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Allan Gurganus: How I Write

Carolina In My Mind

Allan Gurganus’s debut novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, became an instant classic when it was published in 1989. In his long-awaited follow-up, Local Souls, Gurganus returns to Falls, NC, to present three novellas about the new South. He talks to Noah Charney about using different handwriting for his manuscripts, why he doesn’t outline, and how he made his father proud.

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Mark Lennihan/AP,Mark Lennihan

NC: Where did you grow up?

AG: I was born in Rocky Mount, NC. The town of 24,000 proved a great place to spend the first 17 years of life.

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