Gail Godwin

Gail Godwin peoples her novels and stories with insightful, sympathetic characters seeking to transcend the ordinariness of their existence, and it is for such consistently vivid characterization that this Alabama writer is renowned. Godwin has expressed her wide-ranging concerns in numerous works of fiction, from The Odd Woman (1974) and A Mother and Two Daughters (1982) to A Southern Family (1987), which received both the Janet Kafka Prize and the Thomas Wolfe Award. Eschewing the critical approach that to date has presented Godwin-as-woman-writer or Godwin-as-Southern-writer, Jane Hill introduces Godwin as a novelist who articulates women's and Southern issues within the larger framework of human experience. In this first book-length critical study of Godwin, Hill focuses exclusively on the novels, examining craft and narrative technique. Hill has worked conversations and correspondence with Godwin into her analysis to create a personal perspective that greatly enhances the book. A clear and cogent introduction, Gail Godwin offers all those interested in contemporary American literature a fuller understanding of this popular writer.