Charles Frazier

Charles Frazier grew up in North Carolina. His parents took him through the South throughout his childhood, and his memories of Appalachia, Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama formed an important influence on his fiction. Frazier showed an aptitude for writing and storytelling from an early age, and by the time he’d graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973, he’d already decided he was going to be a writer. Frazier went on to study writing at Appalachian State University, and in 1986, he received his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of South Carolina. For the next ten years, Frazier worked a number of odd jobs while working on the novel that would become Cold Mountain. In 1997, Frazier completed the novel and succeeded in selling it to Atlantic Monthly Press. The book was a surprise hit, selling more than 3 million copies and winning Frazier the National Book Award, arguably the most prestigious honor for American fiction. In 2003, the novel was adapted as an Academy Award-winning film by Anthony Minghella. Frazier published his second novel, Thirteen Moons, in 2006, and his third, Nightwoods, in 2011. He resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife and daughter.