The novels of Robb Forman Dew deal primarily with the nature of relationships in contemporary family life. Dale Loves Sophie to Death (1981), a winner of the American Book Award in 1982, inspired a sequel, Fortunate Lives (1992). Her third novel, The Time of Her Life, was published in 1984. Dew has also published a non-fiction work about her own family, Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out; and a cookbook, A Southern Thanksgiving: Recipes and Musings for a Manageable Feast (1992). Dew, born in 1946, was raised in the South and credits time spent living with her grandfather, John Crowe Ransom, poet and critic, as an influence on her writing style. She is married to historian Charles Dew, and has two sons.