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.
June Read of the Month: “Coyote Loop,” by L. C. Fiore
June 8, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith If you like larger-than-life, irascible, narcissistic, rich, foul-mouthed muckspouts—think Tony Soprano—you will like the narrator of L. C. Fiore’s Coyote Loop. Granted, the setting is totally different. The trading floor of a Chicago Board Options Exchange. The beginning of the 2008 recession. But John Andrew Ganzi, also known as JAG, rules […]
“Country Dark” by Chris Offutt and “Dry County” by Jake Hinkson
June 2, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Thomas O’Grady Recently, I read Daniel Woodrell’s novel Winter’s Bone (2006), the basis for the feature film of the same name that I declined to see when it was released in 2010: I knew its premise from reviews, and my soul didn’t want to descend into the abyss of the crystal meth-ravaged subculture […]
Thomas O’Grady
June 1, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Thomas O’Grady is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His short fiction has been published in Harvard Review, The Abegweit Review, Dalhousie Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Alembic, The Antigonish Review and other journals. He is also the author of two books of poems—What Really Matters (2000) and Delivering the News (2019)—both published […]
“Incognito,” by Terry Lewis
May 19, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Matturro Incognito (Moonshine Cove Publishing 2021) by Terry Lewis is a riveting, high-stakes adventure story with accurate, well-drawn history about the birth of the United States. Set in the early days of the American Revolution, the tale captures the tensions and conflicts of the time in compelling action and narrative. Lewis, a […]
“A Common Person and Other Stories,” by R. M. Kinder
May 12, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by C. D. Albin At first glance, characters in R. M. Kinder’s A Common Person and Other Stories appear ordinary enough. Their occupations are quotidian—students, professors, retirees, an occasional factory worker or attorney—and outwardly their lives circumscribe regular routes and routines. Inwardly, however, Kinder’s characters are quietly rebellious, pushing back against louder, more forceful […]
C. D. Albin
May 10, 2021 by Leave a Comment
C. D. Albin is author of the award-winning story collection Hard Toward Home (Press 53) and the poetry collection Axe, Fire, Mule (Golden Antelope Press). He has contributed nonfiction to a number of publications, including American Book Review, Georgia Review, and Harvard Review. For many years he has taught writing and literature at Missouri State […]