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Jennifer Leigh
Youngblood
Author of Livin' in High Cotton
From her earliest days, Jennifer
Leigh
Youngblood has loved to read. “There have been many times when I would get
interested in a book and stay up reading until the wee hours of the
morning.” She especially loves southern literature. Gone with the Wind,
To Kill a Mockingbird, and Cold Sassy Tree are a few of her
favorites. Jennifer grew up in a rural town in Alabama where “everybody
knows your life story and your brother’s life story, your sister’s life
story and so on.” Growing up in such a small, close-knit community might
seem confining to some, but not to Jennifer. She is proud of her southern
heritage, believing that, “The oddities that make up the southern culture
give it distinction.” Jennifer’s love of writing began as a young teenager when
she wrote stories for her high school English teacher to critique. She has
written many poems and plays for personal and family use, but Livin’ in High
Cotton is her first published work. Jennifer would have probably taken
her writing more seriously at an early age were it not for her circumstance. She
and her husband, Patrick, owned a monthly newspaper entitled The Senior Times
in Rome, Georgia,
where she worked as the editor. She remained the editor until 1994 when her
first child was born, whereupon they sold their newspaper so that she could
devote her full time to raising a family. In the midst of their hectic lives,
the couple remodeled several homes as well. |
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In the spring of 2000, Patrick’s job took the family to Ft.
Worth, Texas. It was there (with no house to remodel) that Jennifer grew serious
about her writing and began working on Livin’ in High Cotton. Set in
rural Alabama during the 1920’s and 30’s, Livin’ In High Cotton required
an extensive amount of research. This particular time was a turning point in
southern history. The cotton industry, the livelihood that southerners had
always depended on, was failing, and cotton was no longer king. Livin’ in
High Cotton explores how southerners faced and overcame these challenges.
Jennifer says, “Writing Livin’ in High Cotton gave me the opportunity to
unearth and bring to life the legends of my childhood. I wanted to break down
the ignorant, dejected, ‘Hee Haw’ stereotypes that are so commonly depicted.
These were strong people who faced their challenges with courage and dignity. I
have the highest admiration for these gritty, stubborn people who toiled their
life away on a strip of land in a remote area of Alabama.”
Jennifer’s biggest challenge is balancing her writing with
family life and church responsibilities. She does not have the liberty of
secluding herself to a cabin in the woods for months on end. She, like the
Victorian author Jane Austen, does most of her writing in the midst of her
family. Some of her greatest inspiration has come while visiting museums with
her children or running them to activities. For Jennifer, writing is a lot like
putting together a puzzle. At the onset of every novel, she takes a while to get
to know her characters, and then she lets them have free reign. “The characters
I write about become real to me,” she says. Jennifer and her mother, Sandra,
write as a team. Jennifer loves working with her mother. She enjoys the feedback
and appreciates the wealth of experience which Sandra has. The two are currently
working on their second novel which is also set in Alabama but in the present.
Jennifer is from Alabama. She is a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and attended Brigham Young
University-Hawaii where she studied English and served as Miss BYU-Hawaii
in 1989. She later attended Berry College in Rome, Georgia. She now lives in the mountains of Tennessee.
She can be reached at
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