Wilma Dykeman (1920-2006) was a fiction and nonfiction writer whose works primarily focused on the people and land of Appalachia. An Asheville, N.C. native, she graduated from Biltmore Junior College in 1938 (now the University of North Carolina, Asheville) and then earned a bachelor's degree in speech from Northwestern University in 1940. That same year she married James R. Stokely Jr. The couple had two sons, Dykeman C. Stokely and James R. Stokely III. Throughout her life, Wilma Dykeman has been credited as an author, speaker, historian, teacher, and environmentalist. She taught at Berea College and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the latter for more than 20 years.

The 1955 book The French Broad started Wilma Dykeman's career as an author and historian. In 1981, the state of Tennessee designated her as the honorary state historian until her death in 2006. She wrote several novels, including The Tall Woman (1962), The Far Family (1966) and Return the Innocent Earth (1973). During her extensive writing career, she authored or co-authored 20 books and five decades' worth of news columns and articles. She maintained homes in both Newport, Tenn. and Asheville.