National bestselling author, Janna McMahan, is known for gritty truth telling and storylines filled with moral complexities. Often set in lush Southern landscapes, her prickly domestic dramas read like thrillers populated with messy and complicated characters.

“A novelist I greatly admire once told me to write about the ugly, difficult parts of life that people experience, but nobody is willing to talk about,” McMahan said. “That’s the greatest piece of writing advice I’ve ever received. I love weaving tales about ordinary people doing messed-up things.”

McMahan’s novels have been chosen as a “Need to Read” selection for Target stores nationwide and nominated for the SIBA book award and the Kentucky Literary Award. Her short story collection was a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Fiction Award and her novella was part of an anthology selected for the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and USA Today’s bestseller lists. She’s won a number of short fiction awards and her stories and personal essays have been widely published.