Delia Owens herself grew up in Georgia, not too far from the region where the fictional town of Barkley Cove is located. Together with Mark Owens, her husband at that time, she studied zoologyat the University of Georgia. After completing her PhD in animal behavior in California, she moved to Botswana in Southern Africa with Mark. For seven years, the couple studied the animals there under very harsh weather conditions. Despite facing storms, wild fires, and intense heat, Delia and Mark were able to collect precious data on the lions and hyenasthey were observing. Living in Botswana, Delia was often hours away from the closest human civilization. This gave Delia the experience of living in isolation. Later, she portrayed the feeling of lonelinessin Where the Crawdads Sing through Kya’s experiences.
After moving back to the US, Delia worked at a variety of different jobs. She’s worked as an editor and written articles for academic journals. With Mark, she started the Owens Foundationfor Wildlife Conservationin Georgia. Even though Where the Crawdads Sing was her first novel, it was a huge success. Right now, the novel is being adapted into a movie, which is set to come out in 2022.
