John Shelton Reed has served as Chancellor of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and is cofounder and Éminence Grease of the Campaign for Real Barbecue. The author or editor of twenty books, including Minding the South and My Tears Spoiled My Aim, and Other Reflections on Southern Culture, for some years Reed taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he helped to found UNC's Center for the Study of the American South and was cofounder of the quarterly Southern Cultures. At the University of Cambridge he is an Honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College and a Life Member of Clare Hall. In retirement he has turned to writing about New Orleans, barbecue, cocktails, and other subjects that offer useful tax deductions.