Author William Gay is the winner of the 1999 William Peden Award and the 1999 James A. Michener Memorial Prize. In his debut collection, Gay brings to life 13 stories about a diverse group of colorful characters living in the fertile Tennessee country land.

Who were the first people to call the southeastern United States home? Long before Europeans came to the region, American Indian nations lived off the rich and varied land. These peoples had different languages, governments, and cultures. Their traditions and heritage were shaped by the climate and terrain of the American Southeast. The Caddo traveled in canoes made from the wood of cypress trees. The Seminole wove baskets from sweetgrass and dyed...

"Wedged between the bluffs and the river for which it's named, there's a small and all-but-forgotten town. Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked, and where the peaches they left behind now grow, Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms, and frantic change--and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won't...

"Stories, Essays, and Memoir" contains all of Welty's collected short stories, her first book, "A Curtain of Green and Other Stories" (1941), stories based on her travels, and the ever-popular memoir, "One Writer's Beginnings" (1984).

This collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her study of love and longing "The Ballad of the Sad Café." A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town's gathering place. Among other works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind," McCullers' first published story, written when she was only...