Allan Gurganus

Allan Gurganus is an award-winning American novelist and short story writer. Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1947, he is best known for his 1989 novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. His writing captures the idiosyncrasies of place and personality that are found in the small towns and rural communities of the South.

Gurganus has written numerous short stories and books, many of which depict life in his native North Carolina. His works often read like an extended family portrait composed with jagged edges and undertones of tragedy. While his humored and reflective summations of life, death, race and relationships are deeply rooted in Southern tradition, his voice is one of empathy, a slyness and wit that belies his years.

Gurganus’s career began with debut novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, which won him the National Book Award for Fiction in 1989. The novel is set in the fictional Saucy Branch, North Carolina and focuses on the life of Luce Cyrus, a 96-year-old woman who lived a tumultuous life as a widowed Confederate wife and mother of seven. Over the course of the novel, Cyrus reflects on her life, offering pieces of wisdom and insight on living within the bonds of family and convention.

Gurganus followed this with the novel Plays Well With Others, a sweeping tale set in the fictional Tidewater town of Oliphant, Virginia. The book tracks life’s ebb and flow of five of the town’s inhabitants over the course of their lives, including Julian Weber, a bootlegger’s son whose military career serves as a springboard to the highest circles of power.

Gurganus has also contributed to a number of anthologies, most notably in his own collection of short stories, The Practical Heart (2001). This collection includes a number of his earlier works, and is regarded as a masterful overview of the Southern experience. The individual stories contained within range from humor laden musings to heavy reflections on war and religiosity.

In 2004, Gurganus released a novel called Local Souls. This chronicle of life in Falls, North Carolina, is populated by characters that often defy tradition and exist outside the bounds of Southern stereotypes. Through stories of interracial friendship and discord, broken-down storefronts and transformed agricultural landscapes, Gurganus displays a deep understanding of the communities of his home state and the struggles that come with balancing tradition and modernity.

An award-winning writer, Gurganus is one of the most esteemed chroniclers of the Southern experience. His voice is one of raw insight and humor, one that often speaks of the lives of his characters in an intimate, vivid language. He offers thoughtful provocations and reliable empathy to his stories, and his reflections of community and family have timeless appeal.