Madison Smartt Bell

Madison Smartt Bell, born August 1, 1957, in Nashville, Tennessee, is an American novelist best known for his Haiti Trilogy—All Souls' Rising (1995), Master of the Crossroads (2000), and The Stone That the Builder Refused (2004)—chronicling Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution. All Souls' Rising was a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award and the 1996 PEN/Faulkner Award, and won the 1996 Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best book addressing race; he also received the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.