Claire Hamner Matturro was raised on tales of errant, unhinged kith and kin, whiskey making, ghosts, and the War Between the States—in other words, classic Southern Gothic tales befitting her Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast roots. Inspired by such stories, she wanted to be a novelist but pursued more gainful and steady employment first. Which is to say she has been a newspaper reporter and a lawyer and taught at Florida State University College of Law and as a visiting professor of legal writing at the University of Oregon School of Law. Claire and her husband, Bill, also own an organic blueberry farm in Georgia, where they lived for many years.
After the lawyering years, Claire returned to her love of storytelling and began writing fiction. Her big break came when a vice-president at HarperCollins took a chance on Claire’s comedic legal thriller set on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The resulting Lilly Belle Cleary series of books won several awards. These days, Claire is writing more serious fiction but still with an eye toward the Florida Gulf Coast, where she, her husband, and their rescue cat now thrive. Claire remains active in writers’ groups and environmental groups and, as an avid reader and reviewer, regularly contributes to Southern Literary Review and Compulsive Reader. Visit her at www.clairematturro.com