Sunday, April 29, 2007

Georgia Writers!

Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)
Born in Savannah, GA
House of Dust (1920)
Won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1930)

Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987)
Born in Moreland, GA
Tobacco Road (1932)
God's Little Acre (1933)
Georgia Boy (1943)
The Last Night of Summer (1963)
Deep South (1968) travel writing
With All My Might (1987) autobiography

Pat Conroy (1945- )
Born in Atlanta, GA
The Great Santini (1976)
The Lords of Discipline (1980)
The Prince of Tides (1986)
Beach Music (1995)
My Losing Season (2002) memoir

Harry Crews (1935- )
Born in Bacon County, GA
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place (1978) memoir

James Dickey (1923-1997)
Born in Atlanta, GA
Deliverance (1970)

Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)
Born in Eatonton, GA
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881)

Joshilyn Jackson
Graduated with honors from Georgia State
gods in Alabama (2004)
Between Georgia (2006)

Sue Monk Kidd (1948- )
Grew up in Southwest Georgia
The Secret Life of Bees (2002)
The Mermaid Chair (2005)

John Oliver Killens (1916-1987)
Born in Macon, GA
Youngblood (1956)
And Then We Heard the Thunder (1963)
Black Man's Burden (1965)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
Born in Atlanta, GA
The Measure of a Man (1959)

Sidney Lanier (1842-1881)
Born in Macon, Ga
Poems (1877)

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870)
Born in Augusta, GA
Georgia Scenes (1957)

Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
Born in Columbus, GA
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941)
The Member of the Wedding (1946)
Clock Without Hands (1961)

Caroline Miller (1903-1992)
Born in Waycross, GA
Lamb in His Bosom (1933)
Won Pulitzer Prize (1934)

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)
Born in Atlanta, GA
Gone with the Wind (1936)
Won Pulitzer Prize (1937)

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)
Born in Savannah, GA
Wise Blood (1952)
The Life You Save May Be Your Own (1953)
A Good Man Is Hard To Find (1955)
The Violent Bear It Away (1960)
Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965)

Byron Herbert Reece (1917-1958) Poet
Born near Blairsville, GA

Ferrol Sams (1922- )
Born in Fayette County, GA
Run with the Horsemen (1982)
When All the World was Young (1991)
The Whisper of the River (1984)

Cynthia Shearer (1955- )
Raised in Alapaha, GA
The Wonder Book of the Air (1996)
The Celestial Jukebox (2005)

Celestine Sibley (1914-1999)
Atlanta reporter (1941-1999)
The Malignant Heart (1957)
Peachtree Street, U.S.A. (1963)
Dear Store (1967)
A Place Called Sweet Apple (1967)
Turned Funny (1988)

Anne Rivers Siddons (1936- )
Born in Atlanta, GA
Peachtree Road (1988)
Kings Oak (1990)
Outerbanks (1991)
Colony (1992)
Low Country (1993)
Downtown (1994)
Faultlines (1995)
Up Island (1997)
Nora, Nora (2000)
Islands (2004)
Sweetwater Creek (2005)

Lillian Smith (1897-1966)
Born in Florida, died in Atlanta, GA
Strange Fruit (1944)

Alice Walker (1944)
Born in Eatonton, GA
The Color Purple (1982)
Pulitzer Prize in 1983
The Temple of My Familiar (1989)

Bailey White (1950- )
Born in Thomasville, GA
Mama Makes Up Her Mind (1994)
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel (1996)
Quite a Year for Plums (1999)

15 comments:

jenclair said...

I've always enjoyed Aiken's poetry, but wasn't aware that he had won the Pulitzer. Since Tobacco Road is a byword in the South, I probably should make the effort to read it! And Baily White! I used to love listening to her essays on NPR. The only one I've actually read was Sleeping at the Starlight Motel, but I'm putting Mama Makes Up Her Mind on my list.

Tiffany Norris said...

You're making it waaay too hard to choose! Just kidding...I'm loving the lists.
I did have a question, though. Would Mockingbird by Charles Shields count? He lives in Virginia, but I'm not sure if he's a native Southerner. Any thoughts?

Tiffany Todd said...

How neat! I love that you are doing this!!! :)

maggie moran said...

Please, if you guys see someone I have missed, shout out!

Mockingbird would be just fine, Tiffany. It's all about our favorite book, right?!

Psst, I think Tobacco Road is on my list, too. Tobacco put me through college!

Isabel said...

Are you setting up a comprehensive list?

maggie moran said...

I'm trying to get as many in as possible, WW100. Do you have any suggestions?

Unknown said...

Just a reminder the scavenger hunt starts in the morning over at Amys Random THoughts at www.amychristopher.blogspot.com


NOticed the post below..I went to school in Jackson Tn

Mo said...

how about Virginia Lanier? I don't know if she was born in Ga., but she lived near Valdosta, and her Bloodhound series is set in the Okefenokee. A great little cozy mystery series, too. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2003, so there will be no more to come.

Anonymous said...

Maggie,
My reading list is getting longer, and longer (thanks in part to your great suggestions)! In fact, I started my summer reading challenge books last month - just could not wait! ha! Guess I will have to get a few more!

Anonymous said...

Love Alice Walker!

Some Video Book Reviews for you!

maggie moran said...

Mo, good catch! Her HarperCollins bio said she lived on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in GA. I'll add her. ;)

ricklibrarian said...

I want to reread Bailey White, who is so funny.

maggie moran said...

Hey Rick, why not do the Southern Reading Challenge which requires three books by southern author(s)? You could do three by Mrs. White.

Ray Bridges said...

I think Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides is just about the greatest Southern novel ever written. (I have hated Barbra Streisand ever since she made the movie using the book's title.) By the time the his next book came along, Beachmusic? or something like that, I thought Pat should have started talking about something else besides the high school he went to and the clique he ran with.

What's he been doing lately?

Do you consider Southern playwrights in the same category as authors? Here we are 2008, and there are a few new cultures mixing into our idea of Southern.

Take Tony Kushner, for example, a Lake Charles, Louisiana boy. His Angels in America has to be one of the most important pieces ever put on stage and television. Can you get more Southern than Lake Charles?

There's also Joel Derfner, the cutest little feller from Charleston, South Carolina. He has a couple of books out: Gay Haiku, My Quest to be the Gayest Person Ever, due out this next week.

I don't mean to jijack your post or your blog, I have my own blog where I rant and rave about anything I want. I noticed you came by my place and was just curious enough to see who you are.

Thanks for visiting, and I've bookmarked you so I can come back and visit again.

Cheers.

Houston Bridges

maggie moran said...

Hi Houston,

Thanks for stopping by and pointing out my omissions. I started this last year and plan on doing more for this year's challenge.

Yes, I think playwrights are worthy reads and I advocated TN Wms last year. I haven't done a list for Louisiana, yet. Mr. Kushner will be included thanks to your post. I loved the HBO movie.

Houston, have you read Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums? Not a play, but a memoir of growing up gay in Mississippi.

I'm not sure if you have heard of Stark Young. He was born in Como, MS and became rather famous in the 20s/30s as playwrright, author, and critic. He and his partner now reside in the Como's Friendship Cemetery.

We have assets other than Faulkner in Mississippi, too. ;D