Margaret Day Allen is a communications professional living in North Carolina. She holds a B.A. in English from Mississippi State University and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Mississippi. She and her husband, Robert, have two children, Frances and Chris.

“There is a wide range of Southern self-taught artists in this delightful, large-format, hard-cover book. Working with all kinds of media, they are unified by the personal aesthetic of Day Allen who selected them based on her personal preference and love for the artwork. She then travelled to each artist's home or workspace to interview them and see the art in situ. In all, the book gathers 32 self-taught artists, describing their lives and art. There is also an explanation of "self-taught art" in this context, and a list of further reading at the back of the book. Regular Raw Vision readers might recognise painter J.J. Cromer, stone-carver Tim Lewis and collagist/painter Bruce New, and will be introduced to numerous other artists including those who work with many kinds of media such as Bruce Davenport and O.L. Samuels.” - Raw Vision Magazine, July 2015.