Virtual Conference Author Interviews

Kevin Wilson is the author of two collections, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award, and Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine (Ecco, 2018), and three novels, The Family Fang (Ecco, 2011), Perfect Little World (Ecco, 2017), and Nothing to See Here (Ecco, 2019). His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere, and has appeared in four volumes of the New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best anthology as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He lives in Sewanee, TN, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an associate professor in the English Department at Sewanee: The University of the South.

Appearing courtesy HarperCollins

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels and three books of nonfiction. She has won many prizes, including Britain’s Orange Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She lives in Nashville, TN, where she is the co-owner of Parnassus Books.

Appearing courtesy HarperCollins

Alice Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada's Rules. She is a Harvard educated African-American novelist who lives in Nashville and writes country songs. She became the first black woman in history to write a number one country song ("XXX's and OOO's"); wrote a video of the year ("Is There Life Out There"); worked on multiple Johnny Cash videos ("The Chicken in Black"); and wrote and produced the pilot for a prime time drama about ex-wives of country stars (XXX's and OOO's) that aired on CBS. Randall has emerged as an innovative food activist committed to reforms that support healthy bodies and healthy communities. With her daughter Caroline Randall Williams she co-authored the acclaimed cookbook Soul Food Love and the young adult novel The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess, winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award.

Appearing courtesy HarperCollins

Interviewed by Virginia Stanley.