Donna Meredith interviews Sara Warner, author of “Horse People”

Introduction: While I haven’t met Sara Warner in person that I can recall, she did live in Tallahassee for a time, as do I, so I have been aware of her as a writer. I recall meeting her husband Pete LeForge, who is also a writer, at an event sponsored years ago by the Leon […]

Gale Massey interviews Florida author Lauren Groff about her new bookstore “The Lynx”

The Lynx Bookstore 601 South Main Street Gainesville, FL 32601 Introduction: Walking into the bookstore, I noticed the open and high ceilings, the quiet hum of shoppers, the bookstore’s staff, and immediately felt at home. To my right, a large window let in an abundance of natural light, and just beyond that was a wall of […]

Claire Hamner Matturro interviews Cheryl Whitehead, author of the poetry collection “Distant Relations”

Claire Hamner Matturro: Thank you, Cheryl Whitehead, for being willing to share a bit of yourself with Southern Literary Review. First, congratulations on your very fine book, Distant Relations (Loblolly Press 2025), which is an engaging, evocative collection of poetry involving nature, family, farms, and much more. Your poems are exquisitely detailed in such beautiful […]

Donna Meredith interviews Rhonda Browning White, author of “Filling the Big Empty”

Novel Summary: A baby. It’s the one thing Romie Grodin, orphaned at thirteen, wants more than anything else in the world. A real homeplace. It’s what her coal-mining husband Jasper wants—needs—to provide for his family. When the couple’s best friend—their only “family”—is hurt in a mining accident and his wife becomes addicted to drugs, Romie and Jasper must […]

BettyJoyce Nash interviews Carla Damron, author of “Justice Be Done”

Introduction: A social worker, Carla Damron is also an award-winning fiction writer. Her latest book is Justice Be Done (Bella Rosa Press 2023). Her titles also include The Orchid Tattoo (National Indie Excellence Award) and The Stone Necklace (Women Fiction Writers Award, also chosen as One Community Read for Columbia, S.C.) BettyJoyce Nash writes fiction in Charlottesville, […]

Southern Literary Review Editor Donna Meredith interviews Phyllis Gobbell, author of “Prodigal”

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 […]