Alice Randall (born May 4, 1959) is an American author, songwriter, producer, and lecturer. She is best known for her contributions to country music, in addition to her novel and New York Times bestseller '' The Wind Done Gone'', which is a reinterpretation and parody of the 1936 novel ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

''.

Early life

Mari-Alice Randall was born on May 4, 1959, in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, and was raised in Washington, D.C.Paula J. K. Morris
"Randall, Alice 1959–"
Contemporary Black Biography, 2003. Encyclopedia.com. She attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where she earned an honors bachelor's degree in English and American literature and graduated cum laude. In 1983, she moved to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, to become a country songwriter, where she still resides on the

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

campus.Biography on Alice Randall Official Website
accessed February 9, 2007. Alice Randall was married until 1990 to Avon Nyanza Williams III, son of Avon N. Williams and together they had a daughter, Caroline. In 1997, She married David Ewing, a ninth-generation Nashvillian, historian and former lawyer. She is currently a writer-in-residence and Professor at Vanderbilt University.

Career

Music

On her second night in Nashville in 1983, Alice Randall was discovered by Steve Earle at the Bluebird Cafe. Earle taught Randall how to be a country songwriter, beginning that evening. After starting her career in country music under the mentorship of Steve Earle, Randall founded her own music production company titled Midsummer Music in Nashville. Randall co-wrote " XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)," which was released as a single in 1994 by country music singer

Trisha Yearwood Patricia Lynn Yearwood (born September 19, 1964) is an American country singer. She rose to fame with her 1991 debut single "She's in Love with the Boy", which became a number one hit on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Hot Country Songs ...

. Over 20 of her songs have been recorded, including several top 10 and top 40 records; with many of her songs having been performed by

and Mark O'Connor. Additionally, she contributed to Johnny Cash's " The Chicken in Black", which was on the US

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

by Billboard for twelve weeks. In addition to her song writing, Randall also wrote the video of the year " Is There Life Out There" by

Reba McEntire Reba Nell McEntire ( ; born March 28, 1955), or simply Reba, is an American country music, country singer and actress. Dubbed "Honorific nicknames in popular music, The Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Sin ...

, which won at the 1992

Academy of Country Music Awards The Academy of Country Music Awards, also known as the ACM Awards, were first held in 1966, honoring the industry's accomplishments during the previous year. It was the first country music awards program held by a major organization. The academy ...

Writing

Fiction

Randall is the author of six fiction novels: * '' The Wind Done Gone'' (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001) * ''Pushkin and the Queen of Spades'' (2004) * ''Rebel Yell'' (2009) *''Ada's Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel'' (2012) *''The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess (2013)'' winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award *''Black Bottom Saints'' (2020) Her first novel ''The Wind Done Gone'', is a reinterpretation and parody of

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel ''Gone With the Wind (novel), Gone ...

's 1936 novel ''

''. ''The Wind Done Gone'' retells ''Gone with the Wind'' from the viewpoint of Scarlett O'Hara's half-sister Cynara, a

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

on Scarlett's

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

. Randall and the publishing company of ''The Wind Done Gone'',

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

, were sued in April 2001 by Mitchell's estate on the grounds that ''The Wind Done Gone'' infringed the

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

of ''Gone with the Wind''. The lawsuit, '' Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin Co.'', was settled, allowing ''The Wind Done Gone'' to be published on the condition of a label of "An Unauthorized Parody". In addition, Houghton Mifflin agreed to make a financial contribution to the

Morehouse College Morehouse College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Men's colleges in the United States, men's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, ...

, a historically black education institution in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

supported by the Mitchell estate. The novel became a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' bestseller. Randall's second novel, ''Pushkin and the Queen of Spades'', was named as one of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

s "Best Fiction of 2004."

Non-fiction

Published by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

in 2015, the cookbook "Soul Food Love" was co-written by Randall and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, an author and poet. Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams wrote the cookbook to inspire healthy living in their lives and in the African American community, by reducing fats and sugars, while paying homage to traditional soul food. In February 2016, the book received the 2016

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

for Literature (Instructional). In 2006, Alice Randall also wrote ''My Country Roots'', alongside Carter and Courtney Little. She published this non-fiction piece in Nashville, by Naked Ink. In 2024, Alice Randall released *''My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future'' through Atria/Black Privilege Publishing. A companion album, *''My Black Country - The Songs of Alice Randall'' - Various Artists - CD was released by Oh Boy Records.

Production

Randall wrote and produced the pilot of the television movie XXX's and OOO's, a film about four ex-wives of country music singers, on CBS in 1994. The 1 hour and 50 minute film was directed by Allan Arkush and co-written by John Wilder.

Education

Randall is now a professor at

, where she resides as a writer-in-residence and serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities. At Vanderbilt, she specializes in soul food, African American children's literature, African American film, and

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

. She teaches courses including lectures on "Country Lyric in American Culture" and "Soul Food as Text and In Text". While at Vanderbilt, she is working on using the arts in the American health disparity as well as the international health disparity.

Awards

Randall received the Al Neuharth Free Spirit Award in 2001 and the Literature Award of Excellence from the Memphis Black Writers Conference in 2002. She was a finalist for an

in 2002. Randall was also accepted for a prestigious writing residency at the famed Yaddo artist's community from June 23, 2011, to July 24, 2011. Randall and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, received the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Literature (Instructional) for their book, Soul Food Love. Randall was inducted into the Silver Circle in 2008, in honor of working in the country music industry for a quarter of a century. She was inducted alongside 10 other nominees, notably

, whose video of the year she wrote in 1992.

Songs

* The Ballad of Sally Anne – Mark O'Connor, River City Ramblers * Big Dream –

Samantha Mathis Samantha Mathis (born May 12, 1970) is an American actress and trade union leader who served as the Vice President, Actors/Performers of SAG-AFTRA from 2015 to 2019. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in '' Pump Up ...

* Blinded By Stars – Adrienne Young * Get the Hell Out of Dodge – Walter Hyatt * Girls Ride Horses Too – Judy Rodman * I'll Cry for Yours (Will You Cry for Mine) – Tamra Rosanes * Many Mansions –

Moe Bandy Marion Franklin "Moe" Bandy Jr. (born February 12, 1944) is an American country music singer. He was most popular during the 1970s, when he had several hit songs, both alone and as part of a duo with Joe Stampley. Early life and recordings Ma ...

* Reckless Night – The Forester Sisters * Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls) – Holly Dunn * Solitary Hero – Carol Elliot * The Resurrection – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band * Went for a Ride –

Radney Foster Radney Muckleroy Foster (born July 20, 1959) is an American country music singer-songwriter, musician and music producer. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his recording debut as part of the Foster & Lloyd duo, recordi ...

* Who's Minding the Garden –

Glen Campbell Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American country musician and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' on CBS television from ...

* XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl) –

References

External links

Alice Randall
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, Alice 1959 births Living people 21st-century American novelists African-American novelists American women novelists Songwriters from Michigan Harvard College alumni Writers from Detroit Writers from Nashville, Tennessee 21st-century American women writers Songwriters from Tennessee Novelists from Michigan Novelists from Tennessee African-American women musicians 21st-century American writers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers