Author Philip Shirley, Photo by N. Jacobs
Major Works
- The White Lie (2014)
- Oh, Don’t You Cry for Me (2008)
Biography of Philip Shirley
Mississippi writer Philip Shirley was born in Alabama and has lived in Texas and Florida. He currently resides on Barnett Reservoir in Mississippi near Madison with his wife, painter Virginia Shirley. He has published more than 100 works, including a novel called The White Lie and a collection of short literary fiction entitled Oh Don’t You Cry For Me. He has also written two books of poetry; and with author David Magee, a non-fiction work about professional baseball and its relationship to the Louisville Slugger called Sweet Spot: 125 Years of Baseball and the Louisville Slugger.
Shirley’s book Oh Don’t You Cry for Me was a finalist for the Jefferson Prize. He has received numerous awards for his fiction, speech writing, poetry and feature writing. He was a contributing author of Opportunity in Adversity: How Colleges Succeed in Hard Times, and has been published in Stories from the Blue Moon Café, an anthology of short stories edited by Mississippian Sonny Brewer. In addition to his writing, Shirley is also CEO of the ad agency GodwinGroup in Jackson, Mississippi.
Shirley was the keynote speaker at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Mississippi Writer’s Guild in 2016 in Natchez.
He is currently working on a novel entitled The Graceland Conspiracy.
Author Philip Shirley, Photo by N. Jacobs