Bailey White
(b. 1950)

Bailey White was born in Thomasville, Georgia in 1950. Her father was a fiction writer and her mother was a farmer. After graduating from Florida State University in 1973, White returned to Thomasville and began a career as a first-grade teacher. She held this position until 1994, when she decided to take a break from teaching in order to write full time.

In 1990, White's life took a dramatic turn when she became a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. On this program, White talks about rural life in Georgia. This theme made its way into her first book, a memoir, Mama Makes up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living (1993). Mama Makes up Her Mind is a series of vignettes about rural life dominated by the character of her eccentric mother. This book spent 55 weeks on the best-seller list. Her next book, Sleeping at the Starlite Motel and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home (1995), was also a best seller. Although similar in theme and style to her first book, Sleeping at the Starlite Motel focuses on her experiences while travelling at both home and abroad. White changed the nature of her writing with her latest book, Quite a Year for Plums (1998), when she went from writing her memoirs to writing fiction. White continues to live in Thomasville, in the house in which she was raised.

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