RI Adult Fiction & Nonfiction Authors and Poets
This comprehensive listing was made possible by the Rhode Island Council of Teachers of English, Dr. Terry Novak, President and prepared by Muriel Sweeney (Chair) * Rory Senerchia * Althea Telford, Fall 2004.
(1947 - )
Born in Foster; lives in Westerly; short fiction: The Petrus Borel Stories (1990).
(1821 - 1880)
Governor; U.S. Senator; The History of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (2 volumes).
(1887 - 1954)
Lived in South Kingstown; poet; Sunderland Capture and Other Poems; Pulitzer (1940).
(1898 - 1943)
Summered in Peacedale from 1929 to mid-1930's; wrote short stories and poems; i.e. “John Brown’s Body.”
(1914 - )
Literary Scholar; various anthologies; lived in Providence.
(1948 - )
Born in Pawtucket; lives in Narragansett; celebrated humorist and cartoonist; author of several books depicting Rhode Islanders at their comic best and worst.
(1955 - )
Lives in Tiverton; poet; author of several books of poetry, among them Bad Judgement (1999).
(1939 - )
Summered in South Kingstown; novelist; Spartina (1989).
(1949 - )
Bryant University Link
Lives in Providence; poet laureate; winner of Galway Kinnell Poetry Prize.
(1943 - )
Providence; critic and author of numerous reviews; author of John Cheever (1977).
Novelist & short story writer: Crazy Heart, Acts of Contrition & Shavetail; Professor of Writing and Literature at Rhode Island College
(1878 - 1942)
Playwright; lyricist; born in Providence; “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Over There.”
(1938- )
Author of a number of books on Rhode Island and U.S. History.
(1789 - 1851)
Lived in Providence; wrote the Leatherstocking novels (The Deerslayer); also Red Rover (1827 - about the old Stone Mill in Newport).
Lived in Westerly; New Yorker Cartoonist, alter-ego known as Brother Sebastian.
(1912 - )
Lives in Providence; theatrical journalist and editor.
(1956 - )
Screenwriter; lived in Barrington; with brother Robert produced and directed There’s Something About Mary and Outside Providence.
Educator and author of The Invisible Seam and A Rhode Island Book of Days.
(1915 - 1998)
From Providence; writer, Television producer, involved with oral histories.
Suspense novelist; The Survivor’s Club (2002).
Lived in Rhode Island; studied at RISD (1878-80); wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.
Barrington; critic; reviewer.
(1942 - 2004)
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Actor, Playwright, from Barrington; Swimming to Cambodia.
(1822 - 1909)
Summered in Matunuck; writer and orator; “The Man Without a Country.”
(1945 - )
Novelist, lives in Providence; wrote Bitter Lake.
(1938 - )
First state poet; lives in Providence; Every Shut Eye Ain’t Asleep (1994) with Anthony Walton, eds.
(circa 1797)
Lived in Newport; wrote A Newport Romance; best known as a writer of westerns.
(1838 - 1905)
Writer; lived in Providence; biographer of Lincoln; private secretary to Lincoln; Secretary of State to McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
(1823 - 1911)
Lived in Newport; editor; friend and mentor of Emily Dickinson.
(1956- )
Novelist; born in West Warwick; lives in Providence; Somewhere off the Coast of Maine; The Knitting Circle.
(1707-1785)
Writer; signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Scituate; published The Rights of Colonies.
(1819 - 1910)
Poet; suffragist; lived outside Newport; wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
(1864 - 1960)
Born in Bristol; biographer; Barrett Wendell and His Letters; won a Pulitzer.
Lived in Newport; novelist; Daisy Miller; Portrait of a Lady.
Writer on spiritual guidance and holistic perspectives; Silent Passage: A Spiritual Journey.
(1927 - )
Poet; born in Providence; lived in Pawtucket; won a Pulitzer in 1982 for Selected Poems.
(1897 - 1956)
Poet; novelist; lived in Saunderstown; testified before Congress on universal copyright law passage.
(1901 - 1963)
Author; anthropologist; lived in Saunderstown; worth with Native Americans; Pulitzer for Laughing Boy (1929).
(1930 - )
Playwright; experimental theatre.
Grew up in Kingston; Pulitzer (2000) for Interpreter of Maladies; The Namesake (2003).
From Providence; biographer; A Life Beyond Cheaper by the Dozen (on the life of Lillian Gilbreth).
(1957 - )
Born in Providence; lives in Barrington; suspense writer; A Walk in the Darkness (2000).
(1922 - )
Commentator; writer; born in Pawtucket.
(1940 - )
Lives in Saunderstown; crime writer; Captain Butterfly.
Lives in West Greenwhich; wrote ‘38 The Hurricane in Quonochontaug.
(1890 - 1937)
From Providence; horror writer; called by one critic, “a pallid, scholarly necrologist,” considered the first science fiction writer.
(1946 - )
Lives in Bristol; illustrator; writer; Cathedral, Castle.
(1933 - )
Born in Providence; All the Pretty Horses.
(1918 - 2005 )
Wakefield resident since 1958; science and children’s writer; wrote with her husband John Martin for The New Yorker; novel The Burning Bed.
A travel journalist and author of nine books, Mr. Mandel lives in Providence.
Travel writer; lives in Newport; Rhode Island Explorers Guide with Tom Gannon.
(1954 - )
Lives in Burrillville; author of mysteries and medically based novels; Thunder Rise (1989).
(1779 - 1863)
Poet; born in Providence; lived in Newport; “A Visit from St. Nicolas” (1823).
(1902 - 1971)
Lived in Newport; poet; humorist.
(1918 - 1968)
Born in Providence, grew up in Woonsocket; wrote of the Irish American Experience; The Last Hurrah.
(1942 - )
Born in Peru; lives in Providence; wrote Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Power of Fiction (1986); poetry; An Emotional Life (1997).
(1839 - 1923)
Poet; bibliographer; compiled: Bibliography of Rhode Island Literary Women (1726 - 1892) published in 1893.
(1946 - )
Poet; lives in East Greenwich; The Sea is Not Full.
(1904 - 1979)
Lived in Providence; humorist; screenwriter; One Touch of Venus.
(1940 - )
Born in Providence; known for his novels detailing the lives of Franco-Americans; The Family; The Country.
(1809 - 1849)
Poet; critic; briefly lived in Providence during his engagement to Sarah Helen Power Whitman.
(1926 - )
Lives in West Kingston; won an O. Henry award for her short story “Sunday’s Children” (1965); book reviewer; Legacies (1987).
(1863-1938)
Lived in Rhode Island; Once Upon a Time in Rhode Island (1914).
Playwright; lives in Providence; Only in America.
(1920 - )
Poet; playwright; lived in Providence; Collected Poems (1987)
Author of 33 1/3: Soap Opera and winner of a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 2009 Merit Award for Individual Artist in Poetry.
Author of multiple biographies for young adults including Winston Churchill: Soldier, Statesman, Artist and Gandhi,
Great Soul as well as a novel, Braving the Fire. He lives in Westerly.
Lived in Providence; Around Again (2001).
(1913- 1981)
Born in Providence; lived in Wickford; wrote mainly histories; wrote radio scripts; The Fire’s Center: Rhode Island in the Revolutionary War (1979).
Journalist; won Pulitzer for investigative reporting of the RI Supreme Court; wrote The Prince of Providence on jailed mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci.
Lives in Rhode Island; physician-novelist; The White Life (1999)
Lives in Providence; author of cookbooks.
Mysteries set in Newport written by long-time resident of the city by the sea: Murder Stalks a Mansion
(1929 - )
Poet and critic; born in Newport; lives in West Kingston; Telling It (1975).
(1923 - )
Lives in Providence; poet; playwright; essayist; New and Selected Poems: 1942 - 1997.
Writing coach and author of Good & Mad: Transform Anger Using Mind, Body, Soul and Humor and The Ultimate Guide to
Transforming Anger.
(1852-1933)
Lived in Newport; poet; essayist; fiction writer.
(1951 - )
Playwright; lives in Providence; Pulitzer in 1998: How I Learned to Drive.
Author and biographer of novelist John Fowles (John Fowles: a Life in Two Worlds.) She has written books on the Newport Art Museum and the Redwood Library. She lives in Newport.
(1862-1937)
Lived in Newport; The Age of Innocence; Pulitzer in 1920-21.
(1603 - 1683)
Founder of Rhode Island; religious and political writer.
(1897-1975)
Lived in Newport; novelist; playwright; Pulitzer: The Bridge of San Luis Ray (1827); Our Town (1938).
(1860 - 1938)
Built a summer home in Saunderstown in 1913; died there in 1938; grandson of Fanny Kemble; wrote The Virginian.
(1937 - )
Novelist; wrote Providence (1986); lived in Jamestown.
(1949 - )
Lives in Barrington; poet laureate; Deepstep Come Shining (1998); The Readers Map of R.I. Authors (1999).
Children’s and Adolescent Literature
Illustrator of children’s literature.
Author of twenty-five books including Newbery Award winning Nothing but the Truth.
(1932 - )
Lives in Providence; Tuck Everlasting (1987).
Lives in South Kingstown; illustrator
Lives in Coventry; Marshmallow Kisses Flannel Kisses.
East Greenwich resident, author of Coal Country Christmas
Oldtime Baseball (1903); The First Modern World Series.
former RI poet laureate
(1913 - )
Lives in Providence; writes mysteries for children; Red Room Riddle.
Life History of a Star; Walking on Air.
author of Charlotte Bakeman Has Her Say
Tending to Grace.
Lives in North Scituate; Macintosh and the Mystery of Main Street.
Lives in Tiverton; The Crying Rocks.
The author of several picture books and chapter books about sports, cats and travel for children and young adults, Mr. Mandel lives in Providence.
Lives in Riverside; Daring to Vote.
Gopher Takes Heart.
Lives in Harmony-Gloucester; middle grades fiction; Billy Boone.
URI graduate; author of seven novels; Fault Line; Vote for Larry.
(1949 - )
Writer and illustrator; lives in Providence; The Polar Express (1985)
Benno’s Bears.
Sources
Enright, Rosemary, South Country Authors, Rhode Island State Services, 1979.
Huettman, Sue, “Rhode Island Authors.”
Wright, C.D. A Readers Map of Rhode Island. Lost Road Publishers, 1999.