F Rutledge HammesAs the oldest in a family of ten, stories of family come naturally to F. Rutledge Hammes. His grandparents moved out to the Sea Islands early in their marriage and made friends in the Gullah community, and he grew up enamored by all the stories and flklore he was told as a child. He has long believed that magic is at the heart of Charleston, SC, and so magic must be at the heart of the Charleston novel. Rutledge earned his MFA in fiction from Old Dominion University. He is presently Director of the Creative Writing program at the Charleston County School of the Arts, the most awarded middle- and high-school writing program in the nation, and is the 2019 South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow. Read More Read Less