Olympia Vernon

Olympia Vernon (born May 22, 1973) is an African-American author who has published three novels: Eden (2002), Logic (2004), and A Killing In This Town (2006). Eden won the 2004 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.[1] Vernon was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and grew up in Mount Hermon, Louisiana and Osyka, Mississippi.[1] The family had seven children. Her father, Fletcher Williams, Jr., graduated from the University of Mississippi. Vernon attended South Pike High School in Magnolia, Mississippi. She received a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1999.[1] She also earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University in 2002.[1]

She wrote Eden while in graduate school. In 2005 she received the Louisiana Governor's Award for Professional Artist of the Year. In 2007-08 Vernon was the Hallie Ford Chair in Writing at Willamette University.[1] In 2007, she won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for A Killing In This Town.[1]