AM: Thanks for doing this interview, Bill. You’re a prolific author, having written dozens of books. Do you have a favorite among the books you’ve authored? WB: I think Primary Justice will always have a special spot in my heart, because it was the first novel I wrote and the first that I sold, and […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews William Bernhardt
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Colleen D. Scott, Author of “Everybody Needs a Bridge”

AM: Thanks for doing this interview, Colleen. Your first novel is Everybody Needs a Bridge, which you describe as a “work of fiction inspired by actual events.” It follows the story of Erin, a young girl in Alabama who’s growing up roughly a generation after the Civil Rights Movement. You might call it a bildungsroman […]
Claire Hamner Matturro Interviews Michael David Blanchard
CHM: Mike, do you perceive a difference between being a poet and being a person who writes poetry? If so, into which camp would you put yourself—poet or person who writes poetry? MDB: A person who writes poetry. That phrase better connotes someone for whom the creation of literary art is but one of many […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Shuly Cawood, Author of “The Going and Goodbye”

AM: Shuly, thanks for this interview about your memoir, The Going and Goodbye. I want to start by asking you about the epigraph by Richard Wilbur, in part because he passed away just about the time your book was released. I find that intriguing because you quote him on the subject of life and death, […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Johnnie Bernhard, Author of “A Good Girl”
AM: You’ve been a regular contributor to Southern Literary Review, Johnnie, so I’m particularly happy for the occasion to interview you about your new novel, A Good Girl. Tell us about Gracey Reiter. JB: Gracey Reiter is the protagonist for my work of historical fiction, A Good Girl. A middle-aged woman, Gracey is conflicted by crossroads […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Steve Wiegenstein, Author of “The Language of Trees”
AM: So glad Southern Literary Review has a chance to feature your work again, Steve. Thanks for doing this interview. I bet when you wrote this book, you couldn’t have anticipated how timely a story about a post-Civil War 19th century community would be. If you turn on the news these days, you see ongoing […]