Ann B. Ross

Last updated
Ann B. Ross
Born North Carolina, U.S.
Occupationauthor, university instructor
Alma mater University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Asheville
GenreCozy mystery, mystery
Website
www.missjulia.com

Ann B. Ross is and America author noted for her series of New York Times bestsellers set in her home state of North Carolina [1] [2] This comedic cozy mystery series features Miss Julia, whose name appears at the beginning of each title in the series. [1] [3] Ross also taught literature and humanities at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. [1] [4]

Contents

Early life

Ross attended Blue Ridge Community College and Armstrong College before completing her B.A. in literature at the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1984, while her children were also at university. [5] [6] [3] She earned an MA and PhD in Old English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 1991. [7] [1]

Career

Ross began her publishing career in the early 1980s with two paperback murder mysteries: The Murder Cure published in 1978 and The Murder Stroke published in 1981. [4] [3] They "didn't do very well" and she gave up on writing. [4] While a graduate student, she wrote The Pilgrimage, an adventure story about two North Carolina sisters who go west in the 19th–century as missionaries. [3] Doris Betts, a novelist and creative writing professor at UNC, put Ross in touch with agent Rhoda Weyr, who read The Pilgrimage and sold it to MacMillan Press in 1988. [3] However, sales were again limited. [4]

After 1991, Ross transitioned to a career as a university instructor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, when Miss Julia just "came into her head." [4] [1] Ross said, “For the first time in my life, I was no one’s daughter, niece, wife or mother. I was just Ann, and my identity came from my classroom performance alone. ...It was absolutely liberating.” [1] The fictional Miss Julia (aka Mrs. Wesley Lloyd Springer), is "a refined Southern woman" whose life is disrupted by the secrets of her deceased husband. [8] Ross writes from Miss Julia's perspective. [1]

Despite the prediction of an editor at William Morrow "that her audience would be limited to women over forty in the Southeastern United States", the first book in the series, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind , sold well and went through six printings its first year. [3] The Independent Booksellers Association ranked in #9 on its list of recommended books for the year. It also was named to the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers list." [9] Reader's Digest Condensed Books issued the book in twelve different languages." [4]

The novels' plots often depend on points of North Carolina state law to do, for example, with inheritance, mental competence, and a mother's fitness to care for her child (as in Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind and Miss Julia Takes Over). One of the common themes in the series is hypocrisy among the clergy. [3]

The Miss Julia series is popular among book club s in the United States and is also successful in Germany, Japan, and Poland. [4] [7] Ross is particularly proud of a fan letter from Dolly Parton. [1] In 2017 Miss Julia Inherits a Mess was nominated for a Southern Book Prize by the Southern Independent Booksellers Association. [10]

When Ross wrote Miss Julia Goes Rogue featuring the same character as a brutal and sexy vampire, "Ross’ publisher, unwilling to upset the original Miss Julia brand, refused to green-light the project." [11] Journalists at a newspaper in western North Carolina included Ross along with Woody Harrelson, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and Gladys Knight in a spoof of crowd-sourced funding campaigns in order to get this novel published [11]

In 2021, Ross ended the 22-volume series with Miss Julia Happily Ever After.“ [12] Ross said, "As I wrote Happily Ever After, a series of changes in my personal and professional lives were converging in such a way that I began to feel that somebody was trying to tell me something. Miss Julia and the ones she loves are in a good place right now, nothing that needs to be wrapped up is pending, most questions have been answered, no one is languishing in jail [and] everybody is home where they’re supposed to be, so it all felt like a good place to just let go.” [12]

Columbia Tri-Star Productions optioned Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind which is under consideration for either a film or television series by independent producers. [12]

Personal life

Ross married Dr Marion Ross. [13] The couple have two daughters and one son. [14] [9] . Ross lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina, the basis for the town in the Miss Julia books. [1] Until 1977, they lived in an historical house built in 1836 that inspired Miss Julia's house. [13]

In 2010 UNC-Asheville honored her as a Distinguished Alumna for her career as a novelist. [5]

Publications

Novels

Novelette

Related Research Articles

Asheville, North Carolina City in North Carolina, United States

Asheville is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 12th-most populous city. According to the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 94,589, up from 83,393 in the 2010 census. It is the principal city in the four-county Asheville metropolitan area, which had a population of 424,858 in 2010, and of 469,015 in 2020.

Thomas Wolfe American novelist

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was an American novelist of the early 20th century.

University of North Carolina at Asheville Public liberal arts university in Asheville, North Carolina

The University of North Carolina Asheville is a public liberal arts university in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. UNC Asheville is the only designated liberal arts institution in the University of North Carolina system. UNC Asheville is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.

Zebulon Baird Vance 19th-century American politician from North Carolina

Zebulon Baird Vance was the 37th and 43rd Governor of North Carolina, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina and a Confederate officer during the American Civil War.

Charles Brantley Aycock American politician

Charles Brantley Aycock was the 50th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1901 to 1905. After starting his career as a lawyer and teacher, he became active in the Democratic Party during the party's Solid South period, and made his reputation as a prominent segregationist.

John Ehle American writer

John Marsden Ehle, Jr. was an American writer known best for his fiction set in the Appalachian Mountains of the American South. He has been described as "the father of Appalachian literature".

T. C. Roberson High School Public school in North Carolina, United States

T.C. Roberson High School is a high school in the Buncombe County Schools System in Asheville, North Carolina. It is located at 250 Overlook Road, Asheville, NC 28803. TC Roberson High School was founded when Valley Springs High School and Biltmore High School were combined to form one high school. It is named for Thomas Crawford Roberson, a former Superintendent of Buncombe County Schools and the architect of the consolidation of 21 county high schools into the 6 county high schools that exist today. Its school newspaper is the Golden Fleece. It has two feeder schools – Valley Springs Middle School and half of the students at Cane Creek Middle School.

Sweet Potato Queens is a women's organization based in Jackson, Mississippi, that has over six thousand registered chapters in over twenty countries.

Cecil Bothwell American politician

Cecil Bothwell is an American politician, writer, artist, musician and builder. Bothwell was elected to the Asheville, North Carolina city council in 2009 and reelected in 2013, but lost in the 2017 primary, coming in 7th out of 12 candidates.

Blue Ridge Rollergirls Roller derby league

The Blue Ridge Rollergirls (BRRG) is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in 2006, Blue Ridge held its first competitive season in 2007, joined the WFTDA Apprentice Program in 2010, and became a full member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) in March 2012.

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra is a professional orchestra in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The symphony's current conductor and Music Director is Darko Butorac who succeeded Daniel Meyer in 2018.

Terry Van Duyn American politician

Teresa Van Duyn is a former Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. She represented District 49, which encompasses most of Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina from 2014 until 2021.

Sudie Bond was an American actress on film, stage, and television.

Wiley Cash is a New York Times best-selling novelist from North Carolina. He is the author of three novels, A Land More Kind Than Home, This Dark Road to Mercy, and The Last Ballad. His work has won numerous awards, including the Southern Book Prize twice, and the Crime Writers' Association's CWA New Blood Dagger and Gold Dagger.

Clifton Freeman Cash is an American stand-up comedian from North Carolina.

<i>Palimpsest</i> (podcast) Horror podcast

Palimpsest is a horror podcast created by Jamieson Ridenhour and Hayley Heninger with music by Ian Ridenhour.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Foster, Eden (May 26, 2004). "About Miss Ann". BlueRidgeNow.com. Retrieved 12 Dec 2018.
  2. ↑ Bernhard, Johnnie (13 July 2017). ""Miss Julia Weathers the Storm," by Ann B. Ross". Southern Literary Review: A Magazine for Literature of the American South. Retrieved 14 Dec 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Michaelson, Elizabeth. "Following the Church Lady's Voice: Ann B. Ross on "Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind"". iUniverse.com (Interview commissioned by Barnes and Noble for publication by iUniverse in 2000 in conjunction with publication of the paperback edition of the book in the article's title.). Barnes and Noble. Archived from the original on 21 November 2000. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Martin, D. G. (23 July 2005). "Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia's School of Beauty". North Carolina Bookwatch (TV broadcast). PBS/UNCTV. Retrieved 23 Feb 2019.
  5. 1 2 "National Alumni Awards". University of North Carolina-Asheville Alumni. Retrieved 28 April 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ↑ "Ross, Ann B. | Encyclopedia.com". Encyclopedia | Cengage. Retrieved 2022-08-12.
  7. 1 2 "Alumni class notes". UNC Asheville Magazine. Spring–Summer 2010. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 13 Dec 2018.
  8. ↑ Schaefer, Cindy (13 April 2015). "Ann B. Ross: Creator of 'Miss Julia' headed to the Triangle". The News and Observer. Retrieved 13 Dec 2018.
  9. 1 2 Sides, Derrick (21 May 2015). ""Miss Julia" author Ann B. Ross to visit Asheboro". Randolph Arts Guild. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 14 Dec 2018.
  10. ↑ Martin, D. G. (11 June 2017). "WNC writers vie for Southern Book Prizes". Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC). Retrieved 23 Feb 2019.
  11. 1 2 Xpress Staff; Marshall, Alli (4 January 2019). "(SATIRE) Crowd-source campaigns worth the ante". Mountain Express. Retrieved 21 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. 1 2 3 Arnaudin, Edwin (April 1, 2021). "Ann B. Ross concludes her Miss Julia series — maybe". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  13. 1 2 Moss, Bill (29 November 2013). "Brookland Anchored a Vast Estate". Hendersonville Lightning. Retrieved 21 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ↑ "HCWP Events: Ann B Ross: Tea Time and Signing". Hub City Writers Project. Retrieved 13 Dec 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.