James A. Autry Speaker & Booking Information

James A.Autry, also known as Big Shelby by his country relatives, was born in Photo courtesy of Richard Autry1933 in Memphis, Tennessee, but he grew up in Benton County, Mississippi, somewhere between Hickory Flat and Ashland, Mississippi. He is the son and grandson of Baptist ministers; and his mother was painter. His brother Ronald also has written a book. Although Autry went to schools in the city, he was influenced by people of the Pine Grove Church and Abel's Store community from whom he learned the values, rituals, and sense of communication that have been present from generation to generation. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford and worked as a reporter, photographer, musician, student tutor, copy boy, farm hand, teletype operator, and several other jobs to pay his tuition. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in journalism, he served as a jet fighter pilot in the Air Force in France for four years. After he completed his Air Force service, Autry entered the newspaper business and moved on to magazines. Autry's career has lead him to many prominent positions. He has worked for Better Homes and Gardens, starting as a copy and manager editor and working his way up within twenty-five years to become editor in chief. He is now retired from magazine publishing for Meredith Corporation. He married Sally Joanne Pederson, also a writer, editor,and former Iowa lieutenant governor. They have three children: James A. Autry Jr., Richard R. Autry, and Ronald P. Autry.

Cover of Nights Under a Tin RoofAutry writes much of his poetry on airlines in which he spends many hours a year in his present job. He says, "I keep thinking how disconnected it is to travel by jetliner. That technological womb with its inhumanity made me think about Greyhound buses in Mississippi. Some of the first poems come from those thoughts."

Autry has won many awards and honors. He was named distinguished alumnus and elected to the Alumni Hall of Fame at University of Mississippi in 1981. Later in 1990 he won the Headliner Award, Women in Communications. In 1991 he received a Litt.D. from William Jewell College. Also in 1991, Autry received the Missouri Medal of Honor for distinguished service in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Presently James Autry lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife, Sally. Although now miles from Mississippi, Autry still maintains strong friendships and family connections in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia.

His work, Real Power: Business Lessons from the Tao Te Ching, is written with Stephen Mitchell, the bestselling translator of the Tao Te Ching. They write the first book revealing how to use the wisdom of this ancient text to understand the most valued and elusive prize in business: power. In addition, James Autry has started work on Virtues of the Heart, a collection of enlightening stories for adults and children; and I Am The Man, a satirical novel about business.

Autry is dedicated to good business and good writing. His writings are not only entertaining but stay in the reader's mind. He was selected by Bill Moyers as one of the modern day poets to be interviewed for Moyers's The Language of Life series, which won an Emmy. The distinctive Southern voice of James Autry will continue to be enjoyed by readers as he returns to his Mississippi roots in his poetry and his other writings.