In the last installment of our series on Emerging Southern Artists, Melanie Peeples profiles 37-year-old writer Melanie Sumner. Ambivalent about growing up in the south, Sumner recently completed a comic novel, The School of Beauty and Charm. The book satirizes life in small towns, including organized religion, and lampoons many values that Sumner's parents instilled in her as she was growing up.
Copyright 2001 NPR