Gerry Wilson

Major Works

Books

• Crosscurrents and Other Stories (2015)

 

Short Stories

• Mating
• Book of Lies
• Sparrow, Sparrow
• Pieces
• Something Borrowed
• Signs
• Appendix
• The Taste of Salt
• Crosscurrents
• Wives
• The One to Go

Biography of Gerry Wilson

Gerry Wilson is a native Mississippian who grew up in Pontotoc in north Mississippi. She is an only child and grew up in a household with her maternal grandmother and her  parents.  Her grandmother was a compelling storyteller, and Wilson remembers her grandmother taking care of her when she was very sick in the second grade and bringing her little ‘surprises’ or stories to relieve her boredom.

After graduating from high school, Wilson went to the University of Mississippi where she earned a B.A. in English and Psychology. She then earned a Master’s degree in English from Mississippi College (1992). She was formerly married to a medical doctor with whom she has four sons.

Her first job was writing specs for installation manuals for Bell South. She also worked as a preschool teacher at Jackson Academy. For over 20 years, Wilson taught English and creative writing to high school students, but she retired in 2005 and is now pursuing a writing career. She has written poetry, novels, and short fiction.  Her debut collection of short stories, Crosscurrents and Other Stories, was published in 2015 by Press53.  Its eleven stories have different female protagonists.  The photo on the cover was taken by her son, Clay Jones.  Wilson  also has written two unpublished novels which are still in progress:  Spirit Lamp and Whatever House.

She was awarded the Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship in 2015. Her short story, Mating, was the winner of Prime Number/Press 53 Short Fiction Contest (2014).  According to Wilson’s web site, “The first chapter of Spirit Lamp won the “Best Of” award in Jane Hamilton’s novel workshop at Writers in Paradise, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida (2011) and was published in the conference anthology Sabal 2011: Best of the Conference Workshops.”

 

Wilson and her second husband Austin Wilson, a retired Millsaps English professor, who is also a published poet and fiction writer, live in Jackson, Mississippi.  She is the mother of four children and grandmother of seven, plus stepgrandmom to her husband’s three grandsons.

She appeared at the 2016 Mississippi Book Festival on the Short Stories Panel in Jackson which was narrated by Mississippi writer Margaret McMillan.

  Related Websites

• Gerry Wilson’s author website
• Blog post by Gerry: Great Expectations: Ten Things to Expect When You Launch Your Book by Gerry Wilson
• Q&A with author Gerry Wilson (Clarion-Ledger, 2015)
• Gerry Wilsons’ profile on She Writes
• Books by Gerry Wilson’s Bed

Bibliography

• Gerry Wilson’s author website
• Q&A with author Gerry Wilson (Clarion-Ledger, 2015)