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Before writing Soul of the South,
Mike Witham attended university, achieving a specialist
in English and History and a Bachelor of Education.
Born on October 28, 1968 in Toronto,
Ontario, to a hair stylist and a homemaker, Mike Witham
as a youth dreamed of being a professional hockey player.
Aware that he didn’t have the talent to make the N.H.L.,
he decided to major in English and History at the University
of Toronto with the goal of becoming a teacher. After graduating
from UofT with an Honors B.A. in 1993, he attended the faculty
of education at the University of Ottawa in 1995 whereupon
he became a high school teacher the following year.
One summer day, being on summer vacation,
Witham decided to write a novel on the American Civil War,
with a Southern protagonist. Working on Soul of the
South full time in the summer, Witham finally completed
Soul of the South three years later – working
part time on it during his second, third, and fourth year
of teaching. Rejected by several publishers, Witham decided
to put Soul of the South “on hold”
while completing a children’s story with his sister
(currently unpublished) and his second novel (currently
unpublished) set during World War II. Upon completing his
second novel, American Book Publishing accepted Soul
of the South and is releasing it tentatively
for mid-2007.
Soul of the South is Mike Witham’s
first novel. While writing the book, the work took on a
life of its own and challenged his previously held thoughts
on the American Civil War. It made Witham realize the agonizing
dilemma Southerners had to face, as they became caught in
a conflict where love for home and love for country became
two divergent roads in which only one path could be taken.
He hopes that the book will elicit understanding, and even
admiration, for the noble individuals who fought in America’s
bloodiest conflict regardless of the side they fought on.
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