Allan Gurganus, the novelist and short-story writer, was born in Rocky Mount, N.C., in 1947. He is the author of the highly-acclaimed novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, the collection of stories and novellas White People, and the novel Plays Well with Others. His latest work, The Practical Heart: Four Novellas, won the Lambda Literary Award. Called “the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty,” he returned from Manhattan to live in his native North Carolina where he currently teaches at Duke and co-founded Writers Against Jesse Helms. His political editorials often appear in The New York Times. Gurganus’ next novel, second in The Falls Trilogy that commenced with Widow, is The Erotic History of a Southern Baptist Church.