S.J. Parris
S.J. Parris writes about her inspiration for Heresy, which masterfully blends true events with fiction into a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
Adam Haslett
A conversation with Adam Haslett, author of Union Atlantic, a deeply affecting portrait of the modern gilded age, the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Born in Macon, Georgia, to Mac Hyman and Gwendolyn Holt Hyman, Gwyn grew up
in south Georgia in the small town of Cordele, not far from Plains. Her father
was a writer himself and published the bestseller No Time for Sergeants
in 1954 when he was only 31 years old. It was turned into a popular play and
film, starring Andy Griffith.
Upon graduating from Florida State University with a B.A. in English, Gwyn
joined the Peace Corps serving in Costa Rica and working as a preschool program
coordinator and teacher in a village, without running water or electricity, near
the Panamanian border. She married her husband, Angel, also a volunteer, six
months after her arrival. They have been married now for 30 years.
Gwyn’s youth was spent frantically running from her father’s vocation--seeking
any other occupation--because she felt the stress of writing had precipitated
his early death of a heart attack at the age of 39. Throughout the 1970s, one
job followed another until the couple wound up in 1980 in Berea, Kentucky.
In 1983 Gwyn could not longer run away from writing, from the realization that
this was what she was meant to do. Therefore, she applied and was accepted into
the MFA Program for Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.
Not until her graduation in 1986 did she dedicate herself completely to writing.
Gwyn’s collection of short stories, Sharing Power, was nominated for a
Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award. Her short fiction has been published and
anthologized around the country. Her short story “Little Saint” received the
Cecil Hackney Literary Award for first prize in the National Short Story
Competition and later appeared in Prairie Schooner. She has received grants from
the Kentucky Arts Council and from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. In July,
1998, her first novel was published by Viking/Penguin. Highlighted in Time
Magazine by Barnes & Noble, Icy Sparks was one of several novels chosen
to represent “The Next Wave of Great Literary Voices” in the Discover Great New
Writers program.
Gwyn and her husband have lived in Kentucky for over 20 years. Most of the time,
they have lived in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in the small town
of Berea. In 2001 they moved to Versailles, Kentucky. In 2005, Gwyn's second novel, The Woodsman's Daughter, was published.
This biography was last updated on 08/10/2007.
A note about the biographies
We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate. However, with over 1,500 lives to keep track of it's inevitable that
some won't be as current or as complete as we would like. So, please help us - if the information about a particular author is out of date,
inaccurate or simply very short, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors and those connected with authors:
If you wish to make changes to your bio, please send your complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we replace the old with the new.
Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
What drives a man to stay in a marriage, in a job? What forces him away? Is love or conscience enough to overcome the darker, stronger urges of the natural world? The Unnamed is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.
Someone gives you a dangerous puzzle to solve, one that may kill you or someone else, and you're about to fail... And there is no other option. No one who can help. No one but the Bricklayer.
The tragedy, the sorrow, the loss, is almost too much for me to recommend this; on the other hand Mistry made me believe I knew these characters. I ...
read more
The challenge of writing a biography on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is that everyone knows the basic plot: a love of horses, suffered from her ...
read more
I can't quite understand the one bad review, as this is absolutely one of the best books I've read lately...and I've read plenty of good books. The ...
read more
Samsung introduces eReader(Mar 10 2010) Yesterday, Samsung announced the Samsung eReader, a $299 device which allows you to take notes in the margins and share content with other Samsung eReaders....
Full Story
Books overtake games as most numerous iPhone apps(Mar 10 2010) The electronic book passed another milestone this month, with the number of books available on the iTunes App Store passing the number of games for the first...
Full Story
RSS feed
