Gilbert Allen is the author of eight volumes of poems and two collections of short stories: The Final Days of Great American Shopping and The Beasts of Belladonna. His work has received the Robert Penn Warren Prize from The Southern Review and Special Mention for a Pushcart Prize. He is the Bennette E. Geer Professor of Literature Emeritus at Furman University and a member of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the state's literary hall of fame.