AM: I’m glad we get to do this interview, Layton. I was intrigued when A Shattered Lens arrived in the mail and I opened the package and read this praise on the front cover: “Dostoevsky and Poe would be proud.” You don’t often hear Dostoevsky and Poe lumped together, but I knew instantly that whatever […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Judge William Alsup, Author of “Won Over”
September 11, 2019 by 2 Comments
AM: Judge Alsup, I’m grateful that you’ve shared your time to do this interview for Southern Literary Review. The occasion for the interview is, of course, the publication of your memoir, Won Over, which has this subtitle: “Reflections of a Federal Judge on His Journey from Jim Crow Mississippi.” What made you decide to write […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Heather Webber, Author of “Midnight at the Blackbird Café”
August 28, 2019 by 1 Comment
AM: Heather, thanks for doing this interview about Midnight at the Blackbird Café, a novel about Anna Kate, who finds herself back in Alabama upon her grandmother’s death. I’m curious how someone from Massachusetts who lives in Ohio decided on Alabama as the setting for this book. And for the readers’ sake, I’ll point out […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Marjorie Herrera Lewis, Author of “When the Men Were Gone”
August 21, 2019 by Leave a Comment
APM: Marjorie, so happy we get to chat about When the Men Were Gone, your novel that features protagonist Tylene Wilson, a teacher during World War II who winds up coaching a high school football team. There’s a sort of A League of Their Own vibe to the book. When did you think up this […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Andrew Lawler, Author of “The Secret Token”
June 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Andrew, thank you very much for doing this interview on the occasion of the paperback release of The Secret Token, which is about the so-called Lost Colony of Roanoke. I remember learning about Roanoke in the third grade and the amazement I felt when I realized there was this mystery that had never been […]