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Born in Asheville and raised in North Carolina, Pamela Duncan draws on her Southern heritage for her novels, which deal with the familial and communal connections between women that sustain them through difficult times. Duncan was educated at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University in journalism and creative writing.

In Duncan's debut novel, Moon Women, three generations of the Moon family women come together to forge family bonds anew. Divorced and middle-aged, Ruth Ann wants to break free after an unhappy marriage. But when her unmarried 19-year-old daughter Ashley is released from rehab, Ruth Ann learns that Ashley is three months pregnant, and she is drawn into being a parent again. The family matriarch, Marvelle, at 80, is losing her hold on reality. Ashley finds herself drawn on a journey into her grandmother's past, which contains a secret that will have repercussions for them all. Ruth Ann's younger sister, Cassandra, hiding behind extra pounds, wishes she could escape her life, family, and obesity. Moon Womenis a poignant story about strong but flawed women who draw strength from each other in unexpected ways.

Duncan's second novel, Plant Life, (winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award, 2003, nominated for SEBA Book of the Year and Appalachian Book of the Year) introduces us to the women working at a textile mill in the small North Carolina town of Russell, at a time when the mills are struggling to survive. When Laurel Granger returns to her hometown to visit her mother in the aftermath of the breakup of her marriage, she discovers, against her will, the support of an unlikely community of mill women. Laurel comes to see their lives not as suffocating, but as a source of strength. Fortified by the life lessons taught to her by these extraordinary women, she begins to deal with her complicated relationship with her mother and learns to live and love again.

Both novels deal with the common theme of intergenerational relationships between women, the nature of family and true friendship, and the ability of women to help other women-sisters, daughters, mothers, and friends--through tough times. Duncan continues the tradition of Southern writers such as Fanny Flagg and Rebecca Wells, capturing the voices she heard around her growing up in the rural South. Silas House, author of Clay's Quilt describes Plant Life as, "sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, but always real. Pamela Duncan doesn't just write a great novel - she pours her heart out onto the page, giving a piece of herself to the reader." Publishers' Weekly called Duncan a "from-the-heart quirky storyteller" while the Raleigh News and Observer finds Moon Women"genuinely poignant.alternately funny and touching and sad" and Plant Life "full of love". Duncan creates realism through dialogue, from the dialect employed in Moon Womento bring the voice of the mountains into the novel to the individual italicized "voices" given to each character in Plant Life.

Duncan is currently at work on her third novel, Hurricane Season, which will be a new chapter in the life of Cassandra of Moon Women.

--Caroline Patton

www.pameladuncan.com