a plantation community close to Leland, in the Mississippi Delta. Neill farmed with the family farm partnership at Brownspur for 20 years after returning from the service, while writing as a hobby. He formed his own publishing company, Mississippi River Publishing Company (MRP), and in 1986, his first book, The Flaming Turkey, a collection of wild turkey hunting stories, was published. He followed the reprint with a companion volume titled Going Home. He co-authored, with Dr. Jim Baugh, a softcover title, How To Lose Your Farm in Ten Easy Lessons and Cope With It, that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In the spring of 1990, Neill published his first novel, The Jakes, about a group of teenagers in the rural South, which was described by one New York reviewer as, "A modern-day Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn." It was nominated for both the Pulitzer and the Earnest Hemingway Award A collection of animal stories illustrated by artist Fran Drake followed the next summer, titled The Voice of Jupiter Pluvius. Neill's last book was a third companion book to his first two, titled Don�t Fish Under the Dingleberry Tree.

Lewis Perdue

Lewis Perdue Books 'n Blues founder, Greenwood native and New York Times best-selling author Lewis Perdue is 56. Perdue conceived the idea of Books n� Blues while conducting research for his newest book, Perfect Killer, (www.perfectkiller.com) much of which is set in the Delta. Perdue now lives in California's wine country.

Keetha DePriest Reed

Keetha DePriest Reed Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, Keetha DePriest Reed grew up in a family long on get-togethers, reunions, and holidays, all of which involved food and plenty of it. She earned a bachelor�s degree in hospitality management from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her background includes award-winning public relations work and works published in Woman�s Day Best Ideas for Christmas, Mississippi Magazine, The Clarion-Ledger, Delta Magazine, and more.

John Rose

John Rose John Rose was originally born in Meridian, MS, but moved to Greenwood in 1993. He is the author and creator of The MonsterGrrls, a comic fantasy adventure born out of his love for Universal and Hammer Studios' classic monster movies. He has self-published this novel under his own imprint of FrankenGeek Press, and is currently working on both a sequel to the novel and a MonsterGrrls website. His day job is as an art teacher to seventh and eighth grades at Greenwood Middle School, and he has taught in the Greenwood Public Schools for 12 years. He has also done set design, construction work and acted in several plays at Greenwood Little Theatre, and was a GLT board member. He reads omnivorously and collects various classic monster and superhero comics, movies and memorabilia, and is the proud owner of a collection that threatens to overrun his entire house. More information about John and the MonsterGrrls is available at The MonsterShop

Dorothy Shawhan

Dorothy Shawhan Dorothy Shawhan's first novel Lizzie was published by Longstreet Press. She has another, Going to Graceland, currently on a pilgrimage to find a publisher. She has taught at Delta State University since 1981 and is currently Professor of English and Chair of the Division of Languages & Literature there.

Mike Stewart

Mike Stewart Mike Stewart is a native of Greenwood, MS and currently resides in Denton Texas. He has recently completed a Masters of Arts & Sciences degree at the University of North Texas in Medieval European History with an emphasis on Feudal Law. He has published several articles on Medieval History in such special interest magazines as "The Scriptorium" and the national "Imperial Chronicle" as well as the Trinity Historical Review. His work in Fantasy literature and contributions in the RPG industry include authorship of Shadows of the Halfling Hall and Verdant Rage as well as his regular "Auld Wyrmish" column in the "Journal of the Crusader" magazine from Chenault & Grey Publishing. In addition, he has been a contributing author and editor on the various books of the "Castles & Crusades" RPG system from Troll Lord Games. He has also assisted E. Gary Gygax (founder of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG) with contributions and editing of his latest work "Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh volume I".

Dick Waterman

Dick Waterman Dick Waterman's first book, Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive, contains about 100 of his Blues photographs from the Cambridge folk clubs and the Newport Folk Festivals of the 1960s to today. Among the music legends featured in Waterman's photographs and essays are Mississippi John Hurt, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Reverend Gary Davis, Skip James, Junior Wells, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin. Agent, manager, producer, promoter, Waterman is the only person inducted in The Blues Hall of Fame who was not either a performing artist or a record company executive.

Robin Whitfield

Robin Whitfield Robin Whitfield is a professional painter, choosing to work out of doors. With watercolors and oils she studies the seasons, weather, plants, animals and geology of the Mississippi landscape. She received her BFA in painting from Delta State University in 1996, continuing to study with her professor Sammy Britt. She has worked with the Grenada School District as designer and painter for the Walls That Teach interdisciplinary historical mural project through three MAC grants and a National Geographic Society grant. She has worked for three consecutive years as a painting instructor for the BPAC Summer Arts Institute at DSU as well as for the Summer Discovery Program at the Cottonlandia Museum in Greenwood. She has also taught mural painting for the Kaleidoscope Arts Program at the MS Museum of Art in Jackson, MS. She is currently working at Tie Plant Alternative School as a Core Arts instructor for Communities In Schools of Greenwood Leflore Inc.