Evelyn Scott

Born in Tennessee in 1893 and raised in New Orleans, Evelyn Scott became known as an American novelist, poet, and memoirist with a fiercely independent streak. As a young woman she left the United States for Brazil, an experience that later informed her memoir Escapade and helped shape the outsider perspective that runs through much of her writing.

Scott built a reputation during the modernist era for ambitious, unconventional fiction. She wrote novels, poetry, criticism, and autobiography, and readers often note the emotional intensity and formal experimentation of her work. Among her best-known books are The Narrow House and Escapade.

She died in 1963, but her work still stands out for its courage and originality. For listeners coming to her for the first time, she offers a vivid glimpse into American literary modernism from a writer determined to follow her own path.