Paul Byall grew up in Ohio and received degrees from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and the University of California. He lived in Barcelona, Spain, for six years and in New York City for ten years before moving to Savannah, Georgia, where he now writes full time. He is the award-winning author of numerous essays and short stories. His first published story, written while a student at the University of California, received mention as a “distinguished story” in The Best American Short Stories anthology. He is the recipient of the 2011 Porter Fleming Short Story Award, the 2010 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and the 2009 New South Fiction Award. His historical novel, Occitania, based on the Cathar Crusades of the 13th century, was a finalist for the James Jones Literary Fellowship and a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom First Novel award. He has recently completed a new novel, Ridgeland, which is looking for a home.