Sharyn McCrumb (born February 26, 1948) is an American writer best known for books that celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and is the author of the best-selling Ballad novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains; the NASCAR series featuring St. Dale; and the Elizabeth McPherson mystery series.
Sharyn McCrumb was born Sharyn Elaine Arwood on February 26, 1948, in Wilmington, North Carolina.
McCrumb is a Southern writer, perhaps best known for her Appalachian Ballad novels, including The New York Times bestsellers The Ballad of Frankie Silver and She Walks These Hills, and for St. Dale, winner of a Library of Virginia Award and featured at the National Festival of the Book. The Devil Amongst the Lawyers (2010) deals with the regional stereotyping of rural areas by national journalists. The Ballad of Tom Dooley (2011) tells the true story behind the celebrated folk song. In 2008 McCrumb was named a Virginia Woman of History for Achievement in Literature.
Educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a master's degree in English from Virginia Tech, McCrumb was the first writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee. In 2005, she was honored as the Writer of the Year at Emory & Henry College.
Her novels, studied in universities throughout the world, have been translated into eleven languages, including French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Arabic, and Italian. She has lectured on her work at Oxford University, the University of Bonn-Germany, and at the Smithsonian Institution. McCrumb has also taught a writers workshop in Paris and served as writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee and at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York.
In 2008 McCrumb was honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "Virginia Women in History" for her career.
McCrumb is the author of The Ballad Novels, a series set in the Appalachian Mountains. These books weave together the legends, geography and contemporary issues of Appalachia, and each centers on an event from North Carolina history. She is also the author of the Elizabeth MacPherson mystery series, though her career has evolved beyond genre fiction.
In 2005, NASCAR racing fan McCrumb wrote St. Dale. Her inspiration for the novel came from her study of medieval literature at Virginia Tech and her desire to update Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. It was Dale Earnhardt who became the saint of her tale, complete with the Dale Earnhardt Pilgrimage of fans.
These are satirical novels set in the world of science fiction conventions and fandom.
Winners are in bold