Susan Beckham Zurenda

After teaching literature, composition, and creative writing to thousands of high school and college students for 33 years, Susan Beckham Zurenda turned her attention to putting a novel in her heart on paper, the genesis of which was a short story that won the South Carolina Fiction Prize a number of years ago. Her debut novel, Bells for Eli (Mercer University Press, March 2020; paperback edition March 2021), was the first place winner for Best First Book—Fiction in the 2021 IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Awards), a Foreword Indie Book Award finalist, a Winter 2020 Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, a 2020 Notable Indie on Shelf Unbound, a 2020 finalist for American Book Fest Best Book Awards, and was nominated fo

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Ellen Baker

Ellen Baker is the author of the novels THE HIDDEN LIFE OF CECILY LARSON, KEEPING THE HOUSE, and I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS. She has worked as a museum curator and as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Originally from the Upper Midwest, Ellen currently lives on the coast of Maine.
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Marjorie Hudson

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A Native American child burial is found in a cliff by the river, revealing dire Southern history and raising vengeful spirits. Three families' lives are turned upside down - they will not survive the coming storm without joining forces.

"Superb"
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"Mesmerizing"
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“An impressive, sprawling novel about love and hate, life and death, sin and redemption, one worth any reader’s time.”
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“Sparkles with a powerful sense of place ... compelling ... hard to put down.”
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“The best damned book I have ever read.”
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Anna Quindlen

Anna Marie Quindlen is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist.
Her New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for the New York Post. Between 1977 and 1994 she held several posts at The New York Times. Her semi-autobiographical novel One True Thing (1994) served as the basis for the 1998 film starring Meryl Streep and Renée Zellweger.

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John Berendt

John Berendt is an American author and journalist best known for his best-selling nonfiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Blending true crime and vivid portraits of Savannah, Georgia, the book became a cultural phenomenon, spending a record-breaking 216 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and inspiring Clint Eastwood’s 1997 film adaptation.
Born in Syracuse, New York, Berendt studied English at Harvard University, where he worked on the Harvard Lampoon. He went on to serve as associate editor of Esquire and editor of New York magazine, and later wrote a long-running Esquire column. His years in Savannah, beginning in 1985, gave him intimate access to th
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Mary Alice Monroe

Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 30 books, including her new novel, Where the Rivers Merge, the first book in a duology and her historical debut. The second book is titled The Rivers End. Release date has not been set yet.

Monroe has also published children’s books, which complement the environmental themes she is known for in her adult novels. Monroe’s middle grade series, written with Angela May, The Islanders, debuted #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers List in 2021. The second book in the series, Search for Treasure, debuted #3 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. And the third book in the series, Shipwrecked, is available everywhere books are sold.

Nearly eight million copies of her books
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Mary Kay Andrews

https://marykayandrews.com/
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MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels (including The Homewreckers, The Santa Suit, The Newcomer; Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Ladies’ Night; Christmas Bliss; Spring Fever; Summer Rental; The Fixer Upper; Deep Dish; Blue Christmas; Savannah Breeze; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Mari
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Dorothea Benton Frank

Dorothea Benton Frank was a New York Times best-selling American novelist of Southern fiction. She worked in the apparel industry from 1972 until 1985 and then organized fundraisers as a volunteer, before becoming a novelist.

She is best known as the author of twenty novels placed in and around the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
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John Hart

JOHN HART is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, and of THE UNWILLING, which will be released on February 2, 2021. The only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels, Hart has also won the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Bookseller’s Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into thirty language and can be found in over seventy countries. “My only real dream,” John declares, “has been to write well and to be published well.”

He lives in Virginia with his wife, two daughters, and four dogs.

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads.
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Karen White

With more than 2 million books in print in fifteen different languages, Karen White is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 34 novels, including the popular Charleston-set Tradd Street mystery series.

Raised in a house full of brothers, Karen’s love of books and strong female characters first began in the third grade when the local librarian issued her a library card and placed The Secret of the Old Clock, a Nancy Drew Mystery, in her hands.

Karen’s roots run deep in the South where many of her novels are set. Her intricate plot lines and compelling characters charm and captivate readers with just the right mix of family drama, mystery, intrigue and romance.

Not entirely convinced she wanted to be a writer, Karen first pursued
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Darnell Arnoult

Darnell Arnoult is author of the novel Sufficient Grace (Simon & Schuster, Inc.), which received a starred review in PW, poetry collections What TravelsWith Us: Poems and Galaxie Wagon (LSU Press), and most recently Incantations (Madville Publishing). Arnoult is the recipient of the SIBA Poetry Book of the Year Prize, Weatherford Award, Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award, and the Mary Frances Hobson Award in Artsand Letters. She is founder of WordWell, a constellation of services for writers. She lives with her family in Mebane, NC. For more about Darnell, visit darnellarnoult.net.
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Helena Echlin

Hello! Clever Little Thing, coming in January 2025, is my first psychological thriller. I’ve written for various publications, including the Guardian and the Times, and the steadiest job I ever had was writing an etiquette advice column, for which I had zero qualifications. I lived in northern California for many years, and am now back in my native UK with my American husband and two children. I teach creative writing for Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education.
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Sean Dietrich

Sean Dietrich is a columnist, podcaster, speaker, and novelist, known for his commentary on life in the American South. His work has appeared in Southern Living, The Tallahassee Democrat, Good Grit, South Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, Thom Magazine, and The Mobile Press Register, and he has authored ten books.
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Alicia Bessette

Alicia Bessette is the Edgar® Award-nominated author of the bestselling Outer Banks Bookshop mystery series. Before writing fiction, she worked as a reporter in her home state of Massachusetts, where her journalism won a first-place award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. A pianist, published poet, and enthusiastic birdwatcher, she now loves living in coastal North Carolina with her husband, novelist Matthew Quick. https://www.instagram.com/aliciabesse...
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Susan M. Boyer

Susan M. Boyer is the USA Today bestselling author of thirteen novels. Her debut novel, Lowcountry Boil, won the 2012 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, and garnered several other award nominations. Subsequent books have been nominated for various honors, including Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Okra Picks, the 2016 Pat Conroy Beach Music Mystery Prize, and the 2017 Southern Book Prize in Mystery & Detective Fiction.

Susan loves beaches, Southern food, and small towns where everyone knows everyone, and everyone has crazy relatives. You’ll find all of the above in her novels. She and her husband call Greenville, SC, home and visit the Carolina coast as often as po
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Jeffrey Blount

Jeffrey is a novelist and Emmy award-winning television director
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T.I. Lowe

T.I. Lowe is an ordinary country girl who loves to tell extraordinary stories and is the author of nearly twenty published novels including her debut, LULU’S CAFÉ, a #1 bestseller. She lives with her husband and family in coastal South Carolina. Find her at Tilowe.com or on Facebook (T.I.Lowe), Instagram (Tilowe), and Twitter (@Tilowe).
To sign up for Lowe's newsletter, go to:https://www.tilowe.com/newsletter
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Kristy Woodson Harvey

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of eleven novels including A Happier Life, The Summer of Songbirds, and The Peachtree Bluff Series. Many of her books have been optioned or are in development for television and film and have received numerous accolades, including Good Morning America’s Buzz Pick, Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Reads, Katie Couric’s Featured Books, and Joanna Garcia Swisher’s The Happy Place Read. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize.

A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, her writi
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Eva Woods

Eva Woods lives in London, where she writes and teaches creative writing. She likes wine, pop music, and holidays, and thinks online dating is like the worst board game ever invented.
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Meagan Church

Meagan Church is the author of emotionally-charged, empathy-inducing novels, including The Mad Wife, The Last Carolina Girl, and The Girls We Sent Away, a Southern indie bestseller and North Carolina Reads state-wide book club pick for 2025. After receiving a B.A. in English from Indiana University, Meagan built a career as a freelance writer. She is an adjunct for Drexel University’s MFA in creative writing program, and helps authors tell their own stories through editing, coaching, and workshops. A Midwesterner by birth, she now lives in North Carolina with her high school sweetheart, three children, and a plethora of pets.
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Viola Shipman

Dear Reader:
My latest novel, The Page Turner, is a story about why we too often judge one another – and the books we read – by a glance at the collective cover without knowing what is inside. It is also a story about how reading and books not only change us but also save our lives. They did mine.

Growing up “different” in rural America in the 1970s – with no one like me and no one to talk to about what I was going through – I felt alone in this world. Books allowed me to escape, understand, heal, hope and realize there was a place for me in the world just as I was. My grandma – my pen name, Viola Shipman – sensed I was “different,” and she loved me unconditionally and made sure I cherished my uniqueness. Even though my grandma never finishe
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Kate Spencer

Kate Spencer is the author of the upcoming romantic comedy, In a New York Minute (Forever, 2022), and the memoir The Dead Moms Club (Seal Press, 2017). She's also the co-host of the podcast Forever35, which tackles all things self-care with humor and honesty. Her written work has appeared on numerous platforms and publications, including Buzzfeed, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, and Esquire. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two kids.
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Patti Callahan Henry

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of sixteen novels, including her newest, The Secret Book of Flora Lea. She’s also a podcast host of original content for her novels, Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis.

She is the recipient of The Christy Award “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast. Patti also was a contributor to the monthly life lesson essay column for Parade Magazine. She’s published in numerous anthologies, articles, and short story collections, including an A
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Grace Helena Walz

Grace Helena Walz is a former (forever) social worker with a passion for heartfelt, down to earth stories. She resides outside of Atlanta, GA with her husband and two children. She writes in the moments between covering scraped knees in bandaids and chauffering carpool.
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Darnell Arnoult

Darnell Arnoult is author of the novel Sufficient Grace (Simon & Schuster, Inc.), which received a starred review in PW, poetry collections What TravelsWith Us: Poems and Galaxie Wagon (LSU Press), and most recently Incantations (Madville Publishing). Arnoult is the recipient of the SIBA Poetry Book of the Year Prize, Weatherford Award, Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award, and the Mary Frances Hobson Award in Artsand Letters. She is founder of WordWell, a constellation of services for writers. She lives with her family in Mebane, NC. For more about Darnell, visit darnellarnoult.net.
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