AM: Not long ago, Joe, we did an interview about your book, Ghostly Demarcations. Just months later we’re now discussing The Theoretics of Love, your new novel that NewSouth Books, which is right down the street from my office, published about the time we did that last interview. Let’s start by having you speak broadly about this […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Johnnie Bernhard, Author of “Sisters of the Undertow”
January 29, 2020 by Leave a Comment
AM: Johnnie, I’m so happy to see Sisters of the Undertow in its final form. I’ve waited months to hold it in my hand! I enjoyed spending the weekend together at the Mississippi Book Festival last year. We had a great panel, didn’t we? JB: It was a great panel of literary discussion with you […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Charles D. Thompson, Author of “Going Over Home”
January 23, 2020 by Leave a Comment
AM: Grateful for this interview, Charles. Your latest book is Going Over Home, published by Chelsea Green Publishing. It comes with the endorsement of none other than Willie Nelson! Until I opened it and started reading, I didn’t realize it was a memoir. I had been expecting—what exactly? Something academic? A polemic? Your tenacity is […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Douglas Dell, Author of “Deep and Dirty”
January 15, 2020 by Leave a Comment
AM: “The funny thing about The South,” says the narrator in the prologue to your debut novel, Deep and Dirty, “is that it’s pretty, an odd choice of word but highly practical, take away the disasters sitting on almost every other corner and you’ll notice nature has this way of battling human influence by blotting out […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews George Weinstein, Author of “Watch What You Say”
December 26, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Thanks, George, for this interview. I think we met once, years ago, at an Atlanta Writers Conference. This must have been around 2010 or 2011, when I was still a doctoral student in English and living in Atlanta—Alpharetta to be precise. What strikes me about the release of your new novel, Watch What You […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Walt Gragg, Author of “The Chosen One”
December 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Thank you for doing this interview during the holiday season, Walt. Your second novel, The Chosen One, a military thriller, was recently released to much acclaim. Congratulations. Did you expect any Rushdie-style pushback against your depiction of fundamentalist Islam and the prophetic cleric Muhammad Mourad? WG: I certainly hope not. The book is not […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Diane C. McPhail, Author of “The Abolitionist’s Daughter”
December 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Diane, thanks for the interview. It was so great seeing you at the Mississippi Book Festival this summer. I’ve had the opportunity to read The Abolitionist’s Daughter during recent flights. It’s an excellent novel. Why don’t we start by having you tell our readers a little bit about it—background, characters, whatever you’d like to […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Patrick A. Howell, Author of “Yes, We Be”
November 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Patrick, I’m so glad we’ve finally found the occasion to discuss Yes, We Be. Let’s start broadly: what’s the book about? PH: Allen, Yes, We Be is different parts clarion call, first book of poetry and personal manifesto (the art and artifice to oneself of manifesting). I’ve been writing much, much longer than the […]