Works by
Rosemary Daniell
(Writer)
[1935 - ]

Biography/Memoirs

• Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex, and Suicide in the Deep South (1999) -- Winner 1999 Palimpsest Prize; Time Magazine "Book of the Year"
  When Fatal Flowers was first published it ignited controversy—and not only in the Deep South. Today, write Rosemary from across the country to tell her how her books have changed their lives. Fatal Flowers is the brutally honest memoir of her coming of age amidst the contradictions and tensions of a region that, while drenched in eroticism, is punitive and repressive toward female sexuality. Her attempt to come to terms with her mother's suicide is central to her struggle in which she tells of her painful growth from passive girl to liberated woman, passing through the trying terrain of Bible Belt guilt, male supremacy, and the myth of the Southern Belle. Writing intimately and explicitly, Rosemary cast a mold for memoir writers to follow.

• Sleeping With Soldiers: In Search of the Macho Man  (1984)
  Sleeping with Soldiers is Rosemary Daniell's story of her search for the macho man, the exploration of her deep attraction to men who live dangerously, who are frankly and naturally masculine. Daniell, an outspoken feminist, writer, poet, and memoirist identifies with the risks these men take in the name of freedom and sensation, and like many independent women, she is drawn to them despite their tendency to drink too much, live too fast, and sometimes display a brutal brand of male chauvinism. To discover why, she set off on a cross-country journey that took her from a job as one of four women on an offshore oil rig to the wilds of Wyoming, and home again to Savannah. On one level a female adventure story, the book is her own personal odyssey into the world of the macho man; on a deeper level, a subjective and imperative exploration of her most primal feelings toward the other sex. In both cases, a journey necessary for her to reconcile the male/female parts of herself. Filled with Daniell's experiences and insights and those of the men and women she meets on the road, Sleeping with Soldiers is a funny, raunchy, revealing examination of women's love-hate relationship with macho men.

Essays

• Confessions of a (Female) Chauvinist (2001)
  Rosemary Daniell is the quintessential rebel Southern female who still embraces her roots, and it is that love-hate relationship that is at the deepest core of her creativity. Daniell's classic memoir, Fatal Flowers, became a roadmap for Southern women in the communal quest to confront and explore the stereotypes that have long repressed and silenced them.
  
  Confessions of a (Female) Chauvinist, a collection of Daniell's most powerful essays, is destined to become a classic in its genre, a milestone which explores what happens when a Southern woman breaks the rules.
  
  From "The Feminine Frustration," the first trade magazine coverage of the women's movement in the Southeast, to "The Deer Who Loved To Be Hunted: A Reflection On Dickey's Women," a treatise on women who survive a powerful man with soul intact, and those who do not, Daniell has always been at the forefront of writing about the bedrock issues defining contemporary society.
  
  Daniell is renowned for her forthright portrayal of the sexual revolution, both that of the individual male and female, and that of society. "In Search of the Macho Man," the genesis of her acclaimed memoir, Sleeping with Soldiers, and "Why I Like Tough Guys—The Real Kind," verify she is a (female) chauvinist who also loves men.
  
  An adept investigative reporter, Daniell's "The Scandal that Shook Savannah" was the first national coverage of the Jim Williams murder trial in Savannah, Georgia, well before Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt;.
  
  In Confessions, Daniell, for whom writing is truly a lifeline, facilitates for women from all walks of life the journey to help them reclaim—or claim for the first time—their creativity, despite the forces against them.

Fiction

• The Hurricane Season (1992)
  Although Easter O'Brian abandons a comfortable marriage and the advice columns of the fifties to pursue her own artistic vision and sexual desires, she remains a devoted mother to her children.

Non-fiction

• Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women's Lives (2006)
  For more than twenty-nine years (at the time of publication), Rosemary Daniell -- Southern belle, successful writer, and tireless champion of female empowerment has -- led Zona Rosa, a writing workshop for women that's founded on the premise that writing can be not only a creative challenge but a tool for healing. Here, she shares the secrets of Zona Rosa: practical advice and home-grown Exercises that help you face and think through writing issues, and life in general. You'll learn how to avoid the 13 (Possible) Boo Boos that plague everyone's writing. You'll bring yourself to Write About the Thing I Most Don't Want to Write About and will learn how facing the difficult past can lead to breakthroughs. You'll discover The Emotional Tai Chi of Getting Your Work Out There, with suggestions for painlessly sending your work into the world. Along the way, you'll meet some of the many women who've improved their writing and lives through the sisterhood, constructive advice, and wacky fun of Zona Rosa. And you'll be inspired by Daniell herself, who's weathered personal tragedy, bad love, and her own writing issues to come out singing. Secrets of the Zona Rosa is essential reading for any woman who writes and who's lived.

• The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way (1997)
  In The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself, Daniell, known for her stylish and controversial memoirs, Sleeping with Soldiers and Fatal Flowers, shares what she has discovered as a poet, nonfiction, and fiction author, and, more importantly, how she has learned to give hope to others who also wish to write.
  
  She explains the stumbling blocks one meets along the way—blocks that have more to do with obstacles from within, rather than with struggles to come up with ideas, or problems with transitions, syntax, and finding the right word.
  
  Throughout, she suggests means to deal with these common experiences, from the Five Fears that can stifle the best of us, through the myriad varieties of Self-sabotage, including the subtle Anna Quindlen syndrome.
  
  Whether you are a writer looking for a way to start or have written for most of your life, you will find yourself in this book. With wit and verve, she describes the difficulties and delights of the writing-and-teaching life, and shares how she has healed her own psychic wounds, and has seen others similarly healed through the art of writing.
  
  This twin theme memoir also includes Exercises From Zona Rosa, a step-by-step series of "exercises"' that can help even the most skeptical readers to enhance their own creativity and skills as writers.

• Joy to the Word!: Writing Poems with Children in Georgia (1973)

Poetry

• Fort Bragg and Other Points South: Poems (1988)

• A Sexual Tour of the Deep South: Poems (1975)
  A Sexual Tour of the Deep South received rave reviews in Ms and Rolling Stone magazines. In a review of the book, author Hayden Carruth called Rosemary Daniell one of the best feminist poets in America.

Other

• Desire: Women Write About Wanting (2007) Lisa Solod Warren, ed.
  See Rosemary's essay, "The Ring," about her turbulent, yet tender relationship with her love-and-sex object, Zane.