Beverly Lowry (born August 10, 1938) is an American educator, novelist and short story writer.

Biography

The daughter of David Leonard Fey and Dora Smith, both natives of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, she was born Beverly Fey in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

and grew up in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta. Hi ...

. She was educated at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

and

Memphis State University } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

, receiving a BA from the latter institution in 1960. In 1960, she married Glenn Lowry and moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. In 1965, the family moved to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and she began writing. In 1976, Lowry began teaching fiction writing at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

. In 1977, she published her first novel ''Come Back, Lolly Ray''. This was followed by ''Emma Blue'' in 1978. In 1981, she published ''Daddy's Girl'', which won the Jesse Jones Award from the

Texas Institute of Letters The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit Honor Society founded by William Harvey Vann in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most respe ...

. Her short story "So far from the Road, So Long until Morning" won the Texas Institute of Letters short story award in that year. In the 1990s, Lowry moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She taught at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

. She has served as president of the Texas Institute of Letters.

Awards

* 1979-80

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

fellow

Works

* ''Come Back, Lolly Ray'' (1977) - novel * ''Emma Blue'' (1978) - novel * ''Daddy's Girl'' (1981) - novel * ''The Perfect Sonya'' (1987) - novel * ''Breaking Gentle'' (1988) - novel * ''Crossed Over : A Murder, A Memoir'' (1992), based in part on the story of

Karla Faye Tucker Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was an American woman sentenced to death for killing two people with a pickaxe during a burglary. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since Velma Barfield in 1984 ...

* ''The Track of Real Desires'' (1994) - novel * ''Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Triumph of Madam CJ Walker'' (2002) - nonfiction * ''Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life'' (2007) - nonfiction * ''Who Killed These Girls?'' (2016) - nonfiction * ''Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta" (2022) - nonfiction

References

1938 births Living people American women novelists American women short story writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists Writers from Memphis, Tennessee People from Greenville, Mississippi University of Mississippi alumni University of Memphis alumni University of Houston faculty George Mason University faculty Writers from Houston Novelists from Los Angeles 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Novelists from Texas Novelists from Virginia American women academics {{US-novelist-1930s-stub