John Lane has long been recognized as one of the South's finest poets and memoirists. This debut establishes him as one of our finest novelists as well. His poet's eye for detail seamlessly merges with a born storyteller's gift for narrative. Fate Moreland's Widow gives voice to those who endured one of the most painful and neglected chapters in American history.

Cool-Hand Luke' is one of my favorite movies.

I love learning about different dialects and I own all sorts of regional and time-period slang dictionaries. I often browse through relevant ones while writing a story. I also read a lot of diaries and oral histories.

I think that's what I love about writing, is the ability to try to, in a sense, take a vacation from yourself and try to enter the sensibility of another time, another character, another place.

Faulkner came from my region and taught me how you could write about a place.

One of my goals is to allow readers to see my characters and the world they inhabit as vividly as possible.

One thing's sure and nothing surer. The rich get richer and the poor get- children