Patsy Sims grew up in Texas and Louisiana and draws from those southern roots for much of her writing. She is the author of The Klan, Cleveland Benjamin's Dead: A Struggle for Dignity in Louisiana's Cane Country, and Can Somebody Shout Amen!: Inside the Tents and Tabernacles of American Revivalists, which was named a noteworthy book of 1988 by The New York Times Book Review. She also co-authored the narration for the award-winning documentary "The Klan: A Legacy of Hate," which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Prior to writing books, she worked as a staff writer and editor for the New Orleans States-Item, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Magazine, Southern magazine, the Discovery Channel's TDC magazine, and most major American newspapers.

She has been the recipient of many writing awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Washington, D.C., Commission on the Arts and Humanities and two Associated Press Awards for investigative-interpretive reporting.

She coordinated the Creative Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh for ten years before becoming director of Goucher College's MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program.

She resides in Washington, D.C.