Dawn Shamp received an MFA in writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She received a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference on a grant from the Durham Arts Council. A native of Roxboro, N.C., she now lives in nearby Durham. This is her first novel -- inspired by photos and stories of her paternal grandmother, Lizzie Adair (at the top of the tree with friends, below). Lizzie died when Dawn was an infant, but her legacy remains as a beloved and Conspicuous Woman -- a Model T owner and peanut vendor as well as a Roxboro phone company hello-girl.