About The Author
Delia Owens is an American author and zoologist born in 1949, in southern Georgia. Owens is the author of “Where the Crawdads Sing,” a #1 New York Times bestseller, published in 2018 (Granberry). Growing up in Thomasville she learned from a young age how to do well in the wilderness. This stemmed from the teachings of her mother as her and her family spent a great amount of time outdoors. Delia’s experiences, such as family vacations to the North Carolina mountains, shaped her love and appreciation for nature and wildlife. Now, Owens considers Nature “a true companion”. Since her childhood, Delia Owens has always loved to write, and that love continued into her adulthood. As she grew up, Owens’s interest fluctuated between the two disciplines. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Owens attended university, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in zoology at the University of Georgia and a PhD in animal behavior from University of California-Davis (Owens 2019). During her undergraduate years, Owens met her husband Mark, who also studied science at the University of Georgia (Owens 2019). In 1974, following her graduation, Owens and her husband began to pursue research opportunities in Africa, studying lions and hyenas in the Kalahari region of Botswana and elephants in the North Luangwa Valley of Zambia (Kimura 2019, Owens 2019). Owens and her husband conducted ecological research in Africa for twenty-three years, culminating in the publishing of their coauthored novel Cry of the Kalahari, inspired by their findings among African wildlife (Gale Biography Collection). Following the cessation of their more than twenty years of research in the 1990s, Delia and Mark Owens returned to the United States and later divorced. Through the 1990s and 2000s, Owens continued to pursue her interest in fusing writing with her scientific background, authoring various journals and other novels inspired by her findings (Gale Biography Collection). After writing and publishing three bestselling nonfiction studies, Owens took to the stage of the New York Times list where her first novel, Where the Crawdads Sing, promptly took its place. Owens used the experiences that she had in Africa in writing about the social sciences in Where the Crawdads Sing. Karis Mahaffey at the School of Ecology at the University of Georgia wrote that “The time Owens spent in Africa influences her fictional writing in many ways” mentioning that “being surrounded by the animals every day, she became extremely interested in the structure of their societies” (Maheffey, 2019). This famous novel is all about, “a lost soul's wildness, deeply human instincts, and the sometimes-fragile bonds that connect us with others,” (Granberry). Drawing from her own experiences the novel tells the story of a young girl who must survive the “Carolina marshes” and becomes quite knowledgeable of the wilderness. While her fiction novel may be a slight change from her usual work, it has blown the minds of many readers allowing it to receive recognition from big names, such as the New York Times. Delia plans to continue down this path and draw upon her knowledge and experiences to shape a story. Her first fiction work, has sold more than 4.5 million copies and has spent sixty-seven weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List (Gruesser 2020). Now residing in Idaho, Owens continues to write, passing her free time in the wilderness, riding horses, and watching moose, bears, and elk roam the meadows near her home (Owens 2019).
Citations
OWENS, MARK J., and DELIA D. OWENS. “Feeding Ecology and Its Influence on Social Organization in Brown Hyenas (Hyaena Brunnea, Thunberg) of the Central Kalahari Desert.” African Journal of Ecology, vol. 16, no. 2, 1978, pp. 113–135., doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.1978.tb00433.x.
Owens, Delia, and Mark Owens. The Eye of the Elephant: an Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Mahaffey, Karis. “Inspired by Nature: A Conversation with Delia Owens.” Odum School of Ecology, 14 Jan. 2020, www.ecology.uga.edu/inspired-by-nature-delia-owens/.
Owens, D., Owens, M. Helping behavior in brown hyenas. Nature 308, 843–845 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/308843a0
Owens, Delia, and Mark Owens. The Eye of the Elephant: an Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness. Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
Gale Biography Collection. "Delia Owens." 2019. Gale in Context: Biography. Gale. Web. 14 February 2021. <https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Biographies&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=MultiTab&hitCount=1&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CK1650011859&docType=Biography&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAM-MOD1&prodId>.
Gruesser, John. "The Crawdads Sing in Poe Country: Delia Owens's Bestseller and 'The Gold-Bug'." The Edgar Allan Poe Review 21.1 (2020): 109-115. Web. 14 February 2021. <https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=944e880a-46fd-4cd1-91e7-9f8a793a9026%40pdc-v-sessmgr06>.
Kimura, Marianne. "An Ecological Allegory in Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing." (2019). Web. 14 February 2021. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337443639_An_ecological_allegory_in_Delia_Owens'_Where_the_Crawdads_Sing/citation/download>.
Owens, Delia. About the Author. 2019. Web. 14 February 2021. <https://www.deliaowens.com/about-the-author>.
Granberry, Michael. “Delia Owens, Author of a Coming-of-Age Story That Became a No. 1 Bestseller, Is Headed to Dallas.” Dallas Morning News, The (TX), 26 April 2019, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W62819492889&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Guardian [London, England]. “Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens review -- in the swamps of North Carolina; This lush debut about an isolated girl who finds education and solace in nature is already a US bestseller.” Gale.com, Gale General OneFile, 12 January 2019, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A569221822/ITOF?u=24034&sid=ITOF&xid=13a56d99.
OWENS, MARK J., and DELIA D. OWENS. “Feeding Ecology and Its Influence on Social Organization in Brown Hyenas (Hyaena Brunnea, Thunberg) of the Central Kalahari Desert.” African Journal of Ecology, vol. 16, no. 2, 1978, pp. 113–135., doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.1978.tb00433.x.
Owens, Delia, and Mark Owens. The Eye of the Elephant: an Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Mahaffey, Karis. “Inspired by Nature: A Conversation with Delia Owens.” Odum School of Ecology, 14 Jan. 2020, www.ecology.uga.edu/inspired-by-nature-delia-owens/.
Owens, D., Owens, M. Helping behavior in brown hyenas. Nature 308, 843–845 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/308843a0
Owens, Delia, and Mark Owens. The Eye of the Elephant: an Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness. Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
Gale Biography Collection. "Delia Owens." 2019. Gale in Context: Biography. Gale. Web. 14 February 2021. <https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Biographies&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=MultiTab&hitCount=1&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CK1650011859&docType=Biography&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAM-MOD1&prodId>.
Gruesser, John. "The Crawdads Sing in Poe Country: Delia Owens's Bestseller and 'The Gold-Bug'." The Edgar Allan Poe Review 21.1 (2020): 109-115. Web. 14 February 2021. <https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=944e880a-46fd-4cd1-91e7-9f8a793a9026%40pdc-v-sessmgr06>.
Kimura, Marianne. "An Ecological Allegory in Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing." (2019). Web. 14 February 2021. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337443639_An_ecological_allegory_in_Delia_Owens'_Where_the_Crawdads_Sing/citation/download>.
Owens, Delia. About the Author. 2019. Web. 14 February 2021. <https://www.deliaowens.com/about-the-author>.
Granberry, Michael. “Delia Owens, Author of a Coming-of-Age Story That Became a No. 1 Bestseller, Is Headed to Dallas.” Dallas Morning News, The (TX), 26 April 2019, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W62819492889&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Guardian [London, England]. “Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens review -- in the swamps of North Carolina; This lush debut about an isolated girl who finds education and solace in nature is already a US bestseller.” Gale.com, Gale General OneFile, 12 January 2019, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A569221822/ITOF?u=24034&sid=ITOF&xid=13a56d99.