10 Southern Women Who Bring Us Stories of Dixie

South Carolina native Dorothy Allison’s first novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, pulls no punches as it tackles issues of poverty and sexual abuse. Allison herself was a victim of sexual abuse as a child which left her unable to have children, and found her voice in college with the help of some “militant feminists.” She has written extensively on class struggle, abuse, feminism, and family.

Originally written off by the male literary establishment, Zora Neale Hurston was a folklorist, anthropologist, and novelist in the early twentieth century. Born in Alabama, her work gave voice to a class of African Americans who were almost never faithfully represented in literature, giving uneducated, working class black characters depth and agency. Though her work was unpopular during her lifetime, it was rediscovered during the Civil Rights era by African American women authors looking for a foremother.

Billie Letts has written numerous novels set in her native Oklahoma, but is most famous for Where the Heart Is, in which pregnant teenager Novalee Nation finds herself stranded at a Walmart in Oklahoma with no money and nowhere to go. The novel was made into a movie starring Natalie Portman and Stockard Channing in 2000.

No list of Southern writers is complete without the Georgia native who penned the classic Civil War story, Gone With the Wind. Born into southern wealth, Mitchell’s novel, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937, has garnered plenty of modern criticism for its racial issues and romantic view of the antebellum South. And while all of these are completely valid, it still is and will continue to be a classic.

Author of the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker was born in Georgia to sharecropping parents. She began writing at the age of eight, became her high school valedictorian, attended Sarah Lawrence, and went onto to win a Pulitzer in 1982. An activist and self proclaimed “womanist,” her work deals with the struggles of the African American community, and women in particular.

Born in Georgia, Sue Monk Kidd started her career as a register nurse, but eventually turned to writing. Her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, is a coming of age story set in the Civil Rights era South. The novel enjoyed a lengthy stay on the bestseller list, and plenty of critical acclaim.

The well-known vampire novelist was born in New Orleans, and spent most of her early life living there and in Texas. And though her southern background has gotten her into some trouble of late, she also managed to pioneer the southern gothic vampire genre, so all True Blood fans owe hers some thanks.

Though also famous for TV appearances on the show Match Game, Fannie Flagg also attracted plenty of fans for her novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, set in her native Alabama. The book chronicles the lives of two Southern women who overcome tragedy and an abusive husband to achieve independence. The book was made into a movie in 1991.

One hit wonder Harper Lee needs no introduction, at least not if you’ve taken any high school English classes. Born in Alabama, her novel To Kill a Mockingbird has become a perennial classic and syllabus favorite. Though Mockingbird was the only novel Lee ever published, she also helped Truman Capote research his thriller In Cold Blood, and has received numerous awards and honorary degrees while refusing almost all personal appearances. She’s still alive, however, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.

Though born in St. Louis, Angelou spent a large part of her childhood living with her grandmother in Alabama. Her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings chronicles her difficult childhood, including absent parents, racism, and sexual abuse. She is a prolifc and powerful writer who has penned everything from poems to plays, and has been hailed as the first African American woman to put herself as the center of her work, instead of allowing herself to be forced to the sidelines of her own story.