Pat Conroy's 6 favorite contemporary Southern novelists

At The Daily Beast, novelist Pat Conroy (My Reading Life) tagged his six favorite contemporary Southern novelists.

One entry on his list:

To Dance With The White Dog by Terry Kay

I met Terry Kay when I served as chef for a group of men who met once a month in Atlanta. For a year, Terry would talk about his dad’s depression over the death of his wife of 57 years, Terry’s mother. Terry worried about his father’s senility because he kept telling his 12 children that a beautiful white dog came out of the woods each day to keep him company, and make him happy. Since no one else had ever seen such a dog, Terry was terrified the white dog was some delusion or strange vision. Then one of Terry’s sisters saw the dog standing up on their dad’s walker and dancing around the yard. Our men’s group went to Terry’s father’s funeral, where we heard that the white dog had disappeared. Terry turned that experience into To Dance With the White Dog, one of the most haunting, spiritual books ever written.

Read about another novelist on Conroy's list.

--Marshal Zeringue