This Goodly Land

Shirley Ann Grau (July 9, 1929–present)

Alabama Connections

• Montgomery, Montgomery County: childhood residence, education

Selected Works

• Grau, Shirley Ann. The Black Prince and Other Stories. New York: Knopf, 1955. Rpt. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
• Grau, Shirley Ann. The Hard Blue Sky. New York: Knopf, 1958. Rpt. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.
• Grau, Shirley Ann. The Keepers of the House. New York: Knopf, 1964. Rpt. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995. Rpt. New York: Vintage Books, 2003.
• Grau, Shirley Ann. Evidence of Love. New York: Knopf, 1977.
• Grau, Shirley Ann. Roadwalkers. New York: Knopf, 1996. Rpt. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.
• Grau, Shirley Ann. Selected Stories. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.

Literary Awards

• “Joshua” included in Prize Stories 1955: The O. Henry Awards
• “Eight O'Clock One Morning” included in Prize Stories 1962: The O. Henry Awards
• Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 1965, for The Keepers of the House
• Louisiana Writer Award, Louisiana Center for the Book, 2004

Biographical Information

Shirley Ann Grau was born in New Orleans and spent her childhood in New Orleans and in Montgomery, Ala. She attended Margaret Booth School in Montgomery but transferred to a high school in New Orleans for her senior year. Grau graduated with honors from H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, Tulane University, with a BA in English in 1950. She wanted to go on for her PhD intent on a career of teaching and writing. However, the head of English department refused to allow women to serve as teaching assistants, so she left after one year of graduate study to write full-time.

Grau started writing stories as a child and began publishing them in 1951. Her first book, a collection of stories called The Black Prince, was published in 1955. Her first novel, The Hard Blue Sky, was published in 1958. In 1965, Grau won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Keepers of the House, a novel set in rural Alabama. She continues to write and publish both short stories and novels. Grau divides her time between New Orleans and Martha’s Vineyard.

Interests and Themes

Although Shirley Ann Grau resists classification as a Southern or regional writer, she acknowledges that “place” plays a strong role in her writing, particularly in her earlier works. Her works address racial and gender issues and frequently depict women struggling against traditional roles.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Books

• Kissel, Susan S. Moving On: The Heroines of Shirley Ann Grau, Anne Tyler, and Gail Godwin. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1996.
• Schlueter, Paul. Shirley Ann Grau. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.

Reference Articles

• Canfield, John. "A Conversation with Shirley Ann Grau". Southern Quarterly 25.2. (1987): 39-52.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• Going, William T. "Alabama Geography in Shirley Ann Grau's The Keepers of the House"; Essays on Alabama Literature. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, . 32-38.

Reference Web Sites

• George, Courtney. "Shirley Ann Grau". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2009. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2481.

Photo by Jerry Bauer; courtesy of Louisiana State University Press.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.