Amelia Franz was born and raised in Mississippi. Her collection of short stories, The Longest Man-Made Beach in the World: Biloxi Stories, is forthcoming in early 2026 by Watertower Press. In addition, her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals and magazines, including Image Journal, Reckon Review, Prime Number Magazine, Peatsmoke Journal, Roi Faineant, and others.

Although she’s lived all over the U.S., her fiction remains rooted in the language, culture, and people of her childhood and her native state. Born in the small north Mississippi city of Grenada, she moved to Biloxi as a child, attending Popps Ferry Elementary and Fernwood Junior High. After her family moved to nearby Gautier, she graduated from Pascagoula High and earned degrees from the University of South Alabama and Texas A&M University. She currently lives in the Baltimore area with her husband and three children. She has worked as a K-12 language arts teacher, online writing instructor for academically talented teens, and freelance web designer and copywriter.