Almost without exception, seeing a book with the subtitle “On the Creative Life” I’d take a pass. But who can resist a book like Sally Mann’s Art Work Art Work: On the Creative Life (New York: Abrams Press, 2025), that begins with “This is a book about how to get shit done” ? Sally Mann, […]
Fascinating Faulkner: Personal essay from Mollie Smith Waters
September 25, 2025 by 1 Comment
Storytelling. It is what makes Southerners, well, Southern. While the South has always been able to boast of great yarn spinners, one of the most famous of those writers is William Faulkner. After all, he won a Nobel Prize for Literature, so his genius is not in question. Faulkner was truly brilliant at capturing the […]
The World That I Know: Stephen Corey’s “As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New & Selected Poems, 1981-2020”
March 17, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Steven Croft The poet, a “poet,” is a crafter of words, and if very successful, maybe a magician of words. A philosopher, if wise, gives great thought to fundamental ideas and questions, even if wisdom knows final answers will remain elusive. Stephen Corey’s volume, As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New […]
“Did Joyce inspire Gone with the Wind?” Essay by Ivan Visioli PhD
December 30, 2024 by 2 Comments
In the seventh chapter “Aeolus” of James Joyce’s Ulysess, we find the words “Gone with the wind. Hosts at Mullaghmast and Tara of the kings.” Obviously, the name “Tara” associated with the words “Gone with the wind” bring to mind the title of Margaret Mitchell’s novel, so much so that the Italian translators, from Giulio […]
Dawn Major reviews “The Best of the Shortest: a Southern Writers Reading Reunion”
November 19, 2024 by 1 Comment
Introduction: A year ago, on the weekend before Thanksgiving I travelled from Atlanta to Fairhope with a fellow author and friend, John Williams, to attend the first (and as I’ve been told) the last Southern Writers Reading Reunion. The Best of the Shortest: a Southern Writers Reading Reunion anthology was going to be introduced and […]
MAKING THE ROAD AS YOU GO: GAIL GODWIN’S “QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD”
August 15, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Kerstin W. Shands A whirlwind story of news-chasing and publishing seen through the eyes of a young heroine, Gail Godwin’s Queen of the Underworld (Ballantine 2007) recalls the dynamic newspaper offices sparkling with collegial competition and smart repartee in American movies from the 1940s. During her first week as a staff reporter at […]