Gracie Chandler

Gracie Lewis Chandler was born on Sapelo Island, Georgia—one of the barrier Gullah Geechee Sea Islands. An ardent writer, she expanded her creative efforts in the 1980s when the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, while investigating land issues on Sapelo, researched the genealogy of forty-four families—descendants of slaves. The lineage of many of these families stemmed from a renowned slave, Bilali Muhammad. Chandler learned that Bilali, her seventh-generation grandfather, had written a “book”. Known as The Bilali Muhammad Document, the leather-bound work, written in Arabic, is housed in the University of Georgia’s Hargrett Rare Books & Manuscript Library. The discovery of this remarkable ancestor inspired Chandler to begin her own novel and, in spite of numerous setbacks, she never gave up the dream of becoming an author. Her debut novel, Free to Be, is the winner of the 2016 Florida Book Award Silver Medal.

Chandler's family, in search of employment, moved to nearby Brunswick when she was an infant, but frequent trips back to the island's historic Hog Hammock community established early-on that Sapelo was home. She has worked in supportive grassroots organizations for the preservation of the Gullah Geechee culture and remains active in the community.

An undergraduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, Florida, Chandler also has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Northern Colorado, Greely, Colorado. After retiring from a lengthy teaching career in Miami, Florida, she now lives in Jacksonville with her husband, Tommy, and is writing a sequel to Free to Be.