Delia Owens

Born in 1949, Delia Owens grew up in Georgia, where she developed a strong love of nature. As a child, she rode horses and explored the woods, encouraged by her mother to spend time in the wilderness. During this time, Owens developed an early passion for writing, even winning a writing contest in the sixth grade and deciding that she would someday be a professional writer. However, when she went to college at the University of Georgia, she studied zoology instead of English, eventually going on to complete a doctorate in Animal Behavior from the University of California, Davis. After this, Owens and her then-husband moved to Africa, where they worked as wildlife scientists in Botswana. For seven years, they lived in an extremely remote area and studied packs of lions and hyenas, eventually co-writing Cry of the Kalahari, which was a bestseller. After living in Botswana, Owens and her husband moved to Zambia, where they studied elephants and founded a social work program that helped locals survive economically without having to become animal poachers. Over the years, Owens has published her writing about wildlife in a number of scientific journals and has won awards for her research and conservation efforts. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first work of fiction. She currently lives in Idaho.