Can’t Shake the Dust Can’t Shake the Dust (Regal House Publishing 2024) by C.H. Hooks employs three points of view to paint a full picture of a dysfunctional family in South Georgia. The alcoholic father and son are obsessed with racing—even though the father lost a leg in a racetrack accident. The recovering addict mother […]
Books of Note: “Can’t Shake the Dust”; “Faulkner, Welty, Wright”; and “Before We Left the Land”
February 3, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Southern Literary Review Editor Donna Meredith interviews Phyllis Gobbell, author of “Prodigal”
February 3, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Novel Summary It’s the Fourth of July, 2000. In a small Southern town, fireworks light the sky above the City Park, while down the street a smaller flash of light changes everything for 19-year-old Connor Burdette. He has just lost the girl he loves. Now, buying beer at the Back Home Market, he becomes an […]
Submission guidelines for Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Contemporary Appalachian Literature
February 2, 2025 by 5 Comments
Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Contemporary Appalachian Literature submission guidelines. Their editors are excited about the Volume 28 theme–and hope it inspires your creative interpretations through poetry, short prose, and visual (2D) art. In this PDF, you’ll also find instructions related to book reviews, “new books” notifications, and resolution quality of images.
“Gothictown” by Emily Carpenter
January 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Most times in life when things seem too good to be true, they are. Such is the case in Emily Carpenter’s latest novel, Gothictown (Kensington, 2025). If you liked Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” you are bound to enjoy the mysteries hidden behind the innocent façade of Gothictown. Carpenter begins the novel with brief […]
“Devil’s Defense” by Lori Duff
January 13, 2025 by Leave a Comment
A large dollop of romance sweetens the serious ethical concerns and women’s issues highlighted in Devil’s Defense (She Writes Press 2024), an entertaining legal novel penned by Lori B. Duff. Duff is a Georgia resident who has been a judge and lawyer for over thirty years. Frustrated by the unrealistic courtroom depictions and misrepresentations of […]
January Read of the Month: “Queen of Memphis” by Martin Hegwood
January 1, 2025 by Leave a Comment
By mixing dark secrets reminiscent of Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! with the strong sense of place Conroy created in South of Broad and the class distinctions depicted in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Martin Hegwood has crafted a truly iconic multi-generational novel, Queen of Memphis (Spanish Moss Publishing LLC 2024). The manuscript deservedly won the first-place award in […]