Elizabeth Spencer
Elizabeth Spencer was born in Carrollton, Mississippi. She received an M.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1943. Her first novel was published in 1948; eight other novels followed. Spencer has published stories in The New Yorker, Atlantic and other magazines. She went to Italy in 1953 on a Guggenheim, and met her future husband, John Rusher. In 1986 they moved to Chapel Hill, where Spencer taught writing at UNC until 1992. Her most recent book is The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction. Her other titles include The Voice at the Back Door; The Salt Line; The Night Travelers and The Light in the Piazza, which was made into a movie in 1962, premiered as a musical production on Broadway in spring 2005 and won six Tony Awards in June 2006. Spencer is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Spencer’s writing has received numerous awards, including the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007 she received the PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction. Her latest award is the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.
