Ditch Pond Heritage Preserve, A Carolina Bay in Aiken and Barnwell Counties

Bio

Tom Poland is the author of twelve books and more than 1,500 magazine features and columns. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. Tom grew up in Lincoln County, Georgia, where four  English teachers gave him a love for language. People first came to know Tom’s work in South Carolina Wildlife magazine, where he wrote features and served as managing editor.

Among his recent books are Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia, Georgialina, A Southland, As We Knew It, and his and Robert Clark’s latest volume of Reflections of South Carolina, Vol. 2. Swamp Gravy, Georgia’s Official Folk Life Drama, staged his play, Solid Ground in 2011 and 2012.

He writes a weekly column for newspapers and journals in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture and speaks often to groups across South Carolina and Georgia.

Tom earned a BA in Journalism and a Masters in Media at the University of Georgia. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina where he writes about Georgialina—his name for eastern Georgia and South Carolina.

More About Tom

Tom writes about the South, its people, culture, land, and natural wealth. He travels back roads looking for forgotten places, captivating people, and vestiges of bygone times. Much of that work finds its way into books, columns, essays, and features.

He contributed to the anthology, State of the Heart, SC Writers Write About Their Favorite Places, with a foreword by Pat Conroy and published by the University of South Carolina Press.

The USC Press published, Georgialina, A Southland, As We Knew It, in the fall of 2015. Essays, columns, and features chronicle how the South endures despite change and the loss of traditions.

Writing that evokes a sense of place and fluid, lean prose appeal to him. Favorite writers are James Salter, Cormac McCarthy, Pat Conroy, and James Dickey.

A Georgian and University of Georgia alumnus, he lives in Columbia where he writes about Georgialina, the region encompassing Georgia and South Carolina that he calls his native land. He grew up in Lincolnton, Georgia, where football meant the world to him.