“H” is for Humphreys, Josephine (b.1945)

“H” is for Humphreys, Josephine (b.1945). Novelist. Born in Charleston, Humphreys graduated from Duke and received a master of arts degree from Yale. After further study at the University of Texas she returned to Charleston to teach at Baptist College (now Charleston Southern University). Drawing praise for its finely honed language and strong characters, Humphreys first novel, Dreams of Sleep (1984) won the Ernest Hemingway Prize for a first book of fiction. Her second novel, Rich in Love (1987), was made into a film. Although Humphreys makes no attempt to capture the exact geography of Charleston, her first two novels bring the city to life, touching on its beauty, traditions, and troubled past as it clashes with the new development on its fringes. Josephine Humphreys’s fourth novel, Nowhere Else on Earth (2000), won the Southern Book Award in 2001.