William Gay

William Gay is one of the best know authors in contemporary Southern literature. His books belong alongside William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. He lived his life writing in obscurity in rural southern Tennessee working as a carpenter and hanging drywall all the while writing the short stories and novels that would eventually earn him fame and a continuing place in American literature. He published his first work at age 59 after a lifetime of writing and rejection and went on to win numerous awards and wide readership.