On the Fly: Tom Franklin

Tom Franklin was born and raised in Dickinson, Ala. He began writing by creating his own comic books and writing stories inspired by the Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian books. His family moved to Mobile after he graduated from high school. Franklin attended the University of South Alabama and graduated with a BA in English. He supported himself during that period by working in a hospital morgue, a sandblasting grit factory, and a chemical plant. Franklin later attended the University of Arkansas where he earned an MFA in 1998. He taught briefly at the University of South Alabama.

Franklin's collection of short stories, "Poachers", was published in 1999. His publication contract for "Poachers" required him to write a novel also. "Hell at the Breech", a fictionalized version of the Mitcham War of Clarke County, Ala., was published in 2003.

Franklin has held the Philip Roth Residency in Creative Writing at Bucknell University and has been Writer-in-Residence at Knox College, the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at University of Mississippi, and the Tennessee Williams Fellow at University of the South. Franklin has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a residency at the MacDowell Colony. Currently, he is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. Franklin is married to the poet Beth Ann Fennelly and lives with his family in Oxford, Miss.

Franklin's novel "Smonk" was published in 2010 and in 2010 he published his latest novel, "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter".

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[cptsantee]

Tom, i just finished crked letter I bought in Monroeville, Have bought two more since leaving W. Al. I live in a sub-verb of Dothan in Columbia with just about the same no. of toilets as in your town. I've got an answer for you about Southern Writers. Southern Writers write with soft letters, not harsh. We don't use sharp corners on our Ms, and Ws. Northern writers of course use the sharp corners, and speak sharply. Hang in there, it don't matter to me. Shalom Gerald