Hal Crowther is the author of the essay collection Freedom Fighters and Hellraisers (Blair Press, 2019), which won the gold medal for nonfiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the gold medal for essays at the Foreword Review Awards. He is also the author of An Infuriating American: The Incendiary Arts of H.L. Mencken (University of Iowa Press, 2015); Gather at the River (Louisiana State University Press, 2005), a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle prize for criticism; Cathedrals of Kudzu (Louisiana State University Press, 2000), winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award and the Fellowship of Southern Writers Prize for nonfiction; and Unarmed but Dangerous (Longstreet Press, 1995). He won the American Association of Newsweeklies’ first prize for commentary in 1998 and the Baltimore Sun’ H.L. Mencken Writing Award in 1992. His column for Oxford American, “Dealer’s Choice,” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His essays have won Pushcart Prizes in 2014, 2018, and 2019.