Madison Smartt Bell (born August 1, 1957) is a U.S. novelist. He was born and raised in Tennessee. After living in New York and London he has now settled in Baltimore, Maryland. A graduate of Princeton University and Hollins University, he has taught in various creative writing programs, including the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the 92nd Street Y, and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. He is married to the poet Elizabeth Spires .

His eighth novel, All Soul's Rising, was a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award and the 1996 PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of the 1996 Anisfield-Wolf award for the best book of the year dealing with matters of race. In addition he has written essays and reviews for Harper's, the New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice, and many other publications.

Bibliography

• The Washington Square Ensemble (novel) (Viking Press, 1983) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1984)
• Waiting For The End Of The World (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1985) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1986)
• Straight Cut (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1986) (Penguin mass-market paperback, 1987)
• Zero db (short fiction) (Ticknor & Fields, 1987) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1988)
• The Year Of Silence (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1987) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1989)
• Soldier's Joy (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1989) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1990)
• Barking Man (short fiction) (Ticknor & Fields, 1990) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1991) (Quality Paperback Club, 1991)
• Doctor Sleep (novel) (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1992)
• Save Me, Joe Louis (novel) (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1994)
• All Souls' Rising (novel) (Pantheon, 1995) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1996)
• Ten Indians (novel) (Pantheon, 1996) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1997)
• Narrative Design: A Writer's Guide to Structure (textbook) (W.W. Norton, 1997)
• Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form (trade paperback edition) (Norton, 2000)
• Master of the Crossroads (novel, continuation of All Souls' Rising) (Pantheon, 2000)
• The Stone That the Builder Refused (novel, continuation of Master of the Crossroads) (Pantheon, released Nov 9, 2004)