Shirley Ann Grau

Who Is Shirley Ann Grau?

Shirley Ann Grau is a well known writer. She is also known as Shirley Grau. She is famous for writing novels that are set in the Deep South. Her novels look at big issues like race and gender.

She wrote about things that are important to people. Her writing is popular because it talks about real life problems. She is a great example of a writer who can make people think about important issues.

Early Life and Background

Shirley Ann Grau was born on July 8, 1929.

Career and Claim to Fame

Shirley Ann Grau is famous for her writing. She wrote many novels that are set in the Deep South. One of her most famous novels is The Keepers of the House. You can find out more about her on her website.

Her Most Famous Novel

The Keepers of the House is a novel that won a very important prize. This prize is called the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won it in 1965. This novel is set in a town in Alabama.

Birthday, Age and Zodiac

Shirley Ann Grau was born on July 8, 1929. She is 97 years old. Her zodiac sign is Cancer. People who are Cancers are known for being caring and sensitive.

Fun Facts and Legacy

Shirley Ann Grau is a great writer. She wrote many novels that people love to read. She is famous for writing about the Deep South and big issues like race and gender. We know she was born on July 8, 1929 and she is 97 years old. She is a Cancer which means she is a caring and sensitive person.

She is a well known writer who won a very important prize for her novel The Keepers of the House. She is an example of a writer who can make people think about real life problems. We can find out more about her on her website.

Shirley Ann Grau is a great example of a writer who can write about important issues. She is a famous writer who will always be remembered for her great novels.

Shirley Ann Grau - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Shirley Ann Grau

Shirley Ann Grau (July 8, 1929 – August 3, 2020) was an American writer. Born in New Orleans, she lived part of her childhood in Montgomery, Alabama. Her novels are set primarily in the Deep South and explore issues of race and gender. In 1965 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for her novel The Keepers of the House, set in a fictional Alabama town.

This profile of Shirley Ann Grau covers Early Life and Family Background, Career and Rise to Fame, Themes and Personal Life.

Early Life and Family Background of Shirley Ann Grau

Grau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 8, 1929. Her father was a dentist; her mother was a housewife. She grew up in and around Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, with her mother. She graduated in 1950 Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. Degree from Newcomb College, the women's coordinate college of Tulane University.

Career and Rise to Fame of Shirley Ann Grau

Grau's first collection of stories The Black Prince was nominated for the National Book Award in 1956. Nine years later, her novel The Keepers of the House was awarded the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It deals with an interracial marriage that was illegal, and the implications of the mixed-race children later passing as white.

The morning she was called about the Pulitzer Prize, she thought it was a practical joke from a friend whose voice she thought she recognized. "'I was awfully short-tempered that morning because I'd been up all night with one of my children,' Grau said... 'So, I said to the voice I mistook, "yeah and I'm the Queen of England too," and I hung up on him.'" The Pulitzer Prize committee member did not give up and called her publisher Alfred A. Knopf. "The news got to me, but that was embarrassing."

Themes

Grau's writing explores issues of death, destruction, abortion, and miscegenation, frequently set in historical Alabama or Louisiana. Although she did not restrict her writing to the Deep South or stories about women, she is recognized as an important writer in the fields of women's studies, feminist literature, and Southern literature.

Personal Life

In 1955 Grau married James Feibleman, a fellow writer and a professor of philosophy at Tulane University. The pair were introduced by Grau's friend, a student of Feibleman. She legally changed her surname to his but retained her maiden name when writing. Together, they had four children—two sons (Ian and William) and two daughters (Nora and Katherine). The family settled in Metairie, on the outskirts of New Orleans. They were still married when he died in 1987. Grau died on August 3, 2020, at a retirement home in Kenner, Louisiana. She was 91 and had suffered from complications of a stroke.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Ann_Grau), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.