Shirley Ann Grau, a ‘quiet force’ in Southern literature, dies at 91

Shirley Ann Grau, a Louisiana writer whose atmospheric, richly detailed works explored issues of race, gender and power, notably in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Keepers of the House,” died Aug. 3 at a senior-living center in Kenner, a New Orleans suburb. She was 91.

The cause was complications of a stroke, said her daughter Nora McAlister.