Charles Frazier

Charles Frazier is an American author of literary historical fiction whose novels are closely associated with the landscapes and history of the American South. Raised in the mountains of western North Carolina, he studied at the University of North Carolina and Appalachian State University before earning a doctorate in English from the University of South Carolina. His debut novel, Cold Mountain, follows a wounded Confederate deserter travelling home during the closing stages of the American Civil War. Published in 1997, it became an international bestseller and won the National Book Award for Fiction.

Frazier’s later novels include Thirteen Moons, which explores frontier expansion and Cherokee removal; Nightwoods, a story of violence and isolation in twentieth-century Appalachia; and Varina, centred on Varina Davis and the collapse of the Confederacy. The Trackers moves to Depression-era America, following an artist sent across the country in search of a missing woman. Across his work, Frazier combines journeys through difficult landscapes with themes of war, displacement, memory and survival, often examining the human consequences of major changes in American history.