Biography

Cassandra King’s first novel, Making Waves in Zion, was published in 1995 by River City Press and reissued in 2004 by Hyperion. Her second novel, The Sunday Wife (2002), was a Booksense Pick, a People Magazine Page-Turner of the Week, a Literary Guild Book-of-the-Month selection, a Books-a-Million President’s Pick, a South Carolina State Readers’ Circle selection, and a Salt Lake Library Readers’ Choice Award nominee. In paperback, the novel was chosen by the Nestle Corporation in its campaign to promote reading groups.

Released in 2005, King’s third novel, The Same Sweet Girls, became a #1 Booksense Selection and Booksense bestseller, a Southeastern Bookseller Association bestseller, a New York Post Required Reading selection, and a Literary Guild Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and a Southeastern Bookseller Association Bestseller. King’s latest novel, Queen of Broken Hearts, has been hailed as “wonderful,” “uplifting,” “absolutely fabulous,” and filled with irresistible characters” by fellow Southern writers Sandra Brown, Fannie Flagg, Dorothea Benton Frank.

King’s short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Callaloo, Alabama Bound: The Stories of a State (1995), Belles’ Letters: Contemporary Fiction by Alabama Women (1999), Stories From Where We Live (2002), and Stories From The Blue Moon Café (2004). Outside her time working on her fiction, she has taught writing on the college, conducted corporate writing seminars, worked as a human-interest reporter for a Pelham, Alabama, weekly paper, and published an article on her second-favorite pastime, cooking, in Cooking Light magazine.

A native of L.A. (Lower Alabama), King currents lives in the Low Country of South Carolina with her husband, novelist Pat Conroy, whom she met when he wrote a blurb for Making Waves.

Most recent publications:
"Lady Jane," short story, Thema literary journal, 1994
"Lady Jane," reprinted, Alabama Bound, anthology, 1995
Making Waves in Zion, novel, River City Press, 1995
"Fig Picking," short story, Belles Letters anthology, 1998
"Teacher’s Pet," article, "Cooking Light" magazine, 1999
"A Courtroom in Maycomb," article, Callaloo literary journal, 2000
The Sunday Wife, novel, Hyperion, 2002
"Fig Picking," reprinted, Stories From Where We Live, Milkweed Press, 2002
"My Life is a Country Song," Stories from the Blue Moon Café, 2004
"Circle of Friends," Life Magazine, 2004
The Same Sweet Girls, novel, Hyperion, January 2005