What Is a Tennessee Author?

The state of Tennessee has a unique literary history. From the local color and tall tales of George Washington Harris and Davy Crockett, to the political manifestos and literary criticism of the Nashville Agrarians, to the contemporary works of Cormac McCarthy and Charles Wright, Tennessee writers have had a profound and lasting impact on American letters.

This web site seeks neither to glorify writers of Tennessee birth, nor to inflate the importance of Tennessee in the works of authors who have lived here at some point in their life. It is simply an attempt to record the connections that writers throughout our history have had with the state, and to provide some biographical and bibliographical details about these writers.

How do we decide if an author is a "Tennessee Author"? Is there some secret characteristic that makes an author worthy of inclusion in these pages? The short answer is, no, we do not have a secret qualifying exam. There is no litmus test, other than to say that all the authors on this list are people who have lived at least some part of their life in Tennessee.

The inclusion of an author is, however, based on our own interests and biases. We went to some effort to review all the bibliographies and biographical sources we could find to compile our original working list. From that original working list of over 800 authors we selected around 340 to feature more prominently. For these featured authors you will find a hyperlink to a more detailed bio-bibliography. Any author's name that appears in blue may be clicked to reach this more detailed record.

The featured authors are people we feel have made a significant contribution to Tennessee literature. There is a proponderance of poets and fiction writers, but we have also tried to include playwrights, screen writers, and writers of non-fiction as much as possible.

In most cases, the following criteria apply:

• Author must have lived at least part of her/his life in Tennessee.
• Author must have published at least one book.
• Author must be the subject of some secondary work, be it biography, criticism, or bibliography.
• Authors who have written for an academic or professional audience will be excluded, unless they have also published at least one book of general literary interest.
• Journalists will be excluded unless they have also published at least one book of general literary interest.

We break the rules, however, whenever an author's work seems to warrant it.

Davy Crockett

The bibliographies included here are not intended to be comprehensive. The citations primarily include book-length publications by the author. Items published in magazines and journals are normally excluded. We are using a modified version of the Chicago citation style. Works of the author are listed in chronological order. The secondary bibliographies cite biographies, bibliographies, criticism and other analysis about the author in question.

We welcome your input about our project, and hope you will share this site with friends and colleagues.

--Steven R. Harris
English Literature Librarian
UT Libraries