Peggy Mercer Biography

...author, songwriter and dynamic speaker!

Birthplace: Born in a building in Douglas, Ga. that later became the first public library in the area. Lived first in a small farmhouse near the river at Satilla, Georgia, Coffee County, Georgia.

Schools: Elementary, Satilla Elementary, then Coffee County High School and South Georgia College, Douglas, Georgia where she was a yearbook editor and newspaper feature writer and won writing awards at the state level. A.S. degree. University of Georgia, where she was a friend of Lewis Grizzard and dance contest winner with editor partner, W.F. Taft while pretending to seriously pursue art and journalism law.

Valdosta State College, Valdosta, Georgia, B.F.A. in fine arts and Public Relations and Speech Communication. She was named "Most Creative" student of her program and graduated with honors and worked in newspapers as an award winning writer and poet.

Florida State University, M.L.S. --where she developed the idea for the "More You Know" commercial for national television and studied poetry. She also created ads for United Way and local charities.

Peggy has been a newspaper columnist for the Douglas Enterprise, a past contributor to worldwide magazines such as Mother Earth news, Gusto and Driftwood East, poetry journals and a charter member of the Georgia State Poetry Society as well as Georgia Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America and the Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists which became the current GAYA.

Peggy spent many years working for schools and public libraries in South Georgia, then spent ten years owning and teaching in a Georgia mandated adult education drug and alcohol behavior change program called Prime for Life. She taught in the South Georgia area to over 5,000 students.

Peggy is a member of the SCBWI, and is the author of an adult novel, STRANGERS IN EDEN, and two children's books, TEN COWS TO TEXAS and THERE COME A SOLDIER. Both children's books were award winners and for THERE COME A SOLDIER, Peggy was nominated for Georgia Author of the Year in 2008. Both were published by Handprint/Chronicle Books with a fourth book, PEACH WHEN THE WELL RUN DRY, Marimba, New York, due out fall 2010.

Peggy is a member of BMI ( Broadcast Music Industry) and has been featured in the "Songwriter's Connection" out of Nashville, Tennessee. She is a major songwriter with songs being included soon on upcoming albums.She also writes with hit songwriters and works teaching young songwriters and aspiring book authors.

She owns the website, PEGGY MERCER WORLDWIDE and She divides her time between Nashville, Tennessee and South Georgia.

Peggy has a foundation called Give a Child a Book and a Chance and presents programs on an ongoing basis to school classes and assemblies. One of her guiding mottos is: "It doesn't take a village to raise a child. It takes books. Give a child books and he can raise himself!" -Peggy Mercer

In 2011 Peggy was Named 'Georgia Author of The Year'.