Alice Randall
Alice Randall is an American author and songwriter. She is well known for her novel and New York Times bestseller The Wind Done Gone, which is a reinterpretation and parody of the popular 1936 novel Gone with the Wind.[1]
Alice Randall | |
|---|---|
 Randall at the New York Comic Con | |
| Born | Mari-Alice Randall May 4, 1959 Detroit, Michigan, USA |
| Occupation |
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| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Genre | Historical fiction, political fiction |
| Spouse | David Ewing |
| Children | Caroline Randall Williams |
| Website | |
| www | |
Early life
Mari-Alice Randall was born on May 4, 1959 in Detroit, Michigan.[2] She attended Harvard University, where she earned an honors degree in English and American literature, before moving to Nashville in 1983 to become a country songwriter.[3] She currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Alice Randall was previously married twice, first to Avon N. Williams and then David Ewing.[4] She is a writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University and teaches courses including a seminar on the country music lyric in American literature.[5]
Career
Music
Randall is the first African-American woman to co-write a number-one country hit.[6] The single "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)" was released in 1994 by country music singer Trisha Yearwood. Over 20 of her songs have been recorded, including several top 10 and top 40 records; her songs have been performed by Trisha Yearwood and Mark O'Connor.[2]
Fiction
Randall is the author of six fiction novels:
- The Wind Done Gone (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001)
- Pushkin and the Queen of Spades (2004)
- Rebel Yell (2009)
- Ada's Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel (2012)
- The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess (2013) winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award
- Black Bottom Saints (2020)
Her first novel The Wind Done Gone, is a reinterpretation and parody of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. The Wind Done Gone essentially tells the same story as Gone with the Wind but from the viewpoint of Scarlett O'Hara's half-sister Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett's plantation.
Randall and her publishing company, Houghton Mifflin, were sued in April 2001 by Mitchell's estate on the grounds that The Wind Done Gone infringed the copyright of Gone with the Wind. The lawsuit, Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin Co., was eventually settled, allowing The Wind Done Gone to be published with the addition of a label describing it as "An Unauthorized Parody".[7] In addition, Houghton Mifflin agreed to make a financial contribution to the Morehouse College, a historically black education institution in Atlanta supported by the Mitchell estate.[2] The novel became a New York Times bestseller.[8]
Randall's second novel, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, was named as one of The Washington Post's "Best fiction of 2004."[9]
Non-fiction
Published by Random House in 2015, the cookbook Soul Food Love was co-written by Randall and her daughter, the author and poet, Caroline Randall Williams. In February 2016, the book received the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Literature (Instructional).[10]
In 2006, Alice Randall also wrote My Country Roots, alongside Carter and Courtney Little. She published this non-fiction piece in Nashville, by Naked Ink.[5]
Awards
Randall received the Al Neuharth Free Spirit Award in 2001[11] and the Literature Award of Excellence from the Memphis Black Writers Conference in 2002. She was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award in 2002.[3] Randall was inducted into the Silver Circle in 2008, in honor of her work in the country music industry.[5] Randall was also accepted for a prestigious writing residency at the famed Yaddo artist's community from June 23, 2011, to July 24, 2011.[12] Randall and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, received the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Literature (Instructional) for their book, Soul Food Love.[10]
Songs
- The Ballad of Sally Anne – Mark O'Connor, River City Ramblers
- Big Dream – Samantha Mathis
- Blinded By Stars – Adrienne Young
- Get the Hell Out of Dodge – Walter Hyatt
- Girls Ride Horses Too – Judy Rodman
- I'll Cry for Yours (Will You Cry for Mine) – Tamra Rosanes
- Many Mansions – Moe Bandy
- Reckless Night – The Forester Sisters
- Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls) – Holly Dunn
- Solitary Hero – Carole Elliot
- The Resurrection – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
- Went for a Ride – Radney Foster
- Who's Minding the Garden – Glen Campbell
- XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl) – Trisha Yearwood
See also
References
- Green, Penelope (September 16, 2009). "At Home with Alice Randall: What Matters Most". New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
- Paula J. K. Morris, "Randall, Alice 1959–", Contemporary Black Biography, 2003. Encyclopedia.com.
- Biography on Alice Randall Official Website, accessed February 9, 2007.
- "Digital Archive Login". connect.liblynx.com. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
- "Alice Randall CV" (PDF). Retrieved July 10, 2019.
- "An African American History Month Special: A Look at 'The Wind Done Gone,' a Parody of 'Gone With the Wind' Told From a Slave's Perspective" Archived February 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Democracy Now, February 21, 2002, accessed February 9, 2007.
- Calvin Reid, "HM, Mitchell Estate Settle 'WDG' Suit", Publishers Weekly, May 10, 2002.
- "'Wind Done Gone' fifth on Amazon, 11th on New York Times best-seller list". Nashville Post. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
- "The best of 2004, brought to you by our eclectic band of reviewers". The Washington Post, December 5, 2004.
- "NAACP Image Awards – Inside the Show". Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
- Al Neuharth Free Spirit Award Past Honorees, Freedom Forum
- Patterson, Jim. "Vanderbilt writer Alice Randall accepted for Yaddo residency". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
