About
Tony Ray Morris spent his childhood in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia and Eastern Kentucky. Much of his fiction and poetry reflect the region's lasting influence. After working over a decade as a machine operator in a paper factory, he enrolled in college and eventually found his calling in journalism. He's won several writing awards, including the Louisiana Literature Poetry Prize and the Tennessee Writers Alliance Poetry Prize. He lives with his wife, poet Danelle LeJeune, and their four children, two cats, and a dog in a farmhouse nestled in Southeast Georgia.
Featured Work
Deep River Blues
When the body of a young girl washes up on the shores of the French Broad River, Cord McRae, newly elected sheriff of Acre County, Tennessee, suspects her death might be connected to a commune just outside the small town of Falston. Guru/leader Levon Gladson and a hundred and twenty-five followers have moved into an old farm that butts up to the Smokies, and Cord suspects they may be growing something more profitable than sorghum cane up in the hills. The mystery's complicated by a second recent murder of an Afghan vet; the growing power of a local "hillbilly" mafia operated by the wily Thorn Reevers; and his own marriage, which is teetering on the edge of divorce over past violence and Cord's on-again, off-again love affair with liquor. With echoes of Winter's Bone and the novels of James Lee Burke, Deep Rivcer Blues is a superb and gripping addition to the crime thriller genre.
Other Works
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Pulling at a Thread
2017
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Tony Morris' Greatest Hits
2012
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Back to Cain
2005
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Fugue's End
2004
Awards and Recognition
- Louisiana Literature Prize
- Tennessee Writers Alliance Award
- Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award
