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 […]
Elizabeth McConnell
November 8, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Elizabeth McConnell is a poet and Master Naturalist from Morgantown, WV. Elizabeth earned a BA in English from Hollins University, Roanoke, VA. Previously she has worked at the Morgantown Public Library in Morgantown, WV and served on the Library Board of Trustees. Elizabeth is an active member of the Morgantown Writers Group, Monongahela Master Naturalists, […]
“Creekwater Mansions” by Ian Hall
November 8, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Elizabeth McConnell Appalachia is a region of great complexity and rich history. It offers no simple explanation, definition, or identity. Everywhere layers. On any car, bus, train or trail, one encounters remarkable horizons of mineral layer on top of mineral layer. The rich, stained and vibrant history of this region creates a source […]
Read of the Month: “The Silent Women” by Tara Lynn Masih
November 4, 2026 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro The Silent Women (Storm Publishing 2026) by Tara Lynn Masih is a profound and extraordinary historical novel. Brilliantly researched and written, the book tells an engrossing and emotionally resonant story of American women at a dangerous, difficult time in the life of the country—WWII. With an exemplary blend of historical […]
“You Know Why” by J.T. Ellison
November 3, 2026 by Leave a Comment
A masterful storyteller who creates layered characters and murder plots, J.T. Ellison sends the reader on a thrilling, suspenseful ride in, You Know Why. Somehow you grow to love some of these twisted, complex characters because they seem like family. To each other, some are connected by marriage and family – except for the boogey-man […]
Claire Hamner Matturro interviews Tara Lynn Masih, author of “The Silent Women”
November 3, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Summary: The Silent Women is an extraordinary novel inspired by the real women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the Manhattan Project’s “Secret City”—where thousands kept the deadliest secret of World War II. Oklahoma, 1935. Black Sunday. From the moment a wall of black dust devours the plains and buries her world, Song Holloway’s life is marked by […]
“The Brunswick” by Callie Murray
November 2, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Debut novel The Brunswick (Revell 2026) by Georgia-based writer and entrepreneur Callie Murray is a celebration of the power of community, and of families grafted together not by blood, but by circumstance, choice, and adoption. Set in Murray’s hometown of Norcross, GA, at the dawn of World War II, the story centers around the sprawling, […]