Kaye Gibbons

"Kaye Gibbons is a writer who brings a short story sensibility to her novels. Rather than take advantage of the novel's longer form to paint her visions in broad, sweeping strokes, Gibbons prefers to concentrate on just one corner of the canvas and only a few colors to produce her small masterpieces. In Gibbons' case, her canvas is the American South and her colors are all the shades of gray." (Review by Jesse Larsen)

Kaye Gibbons was born in Nash County, North Carolina in 1960. She graduated from Rocky Mountain High School and continued her education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While attending at Chapel Hill, she wrote her first novel, Ellen Foster. Ellen Foster was praised as an extaordinary debut, and went on to win the Sue Kaufman Award, as well as numerous other awards. Kaye Gibbons has written three other well praised novels, and has another one in the process. Her second novel, A Virtuous Woman, was published in 1989 and also received wide praise as Ellen Foster did. In 1989, Gibbons received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to write a third novel, A Cure for Dreams, which was published in 1991. Her fourth book, Charms for the Easy Life, was published in March 1993. Her fifth book, Sights Unseen, was also a national bestseller. Her next novel, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, will be published in the summer of 1998.

Kaye Gibbons currently resides with her family in North Carolina.

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