Cassandra King

{{Short description|American writer (born 1944)}}

Cassandra King (born 18 February 1944) is an American writer. She has written five novels: Making Waves in Zion (1995), The Sunday Wife (2002), The Same Sweet Girls (2005), Queen of Broken Hearts (2007), and Moonrise (2013).{{cite web |title=Cassandra King: The Same Sweet Girls |url=https://www.jsu.edu/library/pdfs/friends/CassandraKing.pdf |publisher=Jacksonville State University |access-date=12 June 2025}}{{cite web |title=Cassandra King Conroy and Mathew Guinn |url=http://writeonms.mpbonline.org/episodes/cassandra-king-conroy |website=Write On, Mississippi! |date=20 October 2020 |access-date=12 June 2025}}

King grew up in Pinckard, Alabama, and attended Alabama College (BA, 1967). She later returned to the same institution (now called the University of Montevallo) and obtained an MFA in 1988. She has taught at Jefferson State Community College, Gadsden State Community College, and the University of Montevallo.

King was married to a pastor, and then divorced. She based her novel The Sunday Wife on her experience.{{cite news |last1=Noble |first1=Dan |title="Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy" By: Cassandra King Conroy |url=https://www.apr.org/news/2019-10-31/tell-me-a-story-my-life-with-pat-conroy-by-cassandra-king-conroy |access-date=12 June 2025 |work=Alabama Public Radio |date=31 October 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Anna |title=Cassandra King: Confessions of a failed Southern belle |url=https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/entertainment/2014/04/17/cassandra-king-confessions-failed-southern-belle/7831291/ |access-date=12 June 2025 |work=The Greenville News |date=17 April 2014}} She then married writer Pat Conroy in 1998. After his death in 2016, King wrote a memoir, Tell Me a Story: My Life With Pat Conroy (2019), which was awarded the 2020 Southern Book Prize for nonfiction.{{cite news |title=CH@T: Cassandra King Conroy to highlight Chatham Literacy's fall event |url=https://chathamnewsrecord.com/stories/author-of-tell-me-a-story-to-highlight-chatham-literacys-fall-event,10647 |access-date=12 June 2025 |work=The Chatham News |date=15 September 2021}}

King won Troy University's Hall-Waters Prize in 2017,{{cite web |title=Cassandra King receives Troy University's Hall-Waters Prize |date=21 April 2017 |url=https://today.troy.edu/news/cassandra-king-receives-troy-universitys-hall-waters-prize/ |publisher=Troy University |access-date=12 June 2025}} and the 2025 Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year.{{cite news |last1=Evans |first1=Margaret |title=Cassandra King Receives Harper Lee Award |url=https://lcweekly.com/arts/cassandra-king-receives-harper-lee-award/ |access-date=12 June 2025 |work=Low Country Weekly |date=25 February 2025}}