Mary Jane Ryals received a Ph.D. from Florida State University in English and Creative Writing. She’s been the Poet Laureate of the Big Bend of Florida, and has won the Florida Chapbook Award, a Florida Arts Council Award, and a Florida Book Award in Fiction.
Her published books include the novel Cookie & Me, the poetry collection The Moving Waters, the textbook Getting into the Intercultural Groove, and the short story collection A Messy Job.
Currently, she is the publisher of Apalachee Press in Tallahassee.
She’s lived in Florida all her life, from Miami to Tallahassee, and comes from five generations of Floridians. She’ll be appearing at this year’s Word of South in conversation with Mary Ann Lindley.