This Goodly Land

Cassandra King (February 18, 1944–present)

Other Names Used

• Sandra King Ray: married name (first husband); used for her first novel
• Sandra King Conroy: married name (second husband)

Alabama Connections

• Pinckard, Dale County: childhood residence
• Montevallo, Shelby County: education, employment
• Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County: adult residence
• Pelham, Shelby County: residence

Selected Works

• Ray, Sandra King. Making Waves in Zion. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, 1995. Rpt. as Making Waves. New York: Hyperion, 2003.
• King, Cassandra. The Sunday Wife. New York: Hyperion, 2002.
• King, Cassandra. The Same Sweet Girls. New York: Hyperion, 2005.
• King, Cassandra. Queen of Broken Hearts. New York: Hyperion, 2007.

Biographical Information

Cassandra King grew up on a peanut farm in the rural community of Pinckard, Ala. She decided at a young age that she wanted to be a writer and wrote stories to read to her friends at recess. King attended Alabama College (now University of Montevallo) and graduated with a BA in English in 1967. After marrying, she continued to write but focused most of her energy on raising her children and supporting her husband’s career. In the late 1980s, King returned to the University of Montevallo, where she earned an MFA in 1988. Her thesis project was an early draft for Making Waves in Zion, which was published in 1995. King and her husband were divorced that same year.

For several years, King taught English and writing classes at Jefferson State and Gadsden State Community Colleges and at the University of Montevallo. In 1998, King married South Carolina writer, Pat Conroy, whom she had met in 1995 at the Southern Voices literary conference in Hoover. After their marriage, King stopped teaching and began writing full-time. Her second novel, The Sunday Wife, was published in 2002. King and her husband live and write at their home on Fripp Island, S.C.

Interests and Themes

Cassandra King’s novels feature Southern women who find the courage to make changes in their lives through the support of their friends. Several of her books are set in small towns in Alabama.

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 Articles

• Carlton, Bob. "With Sweet Girls, King May Be Queen". Birmingham News 16 Jan. 2005: 1F.
• Dam, Julie K. L., and Gail Cameron Wescott. "Book of Love". People 11 Nov. 2002: 115-116.
• Giles, Bethany A. "Cassandra King: Write What You Know". First Draft Fall. 2002: 2-4.
• Thompson, Bill. "Sunday Wife Mines Author's Experiences from Another Life". Charleston [S.C.] Post and Courier 20 Oct. 2002: 6G.

Reference Web Sites

• Cassandra King. 2004. http://www.cassandrakingconroy.com/.
• "Cassandra King". bookreporter.com. 2007. http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-king-cassandra.asp.
• "Cassandra King Speaks with Karen Spears Zacharias". authors 'round the south. 2007. Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/content/view/138/49/.

Photo by Tamara Reynolds; courtesy of Cassandra King.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.