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Madison Smartt Bell (born August 1, 1957, in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American novelist who upon receiving his BA from Princeton (79) and his MA in English and Creative Writing from Hollins College (81) began teaching creative writing. He taught for the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. In 1984, he joined Goucher College becoming a Professor of English and then Director of the Kratz Center for Creative Writing (1999-2008). In 2008, he received the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Bell is described as a “southern writer” both by “inheritance and in his love for language, emphasis on storytelling, fondness for eccentric characters, and sense of the mysterious power of place.” His work has earned respectful critical attention and high praise for its energy and artistry. He is particularly known for All Souls’ Rising, Master of the Crossroads, and The Stone That the Builder Refused, novels that focus on Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution. After reading them you will describe Bell as “…imaginative, brilliant, and compassionate…”
He received the Lillian Smith Award, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 1996, Granta magazine called him one of “the best American novelists under 40”. Bell's books have been translated into eight languages. He is also a literary journalist and contributes to The New York Times, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and The Boston Globe,
Bell is married to the poet, Elizabeth Spires, and they have one daughter.
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