Olympia Vernon

Olympia Vernon
Olympia Vernon (circa 2006)
Born	May 22, 1973 (1973-05-22) (age 38) Bogalusa, Louisiana
Occupation	novelist

Olympia Vernon (born May 22, 1973) is an African-American author who has published three novels: Eden (2002), Logic (2004), and A Killing In This Town (2006). Eden won the 2004 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[1] Vernon was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and grew up in Mount Hermon, Louisiana and Osyka, Mississippi.^[1] The family had seven children. Her father, Fletcher Williams, Jr., graduated from the University of Mississippi. Vernon attended South Pike High School in Magnolia, Mississippi. She received a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1999.^[1] She also earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University in 2002.^[1]

She wrote Eden while in graduate school. In 2005 she received the Louisiana Governor's Award for Professional Artist of the Year. In 2007-08 Vernon was the Hallie Ford Chair in Writing at Willamette University.^[1] In 2007, she won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for A Killing In This Town.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Langley, Greg. Olympia Vernon is winner of inaugural Gaines Award. The Advocate, December 9, 2007.

External links

• "Novelist Named Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern". News Release. http://www2.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/Vernon.html. Retrieved 2006-04-28. 
• "Author Bio". A Killing in This Town. http://www.groveatlantic.com/grove/bin/wc.dll?groveproc~genauth~1694. Retrieved 2006-04-28. 
• "Olympia Vernon Reads at Friends of the Library Event". News Release. http://blog.willamette.edu/news/archives/2006/08/olympia_vernon.php. Retrieved 2006-09-27. 

Persondata
Name	Vernon, Olympia
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 22, 1973
Place of birth	Bogalusa, Louisiana
Date of death
Place of death