Photo by John Rosenthal

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Elizabeth Spencer

Elizabeth Spencer is the author of nine novels and seven short story collections. She is best known for two novels, the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Voice at the Back Door and the best-selling The Light in the Piazza, which was adapted for a blockbuster film in 1962 and a Broadway musical in 2005. Born in 1921 in Carollton, Mississippi, she was educated at Vanderbilt University and has lived and taught in cities as diverse as Nashville, Oxford, Rome, Montreal, and Chapel Hill. Her writing unflinchingly explores the great controversies of an evolving South: race, class, and the status of women. Her extraordinary life is the subject of a 2013 documentary, Landscapes of the Heart.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

  1. Friends
  2. My two cats—Chris and Bello
  3. Reading good books
  4. Coffee
  5. White wine
  6. Church—Chapel of the Cross
  7. Music
  8. Plays—live performances
  9. Conversation
  10. Writing something new