APM: Through my fault. Through my fault. Through my most grievous fault. So opens your novel The Wishing Tide. This refrain is repeated elsewhere in the novel in chapters attributed to the character Mary. It’s a rhythmic reminder, I think, of the crashing and retreating tides of love and life. What about this […]
“The Mockingbird Next Door,” by Marja Mills
September 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall Nelle Harper Lee has been embroiled in lawsuits over the last couple of years and making headlines for her alleged litigiousness. Marja Mills’s The Mockingbird Next Door is a welcome and timely look at Nelle (as her friends and family call her) from another angle, one that offers us a fuller […]
“Emigration to Liberia,” by Matthew F.K. McDaniel
April 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall Emigration to Liberia is the story of the nearly 500 African-Americans who left Columbus, Georgia, and Eufaula, Alabama, from 1853 to 1903, to emigrate to Liberia, the West African nation that was founded in 1822 by United States colonization. Matthew F.K. McDaniel marshals evidence from written correspondence and newspapers to piece […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews James Elkins About Law, Literature, Poetry, and Teaching
March 19, 2014 by 2 Comments
AM: Jim, thank you for doing this interview. You recently came out with a book, Lawyer Poets and That World We Call Law. You’ve been researching and writing about lawyer poets for some time now. What is it about lawyer poets that fascinates you, and what is it about this type of person that makes him […]
The North Carolina Writers’ Network 2014 Spring Conference
February 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment
GREENSBORO, NC—The North Carolina Writers’ Network 2014 Spring Conference will be held Saturday, April 12, in the MHRA Building at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This year, the Network will introduce a new programming feature: instead of a traditional keynote address, attendees can choose between two special sessions at the end of the […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Jeff High, Author of “More Things in Heaven and Earth”
January 1, 2014 by 1 Comment
AM: Thank you for doing this interview, Jeff, and let me just say that I enjoyed your novel, which represents the best of literary fiction—Southern style. I’d like to jump right into the interview the way you jumped right into the opening scene of the book, the scene with the Code Blue and the seemingly supernatural […]