About the Author
Born in Meridian, Mississippi, on
April 11, 1963, J. Gregory Keyes spent his early years roaming the
forests of his native state as well as the red-rock cliffs of the
Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona. Storytelling in his family
and on the reservation sparked an interest both in writing and in
the ancient. Pursuing the ancient, he obtained a B.A. in
anthropology from Mississippi State University. Moving to Athens,
Georgia, he worked ironing newspapers and as a night guard to
support his wife, Nell, in her metalworking/jewelry degree, and
also began seriously pursuing writing in his spare time.
Returning to anthropology, he earned a master's from the University of Georgia, concentrating on mythology and belief systems, long-standing interests that also inspire his fiction. He currently teaches introductory anthropology and a course on reconstructing Southeastern Indian agriculture while pursuing his Ph.D.
In leisure time, Keyes enjoys ethnic cooking—particularly Central American, Szechuan, and Turkish cuisine—heirloom gardening, and kapucha toli, a Choctaw Indian sport involving heavy wooden sticks and few rules.