Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist. She is best known for her 2009 debut novel, The Help, which is about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s. The novel was a critical and commercial success, spending over two years on the New York Times bestseller list. It was later adapted into a popular film of the same name. Stockett was born in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, where she grew up. She attended the University of Alabama and worked in magazine publishing before turning to writing fiction full-time.