Ernest J. Gaines is the author of eight books of fiction, most notably, Pulitzer Prize-nominee The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), and A Lesson Before Dying (1993), which was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award, and also shortlisted for the Pulitzer. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation.

Gaines and his wife Dianne now live year-round in Oscar, Louisiana. They built a house on land that was part of the plantation where he grew up. He is now Writer-in-Residence Emeritus at University of Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly University of Southwestern Louisiana).