Susan Gregg Gilmore

Susan Gregg Gilmore is an American novelist specializing in Southern fiction. Her first book, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, was called a "stand-out coming-of-age novel" by famed NPR critic Alan Cheese. Her most recent novel, The Funeral Dress, was called a "revelatory novel that offers an evocative account of the lives of Appalachian working women" by Kirkus Reviews. Gilmore lives in Chattanooga, TN, with her husband and dog.

Susan Gregg Gilmore, the youngest of four children, was born in 1961 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her mother, a painter, and father, a businessman, moved the family to Washington, D.C. during Susan's high-school years where she attended National Cathedral School. She then studied at the University of Virginia where she worked as a reporter for the university's newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. Upon receiving her bachelor's degree in History, she worked as a secretary at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She later earned her master's degree in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1985, she married her husband, Dan. Together, they raised three daughters.

Gilmore worked as staff writer for the Chattanooga News Free Press before moving to Pasadena, CA. There she worked as a free-lance journalist, writing primarily for the "The Los Angeles Times." Others articles appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Parenting magazine, and Garden & Gun. Her essay, "An L.A. Beagle," appeared in Garden and Gun's" "Good Dog: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Loyalty" (Harper Wave, 2014). Her first novel, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen (Crown), was published in 2008. The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove (Crown) followed in 2010 and The Funeral Dress (Crown) in 2013. Gilmore is currently working on her fourth novel, also set in her native Tennessee.