New York Times best selling novelist Greg Iles is the speaker for the 2008 commencement address. He was born in 1960 in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father ran the U.S. Embassy Medical Clinic, but was raised in Natchez, Mississippi and graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983. Iles spent several years playing music in the band Frankly Scarlet. He quit the band after he was married and began working on his first novel, Spandau Phoenix, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess. Spandau Phoenix was published in 1993 and became the first of eight New York Times best sellers. In 2005 Blood Memory debuted at #8 on the Times list.
Known for writing in a variety of genres, his books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and published in more than 20 countries. Each of Iles’ 12 novels has found a place on the bestseller list.
Iles currently lives in Natchez with his wife and two children and spends much of his free time playing music. He is a member of the group The Rock Bottom Remainders, which includes authors Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and James McBride.
