Lord Ishion Hutchinson, Lord of Reggae Poetry and the Cornell Commons I can bring a halo into the night cave, quiet with music (do not ask the music), to her shaded there in the moon; her fine spectacles steam their pond rings From “Black Space” (Poetry, January 2017) by Ishion Hutchinson The scepter of […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Joanne Kukanza Easley, Author of “Sweet Jane”
March 25, 2020 by Leave a Comment
AM: I’m glad our mutual friend, Johnnie Bernhard, connected us, Joanne. Johnnie has written for Southern Literary Review, and we’ve reviewed her books. How did y’all meet? JKE: Thanks for your time, Allen. I attended a book signing for Johnnie’s second novel How We Came to Be at a local library in the Texas Hill […]
“John Michael Cummings: a Writer on a Mission,” Profile by John Riddle
March 12, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Profile by John Riddle Many people dream of becoming a writer, but very few take the leap of faith and make it happen. Make no mistake about it: writing is hard, and for many people, staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen is enough to scare you to death. But […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Melissa Fischer, Author of “The Advocacy”
February 26, 2020 by Leave a Comment
AM: I’m glad we have this opportunity, Melissa, to talk about your profound new book, The Advocacy, which is set in 1992 in Obuasi, Ghana, a mining town known for its gold. You lived in this town in 1992 and remained there for a few years while you worked for the Peace Corps. How did […]
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 […]