Alabama Authors Directory

The Alabama Authors Directory is a resource for readers, editors, publishers, educators, librarians, program planners, and the simply curious to discover and learn more about writers with connections to the state.

Authors directly submit their entries via this form, including publications, availability for programs and workshops, and contact information. Easily searchable and updated, the directory will grow and become more valuable with each entry.

Alabama authors are writing in every genre, for every age and interest, and in just about every corner of the world. From the new and emerging to the underknown to the best known, the Alabama Authors Directory is a resource to discover writers and works that reflect our rich, lively literary culture.

All information is provided by authors or their representatives. Entries are published as submitted after review for format and appropriateness. AWF reserves the right to screen and deny any content deemed inappropriate.

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Thomas R. Atkins

Hometown: Mobile, Alabama Lives in: ,

Contact Information

  • Email: atkinst651@gmail.com

Address:

  • Preferred Contact Method: Email, Form on My Website

 

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About Thomas R. Atkins

Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Drama, Film

Available for: Readings, Workshops, School Programs, In Person, Remote

Bio: Thomas R. Atkins, novelist, playwright and scriptwriter, was born in Mobile and spent much of his childhood on Hollingers Island, roaming the swamps or fishing and swimming in the bay. His novel The Bay Road is set on Hollingers Island just after WW2. His first full-length play was staged at Murphy High when he was a senior. HIs novel Spirit of the Jaguar is set in British Honduras (now Belize) where his father had a banana plantation. He attended Duke University and Yale School of Drama on …Read More a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. His thriller The Blue Man was selected by author John D. MacDonald as one of his favorite novels of the year. He co-authored a bestselling non-fiction book The Fire Came By which features an introduction by Isaac Asimov and has been translated into half a dozen languages. He wrote the scripts for two Emmy Award-winning National Geographic television specials narrated by Sir David Attenborough. His comedy Pigeons takes place in Mobile during Mardi Gras.

Works: Novels:
The Bay Road. Independently published, 2023.
The Midnight Tapestries. Independently published, 2024.
Spirit of the Jaguar. Independently published, 2024.
The Terrace of Infinity. Independently published, 2025.
The Blue Man. Doubleday, …Read More 1978.
Nonfiction:
The Fire Came By. Co-author with John Baxter, Doubleday, 1976.
Plays:
Circus Maximus. Row, Peterson, 1959.
Pigeons. Staged at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, 1986.
Fire and Ice. Independently published, 2025.
Report from Limbo: A Poverty Oratorio. Southern Humanities Review, 1970.
The Three Graces. Mill Mountain Review, 1972.
Anthologies:
Frederick Wiseman. Simon & Schuster, 1976.
Ken Russell. Simon & Schuster, 1976.
Science Fiction Films. Simon & Schuster, 1976.
Sexuality in the Movies. Indiana University Press, 1975.
Television scripts:
Hawaii: Strangers in Paradise. BBC-TV Special, 1991.
Great White Shark. BBC-TV Special, 1995.

Awards:

The Three Graces was staged at the University of Georgia as First Prize Winner in their New Play Competition.
Hawaii: Strangers in Paradise and Great White Shark, BBC-TV Specials which he wrote, both received Emmy Awards.

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