Review by Donna Meredith The fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Summer is the perfect time for the release of Deborah Johnson’s novel, The Secret of Magic. Johnson’s story reminds us in a powerful way how severe the effects of racism were just a short time ago, yet the novel’s achievements go far beyond a simple […]
“Dream Chaser,” by Pat Spears
July 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Review by Donna Meredith Dream Chaser, by Pat Spears, delivers an iconic figure as the protagonist: a Southern blue collar drunk struggling to hold onto a job and his family. That’s hardly a new story, but the author renders Jesse McKnight with such compassion and prose so perfect that Dream Chaser easily ranks as one […]
“The Trench Garden,” by L.C. Fiore
April 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith In L.C. Fiore’s short story, “The Trench Garden,” which appears in the new Ploughshare’s Solos series, four men come together to restore a ravine in Tennessee while World War II rages on the other side of the ocean. With his clear prose, Fiore crafts a story that meets Poe’s primary directive: it strives […]
“Reparation,” by Ruth Rodgers
February 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Ruth Rodgers’s debut novel, Reparations, tells the poignant story of a friendship in the 1940s between two girls—one black, one white. Yes, it’s another story with race relations at its center, a story the South must tell and retell because each iteration takes us one step further toward understanding and healing […]
“Hell and High Water,” by Rebecca Theim
January 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith If you aren’t from New Orleans, why would you read a book about the city’s battle to keep a daily newspaper? Because the problems faced by the Times-Picayune plague newspapers across the country. Hell and High Water: The Battle to Save the Daily New Orleans Times-Picayune, by Rebecca Theim, is more […]
The Honorable Terry Lewis, A Literary Judge
December 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
By Donna Meredith What surprises most people about Terry Lewis is not that he can only carve out five hours a week for writing legal thrillers. It’s that he can find any time at all. Lewis has been a circuit court judge in the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida since 1998 and was a county […]