Michael Morris

A fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida, Michael Morris knows Southern culture and characters. They are the foundation and inspiration for the stories he writes.

His latest novel, Man in the Blue Moon, is based on a true story about a man on the run for murder who was shipped in a crate to his grandfather's family in the Florida Panhandle. The novel was named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Publishers Weekly and received the Book of the Year Award for Fiction by the Alabama Library Association. Man in the Blue Moon was also named a top three book club recommendation by the independent bookseller's association.

While working in the pharmaceutical industry and taking night classes with author Tim McLaurin at North Carolina State University, Michael started the story that would eventually become his first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass. The debut book won the Christy Award for Best First Novel.

Michaels second novel, Slow Way Home, was compared to the work of Harper Lee and Flannery OConnor by the Washington Post. It was nationally ranked as one of the top three recommended books by the American Booksellers Association and named one of the best novels of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Michael is also the author of a novella based on the Grammy-nominated song Live Like You Were Dying, which became a finalist for the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. His essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

A graduate of Auburn University, Michael also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. He lives in Alabama with his wife, Melanie.