Frances Mayes's new novel A GREAT MARRIAGE (2024) tells the story of spirited Dara Willcox, a runaway bride, and of Austin Clarke, whose life must be reinvented after a shattering event. The aftershocks rattle the lives of three generations of women and men, causing an examination of the great mystery ride that is marriage and what it means when it's great, good, or time for the end.

(2023) PASTA VELOCE, 100 fast pasta recipes, was published, following (2020) ALWAYS ITALY, an intensive guide to the twenty regions of Italy. This won the SATWF Lowell Thomas Gold Medal Award, the Best Travel Book from NA Travel Journalists' Association, and for the German edition, The ITB Berlin Book Award.

Always attuned to the lure of travel and the equal pull of home, Frances explores both interests in A PLACE IN THE WORLD: FINDING THE MEANING OF HOME (2022). While A GREAT MARRIAGE explores "the unguessable country of marriage," (Angela Carter), A PLACE IN THE WORLD explores the equally unguessable meaning of home.

The novel WOMEN IN SUNLIGHT (2018) delves into possibilities and perceived impossibilities women face as they grow older. Three southern women become friends and decide to leap out of what is forecast for them and take on life in Italy. They've all had their share of loss but this is their year. Frances wrote the novel as a tribute to all the women she has met who have traveled to a foreign country in quest of enlightenment. The novel is in preproduction as a film by Water's End.

As is obvious from the above, Frances has a passionate interest in travel and houses. When she saw Bramasole, a neglected, 250-year-old Tuscan villa nestled in terraced olive groves, it was fate. Out of that instant infatuation came several international bestsellers: UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 2 1/2 years. In succession came other memoirs: BELLA TUSCANY, EVERY DAY IN TUSCANY, and then three collaborations with her husband, poet Edward Mayes: IN TUSCANY, BRINGING TUSCANY HOME, and THE TUSCAN SUN COOKBOOK, "one of the best Italian cookbooks of all time." (Forbes) All are about taking chances, living in Italy, loving and renovating an old Italian villa, and the "voluptuousness of Italian life." The film UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, starring Diane Lane as Frances, was released in 2003 and still enjoys world-wide popularity.

Frances finds that writing about travel doubles the pleasures of each. Her SEE YOU IN THE PIAZZA, travels to little-known places in Italy, and the travel memoir A YEAR IN THE WORLD: JOURNEYS OF A PASSIONATE TRAVELER examine the possibilities of feeling at home in a foreign country. Working with photographer Steven Rothfeld, she published SHRINES: IMAGES OF ITALIAN WORSHIP.

Coming from deep southern roots, Frances based her first novel, SWAN, a family saga, in her hometown, Fitzgerald, Georgia. UNDER MAGNOLIA, a memoir of her first twenty years, unwittingly caused the revelation of family secrets, one of which inspired THE GREAT MARRIAGE.

These books have been translated into over fifty foreign editions. Honorary citizen of Cortona and Arezzo, Frances has been awarded the Marco d'Oro prize, and the Premio Casato Prime Donne for a major contribution in the field of letters. She is a NEA Fellowship and a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

Formerly a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University, she directed The Poetry Center and chaired the Department of Creative Writing. Frances's first love is poetry. Prior to turning to prose, she was a widely published poet. Her books include: SUNDAY IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, AFTER SUCH PLEASURES, THE ARTS OF FIRE, HOURS, THE BOOK OF SUMMER and EX VOTO. From her teaching came THE DISCOVERY OF POETRY: A FIELD GUIDE TO READING AND WRITING POEMS.

Frances devotes herself to writing, traveling, and various restoration projects. She and her husband live in North Carolina and Cortona, Italy.

"Tuscany may have found its own bard in Frances Mayes."

-- The New York Times

I am a travel journalist based in Tuscany who loves discovering the world for The New York Times and other publications.