[Artwork by KINGDOM KILPATRICK]
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Harry Crews, an author best known for his gritty tales of the rural South, died Wednesday in Gainesville, Fla. He was 76 and had suffered from neuropathy, said his ex-wife, Sally Ellis Crews. “He had been very ill,” she told The Associated Press on Thursday. “In a way it was kind of a blessing. He was in a lot of pain.” Crews, author of 17 novels and numerous short stories, also taught graduate and undergraduate fiction writing workshops at the University of Florida from 1968 until his retirement in 1997. In a 1992 interview with Tammy Lytal and Richard D. Russell at Memphis State University in Memphis, Tenn., Crews said about writing, “If you’re gonna write, for God in heaven’s sake, try to get naked. Try to write the truth. Try to get underneath all the sham, all the excuses, all the lies that you’ve been told.” MORE