About the Author
Frye Gaillard, writer in residence at the University of South Alabama and former Southern Editor at the Charlotte Observer, is the author of more than 30 books, exploring themes of social justice and Southern music, religion, politics, and culture. His award-winning titles have ranged across the genres of history, memoir, journalism, and historical novels for young readers. Three of his books have been adapted as public television documentaries, and Gaillard has co-authored the script for two of those, including the Emmy-winning "In the Path of the Storms." His critically praised books have included A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, an NPR Great Read of 2018 and winner of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Prize; Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award; The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina, for which Gaillard received the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Humanitarian of the Year Award; and Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music, featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Gaillard has co-written songs that have made the U.S. folk and country music charts and appeared in nationally distributed music videos and documentary films, and his byline has appeared in such publications as The Bitter Southerner, The Oxford American, The Washington Post, Sojourners, Journal of American History, Outside Magazine, The Progressive, Parade, and Alabama Heritage.Gaillard has served as writer in residence for the Honors College at Johnson C. Smith University (HBCU), and Queens University in Charlotte, NC. His other recognitions have included the Clarence Cason Award, the Eugene Current-Garcia Award, and the Alabama Governor's Award for the Arts.
For some years now, Frye Gaillard has examined a changing South in its large and in its small parts…. His reporting has taken on the nature of a narrative as rich and textured as the region itself.”
– Bill Kovach, former editor of The Atlanta Constitution and Curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University.
Book Awards and Recognition
The Lillian Smith Book Award
NPR Great Read selection
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Humanitarian of the Year Award
Emmy Award for Regional Documentary Film Adaptation
Governor’s Arts Award, Alabama State Council on the Arts
Gustavus Myers Award for writing on the subject of human rights
The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Literary Prize
The Clarence Cason Award for non-fiction
Alabama Library Association Book of the Year
Jefferson Cup Honor Book selection
Progressive Book Club selection
Small Press Award for History (Independent Press Association)
The Eugene Current-Garcia Award for literary scholarship
The Irene Blain Honeycutt Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts
Foreword Magazine Book of the Year finalist
Foreword Magazine national Book of the Day selection
Southern Literary Review Book of the Month selection
“America Through America’s Eyes” – International Book Exhibition in Moscow
Best of the Best of University Presses
Arty Award, Mobile’s Best Literary Artist
Vanderbilt University Media Hall of Fame
Spalding University MFA Common Read selection
University of South Alabama Common Read selection
Fifty in Fifty Award for scholarship, University of South Alabama
Books showcased in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (Watermelon Wine) and Levine Museum of the New South (The Dream Long Deferred)
Three books adapted as public television documentaries
NPR Great Read selection
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Humanitarian of the Year Award
Emmy Award for Regional Documentary Film Adaptation
Governor’s Arts Award, Alabama State Council on the Arts
Gustavus Myers Award for writing on the subject of human rights
The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Literary Prize
The Clarence Cason Award for non-fiction
Alabama Library Association Book of the Year
Jefferson Cup Honor Book selection
Progressive Book Club selection
Small Press Award for History (Independent Press Association)
The Eugene Current-Garcia Award for literary scholarship
The Irene Blain Honeycutt Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts
Foreword Magazine Book of the Year finalist
Foreword Magazine national Book of the Day selection
Southern Literary Review Book of the Month selection
“America Through America’s Eyes” – International Book Exhibition in Moscow
Best of the Best of University Presses
Arty Award, Mobile’s Best Literary Artist
Vanderbilt University Media Hall of Fame
Spalding University MFA Common Read selection
University of South Alabama Common Read selection
Fifty in Fifty Award for scholarship, University of South Alabama
Books showcased in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (Watermelon Wine) and Levine Museum of the New South (The Dream Long Deferred)
Three books adapted as public television documentaries