Elizabeth Spencer is the author of a dozen works of fiction, including The Night Travellers, The Light in the Piazza, Jack of Diamonds, and The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction. Her memoir is called Landscapes of the Heart. She was awarded the 2001 Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and is the winner of five O. Henry Awards. Spencer is a founding member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.