Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the recipient of a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He is the author of the forthcoming historical novel, Garden of Redemption, which will be published in 2026 by One World Random House. He is author of the bestselling novel, The American Daughters, a New York Times Editor’s Choice published by One World Random House. The book was selected by Kirkus Reviews as a book of the year, chosen to represent Louisiana at the 2024 National Book Festival, and long-listed for the 2025 Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown Award. It was also a semi-finalist for the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. He is the recipient of the 2024 South Arts State Fellowship, the 2024 John William Corrington Award, the 2024 Inaugural Tennessee Williams Distinguished Excellence in Literary Arts Award, the 2023 Louisiana Writer Award, and the Black Rock Senegal Residency.
Ruffin’s book, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, was published by One World Random House and was a One Book One New Orleans selection. The book was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and long-listed for the Story Prize. The book was chosen to represent Louisiana at the 2023 National Book Festival.
His first novel, We Cast a Shadow, won the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society’s Gold Medal for Novel-in-Progress and, then, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Open Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. It was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and International Dublin Literary Award.
Before he won the medal for Novel-in-Progress, the Society recognized him for short fiction.
A recipient of an Iowa Review Award in fiction, he has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, the Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas.
A native of New Orleans, Maurice is an attorney, who left the practice of law to write and is now Director of the LSU MFA program. He is a graduate of the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop, a member of the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, and a member of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance, an
organization originally created by the Society.
Maurice Ruffin on Writing
Maurice talks about his writing and his characters in this excellent short interview:
https://cincinnatireview.com/Interveies/5-minute-author-interview-maurice-carlos-ruffin/