Major Works
Teresa Nicholas, photo courtesy of the author
- Buryin’ Daddy: Putting My Lebanese, Catholic, Southern Baptist Childhood to Rest, a memoir (2011)
Biography of Teresa Nicholas
Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Teresa Nicholas graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in English literature. She worked in New York at Crown book publishing for twenty-five years. Since 2002 she has been a freelance writer, a regular contributor to Delta magazine, Mississippi magazine, and NPR’s Opinion Page.
Nichols is married to the writer Gerard Helferich. They live both in Yazoo City and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Nicholas is a travel writer for Fodor’s in Mexico and Guatemala.
Her memoir Buryin’ Daddy has received praise from many Mississippi writers. Nicholas is a descendant of Lebanese Catholic immigrants on her father’s side and Baptist sharecroppers on her mother’s. Growing up, her life was rocked by conflicting opinions, especially her father’s stance on civil rights. In her book, Teresa Nicholas uncovers truths about her 1950’s childhood and her parents, bringing insight into the lives of her family through several generations–her grandmother now consigned to assisted living, her siblings, her friends, and especially her parents. The memoir tells of living in the South in the mid-twentieth century with its friendliness, charm, prejudices, and cruelties.