Bailey White was born in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1950, and she still lives in the house in which she grew up. White's father was a writer, and her mother was a farmer. A former first-grade teacher, White now writes full time. She is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio and the author of two story collections, Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Sleeping at the Starlite Motel, and a novel, Quite a Year for Plums.