Additional information
by Jan Whitt (Author)
A scholar of Southern literature and culture, Jan Whitt has written a personal narrative about adoption, childhood abuse, and fifty years of searching for her family in rural Appalachia. This book unflinchingly explores death and loss at the same time that it celebrates the transformative power of love and literature.
Author Biography
Jan Whitt was born in poverty in Knoxville, Tennessee, and adopted five months later by fundamentalist Baptist missionaries who struggled with the demands of parenthood. Reliant upon books for escape, Whitt left home in her teens and earned a B.A. in English and journalism and an M.A. in English from Baylor University by working full time at a local newspaper. She received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Denver in 1985, and, today, she is a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
