Frances Mayes

Infobox Writer
name = Frances Mayes

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birthdate = 1940
birthplace = Fitzgerald, Georgia
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occupation = Novelist
Poet
Professor
nationality = American
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Frances Mayes (born 1940) is an American university professor, poet, memoirist, essayist, and novelist.

Born in Fitzgerald, Georgia, and raised in south central Georgia, Mayes attended Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and obtained her BA from the University of Florida. In 1975 she earned her MA from San Francisco State University, where she eventually became Professor of Creative Writing, director of The Poetry Center, and chair of the Department of Creative Writing.

Mayes has published several works of poetry: "Climbing Aconcagua" (1977), "Sunday in Another Country" (1977), "After Such Pleasures" (1979), "The Arts of Fire" (1982), "Hours" (1984), and "Ex Voto" (1995). In 1996 she published the book "". The book is a memoir of Mayes buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in rural Cortona in Tuscany, a region of Italy. It went to Number One on the New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for over two years. In 2003 the film "Under the Tuscan Sun" was released. Adapted to the screen by director Audrey Wells, the movie was loosely based on Mayes's book. In 1999, Mayes followed this literary success with another international bestseller, "Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy", and in 2000 with "In Tuscany". Mayes's first novel, "Swan", was published in 2002.

Also a food-and-travel writer, Mayes is the editor of "The Best American Travel Writing 2002" and the author of "A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller" (2006), tales of her and her husband's travels.

Now writing full time, she and her poet husband divide their time between homes in Hillsborough, North Carolina and Cortona, Italy.

Book

* (Text by Frances Mayes), "Shrines: Images of Italian Worship", by Steven Rothfeld,Doubleday, 2006. ISBN 978-0385-51887-1

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/features/mayes/author.html Frances Mayes website] at Random House
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Persondata
NAME=Mayes, Frances
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Memoirist, poet
DATE OF BIRTH=1940
PLACE OF BIRTH=Fitzgerald, Georgia
DATE OF DEATH=
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