Alice Randall

Alice Randall (born Detroit, Michigan) is an American author and songwriter. Randall grew up in Washington, D.C.. She attended Harvard University, where she earned an honors degree in English and American literature, before moving to Nashville in 1983 to become a country songwriter. [ [http://www.alicerandall.com/about.html Biography on Alice Randall Official Website] , accessed Feb. 9, 2007] She currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee and is married to attorney David Ewing.

Country music career

Randall is the first African American woman to write a number one country hit. [ [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0253212 "An African American History Month Special: A Look at "The Wind Done Gone," a Parody of "Gone With the Wind" Told From a Slave's Perspective] , Democracy Now, February 21, 2002, accessed Feb. 9, 2007] Over 20 of her songs have been recorded, including several top ten and top forty records; her songs have been performed by Trisha Yearwood and Mark O'Connor.

Fiction

Randall is also a novelist, whose first novel "The Wind Done Gone" is a reinterpretation and parody of "Gone with the Wind." "The Wind Done Gone" is essentially the same story as "Gone with the Wind", only told from the viewpoint of Scarlett O'Hara's half-sister Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett's plantation. The estate of Margaret Mitchell sued Randall and her publishing company, Houghton Mifflin, on the grounds that "The Wind Done Gone" was too similar to "Gone with the Wind", thus infringing its copyright. The lawsuit was eventually settled, allowing "The Wind Done Gone" to be published. The novel became a New York Times bestseller.

Randall's second novel, "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades", was named as one of "The Washington Post"'s "Best fiction of 2004."

Awards

Randall received the Free Spirit Award in 2001 and the Literature Award of Excellence from the Memphis Black Writers Conference in 2002. She was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award in 2002.

References

Novels

* "The Wind Done Gone" (2001)
* "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades"

External links

* [http://www.alicerandall.com Official site]