Ronni Lundy is the double James Beard Award-winning author of Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes, 2016's Best American Cookbook and Cookbook of the Year. Beginning with her groundbreaking Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken in 1991, Lundy has established a reputation as both a perceptive and engaging authority on the foodways and culture of the Mountain South. Born in Corbin, Kentucky and raised in Louisville with strong ties to the Appalachian Mountains, she often writes from the perspective and about the experience of the Appalachian diaspora, but her 35 year career as a professional writer has also included thoughtful work on popular music, literature, and personalities throughout the South and beyond. Lundy is a warm, wise and witty speaker who has presented at events and in academia ranging from Berea College to Boston Cooks!, from Tallahassee's Word of South to the Aspen Institute's Winter Words, from Dumplin's and Dancing to the Smithsonian.

In addition to the Beard's, her many honors include the Southern Foodway's Alliance's Craig Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing her work as a writer covering both food and music. Lundy is a founder of that organization as well as a founder of the Appalachian Food Summit. Lundy is the author of 10 books, and currently is the owner and chief bookseller at Plott Hound Books in Burnsville, NC where she is living happily ever after in a tiny house in a tiny holler.