Michel Stone is a writer, educator, and community volunteer and the author of novels Border Child (Doubleday/Anchor) and The Iguana Tree (Hub City Press), both optioned for film. Her third novel Fig Days (Regal House Press) is forthcoming in April 2027. She is the winner of the Mary Frances Hobson Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Arts and Letters, the Patricia Winn Award for Southern Literature, and the South Carolina Fiction Award. 

A former public high school Teacher of the Year and former SDS teacher and basketball coach, Michel is a graduate of Clemson University with a Master’s Degree from Converse College. She is a past board chair of the Hub City Writers Project and has served on The Spartanburg Regional Foundation Board, Clemson University’s Humanities Advancement Board, the Board of the Girl Scouts of South Carolina - Mountains to Midlands Council, and on the President’s Advisory Council for Wofford College. She currently serves on the Boards of Trustees of Converse University and of Spartanburg Day School. She has received several writing residencies and is a Ucross Fellow, Spartanburg Regional Fellow, Liberty Fellow, and a Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She and her husband Eliot (SDS ‘89) are proud parents of three SDS alumni.