The Southern Literary Review celebrates Southern authors and their contributions to American literature. We feature classic writers who have defined Southern literature, and we highlight emerging authors with interviews, profiles, and book reviews. We support independent bookstores. If you subscribe to our newsletter, please add southernliteraryreview@comcast.net to your email contacts list so that the newsletter doesn’t […]
“Death of the First Idea” by Rickey Laurentiis
March 10, 2026 by Leave a Comment
The poetry collection, Death of the First Idea (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025), written by award winning poet Rickey Laurentiis, is a stunning exploration into identity. She covers topics of transness and society’s perspectives on gender, race and what it means to be Black in America, sexuality, mental health, abuse, and religion with all the depths […]
“One Beautiful Year of Normal” by Sandra Griffith
March 4, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Largely set in Savannah, One Beautiful Year of Normal (She Writes Press 2026) by Sandra Griffith explores the effects of a mother’s severe mental illness on her child in a riveting psychological thriller. The narrative shifts between past and present as the adult August Caine attends the funeral of her Aunt Helen—a woman she believed […]
“What Were You Thinking: Essays 2006–2024” by Hank Lazer
March 3, 2026 by Leave a Comment
The deeply philosophical essays in What You Were Thinking: Essays 2006-2024 (Lavender Ink, 2025) by renowned poet Hank Lazer will appeal to poetry lovers and scholars. In addition to the essays, Lazer includes examples of his “shape” poems and a number of interviews that further illuminate his artistic and philosophical commitments. In April 2015, Lazer […]
BettyJoyce Nash interviews Jay Kauffmann, author of “The Mexican Messiah”
March 3, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Jay Kauffmann’s story collection, The Mexican Messiah, transports readers from the North Pole to Tokyo, Paris, the Sahara, and beyond. Kauffmann, a former international model, earned an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He chairs the English Dept. at the Miller School of Albemarle. The Mexican Messiah, runner-up in the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize, was […]
“How Simi Got Her Groom Back” by Sonali Dev
March 2, 2026 by Leave a Comment
How much do you owe the older sister who raised you and protected you from a harsh, unforgiving childhood? That question lies at the heart of Sonali Dev’s charming romantic comedy How Simi Got Her Groom Back (Lake Union 2026). Most of us would agree we owe such a sister a great deal—but would we offer her […]
“Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds” by Christian Moody
February 18, 2026 by 1 Comment
Winner of the 2023 Dzanc Short Story Collection, Christian Moody’s Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds is an imaginative collection comprised of four short stories and a novella. Moody’s eccentric characters find themselves in altered realities involving comical situations. His wonder tales question the peripheries of one’s imagination versus reality. And though the author’s […]