Tom Poland

Tom Poland (born February 4, 1949 in Augusta, Georgia), as Thomas Mitchell Poland to John Mitchell Poland and Ruth Walker Poland. Known as a writer of things southern. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Lincolnton, Georgia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and a Masters in Education from the University of Georgia. A frequent contributor to magazines, he has written approximately 1,000 features.

Poland’s first book, South Carolina—The Natural Heritage, was published in 1989 by the University of South Carolina Press. In 1994, the University of South Carolina Press published his second book, South Carolina—A Timeless Journey. In 1996, he published "Deliver Me from Leviathan" in Reckon magazine, a literary feature on the career of James Dickey. Excerpts and references from "Deliver Me From Leviathan" were published in 2000 in The World As A Lie—James Dickey, the Dickey biography authored by Henry Hart. In 1999, the University of South Carolina published his third book, Reflections of South Carolina, foreword by Walter B. Edgar. In 2005, BookHouse Group published his fourth book, A Just & Noble Cause. He has written other histories. He writes columns for newspapers and journals across Georgia and South Carolina, a region he refers to as "Georgialina."

His novel, Forbidden Island ... An Island Called Sapelo (ISBN 1425992021), deals with themes of hope and destruction: man's alteration of the Earth and man's efforts to stave off the inevitable loss of family.

He was the 2011-2012 playwright for Swamp Gravy, Georgia's official folk life drama. His play, Solid Ground, present the hardships, joys, and beauty of the farming life in south Georgia. Save The Last Dance For Me, a book on how the blues led to beach music and the shag phenomenon along the Carolina beaches, was published by the University of South Carolina Press in the summer of 2012. He contributed to State of the Heart, an anthology of writers who contributed essays about their favorite places in South Carolina, foreword by Pat Conroy, edited by Aida Rogers.

Reflections of South Carolina, Vol. II was published by the USC Press in 2014, with foreword by Mary Alice Monroe. The History Press of Charleston published Classic Carolina Road Trips in 2014. Georgialina, A Southland As We Knew It was published in November 2015 by the USC Press.

He lives in Columbia, South Carolina where he shared his writing approach for 19 years as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina's College of Mass Information and Library Studies.