Author became fascinated with the role of women in the 18th Century American South while she was studying for her Ph.D in history at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Her curiosity prompted her to read through every slave narrative over a 100-year period, and her creativity prompted her to fill in what those records left to the imagination. That foray into fiction led to her first novel, "" (Harper Collins/2014).
Now, she has written a new novel based on the incomplete records of three men in southern Alabama: a white man, a black man and a Native American man. The three forge an unlikely partnership after they are accused of murder and flee through a land whose ownership is still up for grabs.
Host Frank Stasio talks with Smith about the novel "" (HarperCollins/2016).
