Tom Franklin

Tom Franklin2

Tom Franklin, a master in the realm of dark, southern gothic fictionis the co-author with his wife Beth Ann Fennelly of the new novel, The Tilted World, an epic story set during the great Mississippi River flood of the 20s. His previous novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, released in 2010, was touted by another noir master, Shutter Island author Dennis Lehane, who was a headliner for Words & Music, 2010, who put it this way: ” A  new Tom Franklin novel is always a reason to get excited, but Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is more—a cause for celebration. What a great novel by a great novelist.” Franklin is author of the critically acclaimedPoachers, a collection of short fiction which won the Edgar Allen Poe Award, and twoother novels, Smonk and Hell at the Breech. He was born in Dickinson, AL, and later moved with his family to nearby Mobile to attend the University of South Alabama, where he graduated with a BA  in English. Franklin earned his MFA in fiction at the University of Arkansas in 1998 and then returned to the University of South Alabama to teach. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded the Phillip Roth Residency in Creative Writing at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Subsequently he was writer in residence at Knox College and is now the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at Ole Miss, instructing both undergraduate and graduate students in fiction writing course. Tom and his wife, the widely acclaimed poet Beth Ann Fennelly, live in Oxford, MS where she is a member of the English Department. Franklin, who won a 2001 Guggentheim Fellowship, taught at Sewannee during the academic year of 2002-2003. His short stories and essays have been published in such magazines as The Chattahoochee Review,BrightleafThe Nebraska ReviewThe Texas ReviewQuarterly West, and Smoke Magazine and are included in anthologies such as New Stories from the SouthThe Year’s Best, 1999Best American Mystery Stories, 1999 and 2000; and Best Mystery Stories of the Century