A Great Literary Voice of the American South

“Landscapes of the Heart: The Elizabeth Spencer Story” is a documentary film offering a window into an extraordinary author's life and work, viewed through the prism of her Southern lineage. It features archival photography and film clips, re-enactments, and interviews with many of today’s most important writers of the American South.

Three years before “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Spencer authored “The Voice at the Back Door,” one of the earliest novels recounting racial tension in the South. Recommended for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize that was never awarded, her early works are now viewed as among the most important literature from a female writer of the 1950s and 1960s. This film shares the story of a remarkable literary career and a courageous woman, still writing today, whose books and stories about race, class, gender and politics continue to inspire.