Mark Childress (born 1957 in

Monroeville, Alabama Monroeville is the county seat of Monroe County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census its population was 5,951. Monroeville is known as the hometown of two prominent writers of the post-World War II period, Truman Capote and Harper Lee ...

) is an American novelist and Southern writer.

Life

Childress grew up in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. He graduated from the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

, where he was a member of the

Mallet Assembly The Mallet Assembly is an intellectual living program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Mallet was established in 1961 by John Blackburn. The Mallet Assembly takes its name from the fact that it was originally housed in a buildi ...

. In 1978 Childress was a reporter for ''

The Birmingham News ''The Birmingham News'' is the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The paper is owned by Advance Publications and was a daily newspaper from its founding through September 30, 2012. After that day, the ''News'' and its tw ...

'', Features Editor of ''

Southern Living ''Southern Living'' is a lifestyle magazine aimed at readers in the Southern United States featuring recipes, house plans, garden plans, and information about Southern culture and travel. It is published by Birmingham, Alabama–based Southern Pr ...

'' magazine, and Regional Editor of ''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

''. He was formerly a resident of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

and New York, and lives in Key West, Florida . Articles and reviews by Childress have appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'', the ''Saturday Review'', the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', ''

Travel and Leisure ''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC, with trademark rig ...

'', and other national and international publications. He has also written three picture books for children: ''Joshua and Bigtooth'',Childress, M. (1992). ''Joshua and Bigtooth''. New York:

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

. ''Joshua and the Big Bad Blue Crabs'',Childress, M. & Brown, M. B. (1995). ''Joshua and the Big Bad Blue Crabs''. New York:

. and ''Henry Bobbity Is Missing And It Is All Billy Bobbity's Fault''.Childress, M. (1996). ''Henry Bobbity Is Missing And It Is All Billy Bobbity's Fault''. Birmingham, AL: Crane Hill Publishers. Childress wrote the screenplay for the film ''

Crazy in Alabama ''Crazy in Alabama'' is a 1999 American comedy-drama film directed by Antonio Banderas and based on Mark Childress' 1993 novel of the same name. The film stars Melanie Griffith as an abused housewife who becomes an actress, while her nephew deals ...

''.

Honors

Childress received the Thomas Wolfe Award, the

's Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Alabama Library Association's Writer of the Year. ''Tender'', a

Literary Guild The Literary Guild of America is a mail order book club selling low-cost editions of selected current books to its members. Established in 1927 to compete with the Book of the Month Club, it is currently owned by Bookspan. It was a way to encourag ...

and Doubleday Book Club selection, was named to several Ten Best of 1990 lists, and appeared on many national bestseller lists. ''

'' was a featured selection of the

appeared on many bestseller lists and Ten Best of 1993 lists. ''

'' was The (London) Spectator's "Book of the Year" for 1993 and a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' "Notable Book of the Year", and was on the '' Der Spiegel'' bestseller list in Germany for 10 months. The film ''

'' was an official selection of the

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

and San Sebastian film festivals in 1999. ''One Mississippi'' was a summer reading selection of Good Morning America, '' O: The Oprah Magazine'', ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'' magazine, the ''

'', and the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', and was nominated for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Association's "Book of the Year" award. Stephen King named ''One Mississippi'' as #3 on his list of the "Ten Best Books of 2006" in Entertainment Weekly.

Bibliography

* ''A World Made of Fire''Childress, M. (1984). ''A World Made of Fire''. New York:

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

. * ''V for Victor''Childress, M. (1988). ''V for Victor''. New York:

. * ''Tender''Childress, M. (1990). ''Tender''. New York:

Harmony Books Harmony Books is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, itself part of publisher Penguin Random House. It was founded by Bruce Harris, a Crown executive, in 1972. The imprint has been used for such books as: * Jill Freedman, ''Circus Days'' ...

. * ''

''Childress, M. (1993). ''Crazy in Alabama''. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. * ''Gone for Good''Childress, M. (1998). ''Gone for Good''. New York:

. * ''One Mississippi''Childress, M. (2006). ''One Mississippi''. New York:

. * ''Georgia Bottoms''Childress, M. (2011). ''Georgia Bottoms''. New York:

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Childress, Mark 1957 births 20th-century American novelists American reporters and correspondents Living people People from Monroeville, Alabama Writers from New York City University of Alabama alumni Novelists from Alabama 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American children's writers The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people Journalists from Alabama 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers LGBT people from Alabama