Beyond Buffalo by Betsy Reeder takes readers beyond the deaths and physical destruction caused by the Buffalo Creek disaster to explore the long-term psychological impacts on survivors. The Buffalo Creek flood occurred in Logan County, West Virginia, on February 26, 1972, when three coal slurry impoundment dams fail during heavy rainfall, killing 125 and injuring 1,121. Over 4,000 were left homeless. But […]
Read of the Month: “Prodigal” by Phyllis Gobbell
February 4, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Fireworks, fireflies, and gunfire light up Phyllis Gobbell’s exquisite, poignant novel Prodigal (Histria Fiction 2024). This modern retelling of the prodigal son is, above all, a story of love and forgiveness in a Southern family. A Baptist preacher’s son, nineteen-year-old Connor Burdette flees from his hometown of Montpier, Tennessee, after a boy he is with […]
Books of Note: “Can’t Shake the Dust”; “Faulkner, Welty, Wright”; and “Before We Left the Land”
February 3, 2025 by Leave a Comment
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 […]
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.