20 Debut Novels by Your Favorite Southern Writers

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver's first novel was published in 1988 and follows a woman traveling from Kentucky to Arizona. Her novels The Poisonwood Bible, Prodigal Summer, The Lacuna, and Flight Behavior, among other novels and nonfiction, followed.

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Catherine Carmier by Ernest J. Gaines

Ernest J. Gaines' career spanned many decades and saw the publication of such lauded novels as A Gathering of Old Men and A Lesson Before Dying in 1983 and 1993, respectively, but his debut novel, entitled Catherine Carmier, appeared years before in 1964.

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Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg

While Fannie Flagg's best-known work is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, which was published in 1987, her first published book was Coming Attractions. It was published in 1981 and retitled Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man when it was reissued in 1991.

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The Great Santini by Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy's debut novel, The Great Santini, was published in 1976. He self-published an earlier collection, entitled The Boo, in 1970, and his memoir, The Water Is Wide, which is based on his experiences as a teacher on Daufuskie Island, was published in 1972.

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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers's debut novel was The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and it's still one of her best-known works. She followed that with Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding, and The Ballad of the Sad Café, among other works.

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Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi's first novel, was published in 2016 and won the American Book Award and the the PEN/Hemingway Award for a book of debut fiction. Her second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, was published in 2020.

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If Morning Ever Comes by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler has published twenty-four novels and many short stories. Her novels are often set in Baltimore, where she makes her home. Her first novel was If Morning Ever Comes, which was published in 1964 and is set in North Carolina.

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Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston

Published poems and plays during the 1920s, and her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine, came out in 1934. Their Eyes Were Watching God, her most well-known work, was published three years later in 1937.

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Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones

This coming-of-age story is set in Atlanta and follows three fifth graders during a tragic time in the city's history. It was published in 2002 and was followed by Jones's novels The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, and An American Marriage.

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Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry's first novel, a coming-of-age story entitled Nathan Coulter, was published in 1960. In the decades since, he published other novels, including The Memory of Old Jack, Jayber Crow, and Hannah Coulter, as well as many essays and works of nonfiction.

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Native Son by Richard Wright

Richard Wright's bibliography includes many books of nonfiction and essays as well as novels written between 1938 and 1960. Native Son was his first published novel, but earlier work included a 1938 novella collection entitled Uncle Tom's Children.

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The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy's best-known novels include Blood Meridian (1985) and No Country for Old Men (2005), but the first book he published was The Orchard Keeper in 1965. All the Pretty Horses was published in 1992 and won the National Book Award.

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Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

After publishing a short story, Miriam, in 1945, Truman Capote wrote his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, which was published in 1948. Other novels, novellas, and 'nonfiction novels' came later, including The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965). An early novel entitled Summer Crossing, which Capote began in the 1940s, was posthumously published in 2006.

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The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty

Eudora Welty's first published novella was The Robber Bridegroom (1942), and her first published novel was Delta Wedding (1946).

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The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Secret History, Donna Tartt's debut novel, made a splash when it was published in 1992. It's a story about a new arrival to a fictional northeast college who falls in with a group of mysterious classicists and their charismatic teacher.

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Soldiers' Pay by William Faulkner

William Faulkner's first novel, Soldiers' Pay, was published in 1926. It was soon followed by Mosquitos in 1927, and Sartoris and The Sound and the Fury in 1929.

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The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker

Alice Walker's first novel was published in 1970. She followed that with many short story collections, poetry collections, novels, and non-fiction. The Color Purple, her best-known novel, was published over a decade later in 1982.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Harper Lee's debut novel was published in 1960. She didn't publish another novel until 2015's Go Set a Watchman, though she did conduct research for a true crime novel inspired by events that transpired in Alabama in the late 20^th century.

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Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward

Where the Line Bleeds: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward — amazon.com

Set in the fictional Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage, Where the Line Bleeds is Jesmyn Ward's first novel. Her second novel, Salvage the Bones, and third, Sing, Unburied, Sing, are also set in southern Mississippi. Both won the National Book Award for Fiction.

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The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson's debut novel is The Family Fang, which was published in 2011 and tells the story of two siblings returning to their family home after years away. He published an earlier collection of stories, entitled Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, in 2009.

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