Diane C. McPhail
Official Panelist
2023 Participant · Fiction · Historical

Diane C. McPhail is an award winning author of two historical novels: The Abolitionist's Daughter and The Seamstress of New Orleans, with a third novel on the perilous first steamboat voyage on the Mississippi River, scheduled for release in September of 2024. Diane is deep into research and travel for a fourth novel set in 1700 France, where she lived as a student. She was recently interviewed on NPR, The Reading Life. She received an Award for Literary Excellence from Santa Barbara Literary Journal. Diane was featured on LiveTalks LA in conversation with Jane Smiley (Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres); has presented at The Historical Novel Society National Conference; Western Carolina University Literary Festival; The Mississippi Book Festival; Women's National Book Association, Louisiana Literary Festival, Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, Portola Valley Arts Guild with Stanford professor, William B. Gould IV, and Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.
Diane lives in an old grist mill in Highlands, North Carolina, with her husband, Ray.
Book Title(s)
- The Seamstress of New Orleans: A Novel