Author William Gay is the winner of the 1999 William Peden Award and the 1999 James A. Michener Memorial Prize. In his debut collection, Gay brings to life 13 stories about a diverse group of colorful characters living in the fertile Tennessee country land.

Little Sister Death finds Gay exploring the horror genre, territory he last mined in Twilight (2006), which was hailed by Stephen King as the best book of the year. A retelling of Tennessee’s famed myth of the Bell Witch, this gripping tale traces a series of ghostly encounters at a haunted manor over the course of two centuries.

The Lost Country centers on Edgewater, who’s recently been discharged from the Navy, and a one-armed conman named Roosterfish who takes him under his wing as they both search desperately for a forgotten past and a future that may never come. The Lost Country cements Gay as one of the strongest voices in Southern literature, alongside Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, and William Faulkner.

William Gay’s work has appeared in Harper’s, The Georgia Review, and G.Q. Like Larry Brown, Gay creates deeply layered tales that plumb the depths of the human heart. The Long Home focuses on a volatile triangle of deception, love, and guilt. As Nathan Winer grows up in a rural Tennessee community, his life, and those closest to him, are touched by the evil that dwells in one ruthless and powerful man.

In his third novel award-winning author William Gay is sure to astound listeners with his dark themes and memorable characters. When Kenneth and Corrie Tyler become suspicious of the town undertaker, they attempt to discover the truth. But what they find is far worse than they had feared. “Gay successfully uses [the Southern Gothic] form’s ability to unsettle readers, forcing them to see anew darker aspects of humanity.”-Washington Post Book World