William Faulkner William Faulkner was a major American twentieth-century author and Nobel Prize winner. Faulkner has written many novels, poems, screenplays, and short stories, however he became popular through his Southern literature. His series of novels and stories reflected universal human truths and conditions such as slavery and more. Although Faulkner was successful through his writing career, he was not well known before winning several awards. In fact, he refused the role of a celebrity and lived most of his life in obscurity. Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany Mississippi. He grew up in Oxford Mississippi and was the oldest of four sons of Murry Falkner and Maud Butler. He was named after his great-grandfather,