About
Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Roosevelt’s Little White House. He calls the nation’s capital home now and has for over three decades. He is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress where he is surrounded by books and people who love books—in short, paradise. He is a contributing editor for WELL READ Magazine and co-host of the Inside Voices podcast alongside author Robert Gwaltney.
Red Clay Suzie is his first novel, a fictionalized memoir written through his personal lens as an outsider—gay and living with a disability in a conservative family and community in the Deep South.
He is the Pat Conroy Literary Center Spring 2024 Writer-in-Residence. Red Clay Suzie was Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize, named an Indie Next List Pick, and awarded the Seven Hills Literary Prize for Fiction. It will be available in paperback for the first time on March 5, 2024.
You can learn more about Jeffrey at JeffreyDLofton.com.
Featured Work
Red Clay Suzie
Fueled by tomato sandwiches and green milkshakes, and obsessed with cars, Philbet struggles with life and love as a gay, physically-misshapen boy in rural Georgia.
He’s happiest when helping Grandaddy dig potatoes from the vegetable garden that connects their houses. But Philbet’s world is shattered and his resilience shaken by events that crush his innocence and sense of security; expose his physical deformity skillfully hidden behind shirts Mama makes for him at home on her Singer; and convince him that he’s not fit to be loved by Knox, the older boy he idolizes to distraction.
Over time, Philbet finds refuge in unexpected places and inner strength in unexpected ways, leading to a resolution from beyond the grave.
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Longlist
- American Booksellers Association Indie Next List Pick
- Seven Hills Literary Prize for Fiction
- Foreword INDIES Silver Book of the Year for LGBTQ+ Fiction
- A Lambda Literary Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Book
- Pat Conroy Literary Center 2024 Spring Writer in Residence
