The Southern Literary Review celebrates southern authors and their contributions to American literature. We feature the classic writers who have defined southern literature, and we highlight emerging authors through interviews, profiles, and book reviews. In an effort to back independent bookstores and to encourage creativity in the publishing world, SLR is an IndieBound supporter.
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Charles Dodd White, Author of “In the House of Wilderness”
February 21, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Happy to have the opportunity, Charles, to interview you about your novel In the House of Wilderness, which was recently released by Swallow Press, an imprint of Ohio University Press. There’s a moment in the novel when the character Rain writes “WHO I AM” in her composition book. She then lists some nouns she […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Tim Poland, Author of Yellow Stonefly
February 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: I’m glad to have the opportunity to interview you about Yellow Stonefly, Tim. I’ve known, if only tacitly, since I was a kid—back when I fished avidly and first saw the film A River Runs Through It—that something about fly fishing is inherently poetic. I was reminded of this as I read these lines […]
Adam Van Winkle Interviews Southern Mystery Writer Maggie Toussaint
February 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment
No genre has dominated writing, reading, television, movies, even our games, quite like the mystery. Since Poe, through Doyle, Hammett, and Chandler to Christie, Leonard, and Burke, the genre has its masters. Knowing the magnitude of the canon, I’d think it’d be intimidating as hell to try and stake out a place in the genre. […]
Adam Van Winkle
February 12, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Adam Van Winkle is the author of the novel, Abraham Anyhow, which was selected by Southern Literary Review as the June 2017 “Read of the Month.” The follow up novel, While They were in the Field, releases in 2019. His prose has appeared in Bull Men’s Fiction, Cheap POP!, Pithead Chapel, Steel Toe Review, Red […]
February Read of the Month: “Waters Run Wild,” by Andrea Fekete
February 6, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Phyllis Wilson Moore Andrea Fekete’s first novel, Waters Run Wild (Guest Room Press, 2018) is a brutal story of the struggle for equity in the West Virginia coal fields in the industry’s early days. Before federal laws and unions intervened, workers were exploited in every imaginable way. Unions were prohibited, wages were low. […]
“Congratulations, Who Are You Again?” by Harrison Scott Key
January 31, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by J.R. Davidson Harrison Scott Key brought down the West Feliciana Parish [court]house with laughter near the end of his tour promoting The World’s Largest Man. I was there by myself, having driven the six hours from Birmingham to St. Francisville, Louisiana, for the 2017 Walker Percy Weekend. I didn’t know anyone going, but […]
J.R. Davidson
January 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment
J.R. Davidson is an attorney and aspiring writer originally from Decatur, Alabama. He holds an LLM in tax from Georgetown Law, a JD from Cumberland School of Law, an MA in economics from The University of Alabama, and a BS from Auburn University. Sometimes he reads things for fun. He and his wife live in Homewood, […]
“Ashes to Asheville,” by Sarah Dooley
January 24, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Phyllis Wilson Moore Ashes to Asheville (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017), Sarah Dooley’s third novel, is a book with appeal for teens as well as adults. In the story two women attempt to create a family unit, each bringing a young daughter into the meld. The family does well together, but the outside world […]