found: African American National Biography, accessed December 12 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Deal, Borden; print journalist, fiction writer; born 12 October 1922 in Pontotoc, Mississippi, United States; his first publication came in 1948, when his short story Exodus was awarded first prize in Tomorrow magazine's national college writer's contest and was selected for the annual anthology Best American Short Stories of 1949; receiving a BA at the University of Alabama in 1949, he pursued graduate study in 1950 at Mexico City College while also working as a freelance journalist; other significant novels soon followed; additional writings - poems and reviews - appeared in various periodicals, including the New York Times Book Review and the Saturday Review; died 22 January 1985 in Sarasota, Florida, United States)