Susan Byrum Rountree
My license plate says: WRITEMCH, and when I got the vanity plate, my father thought it meant “Write me a check.” Which works, but it is a pun for the very Southern term “right much.” I have always written much, and I hope to write more in this space. Join me, and maybe you’ll discover something about yourself.
As Seen In…
Meet Susan
I’m a North Carolina writer looking to make some sense of the world around me. I hope you'll linger a while and find your stories in my own.
I’m a child of northeastern North Carolina, where the roads are flat and the dirt is rich and filled with cotton, corn and soybeans in the summer. Climb a magnolia, and it will take you into the sky and to the story of it. Claw your hand in the rich sandy soil, and you’ll never really clean it from beneath your nails.
I’m a (long ago) graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Journalism, and though I longed to be a writer, my first job out of college was as a photographer for a small daily newspaper 30 miles from where I grew up. I had taken exactly one course in photojournalism in college, and I’d made a “C”. When I told my professor what I was going to do, he laughed at me. Keep reading →
Nags Headers
Historic Cottages of the Outer Banks and Their People
NEW EDITION
RELEASED SEPTEMBER 15, 2026
Nags Headers: Historic Cottages of the Outer Banks and Their People traces the rich generational history of the cottages and families of North Carolina's oldest vacation community. Set within the Nags Head Cottage Row Historic District, the story traces the roots of this community from the bankers shipwrecked on the barrier island and the planters who escaped the inland threat of malaria to spend summers by the sea. Through its lyrical linear history sprinkled with vivid oral histories from five generations of Nags Headers, readers feel the salt air and crisp breezes as they immerse themselves in the story of this alluring place. Filled with historic photographs and images from private collections, this 25th anniversary edition brings readers into the twenty-first century of life within the Unpainted Aristocracy.
