American · b. 1949
Delia Owens was a wildlife scientist for decades before she wrote her first novel at sixty-nine. Where the Crawdads Sing (2018) became a publishing phenomenon—one of the bestselling books of all time, with over 18 million copies sold, adapted into a 2022 film. The novel draws on her years studying wildlife in the coastal marshes of the American South and in Africa, where she and her then-husband Mark Owens conducted lion and elephant research in Botswana and Zambia. Their nonfiction books, including Cry of the Kalahari, were bestsellers. Owens holds a Ph.D. in animal behavior from UC Davis. Her fiction blends nature writing, coming-of-age narrative, and murder mystery. She lives in the mountains of Idaho, still observing wildlife, though legal controversies from her time in Africa have shadowed her success.