The Bullet Swallower (Simon & Schuster 2024) by Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a wild yarn of a story with elements of a classic western adventure invigorated with mystical realism and more than a gloss of karmic turbulence. In short, it’s fascinating. Literary historical fiction at its finest, this is an ambitious novel which more than […]
“The Digital Self: Poems and Illustrations” by Wesley Bishop
January 16, 2024 by Leave a Comment
“It felt like a time apt for apocalyptic writing,” says Bishop in his note at the end of The Digital Self (Lulu 2023). “Yet,” he says, “we continued to create countless traces of ourselves with each day spent in the digital sphere. The things we liked, or shared, or rage posted about, or emailed, or […]
“The Light Pirate,” by Lily Brooks-Dalton
January 15, 2024 by 2 Comments
The Light Pirate (Grand Central, 2022) debuted less than a year ago as an immediate Good Morning America Book Club Pick. Anyone reading this sophomore novel by acclaimed author Brooks-Dalton will understand why—not only is it artfully written and carefully crafted, it takes what was once dystopian climate fiction and twists it, tornado-like, into a […]
January Read of the Month: “Traces” by Patricia L. Hudson
January 3, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Combining the action of the finest suspense novels with the intense family drama of the best women’s fiction, Patricia Hudson’s historical novel Traces (University of Kentucky Press 2022) is a riveting read underpinned by twenty-five years of impeccable research. The novel was a finalist for the Weatherford Award (losing to Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead) and has […]
“Answering Liberty’s Call” by Tracy Lawson
January 2, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Uncovering the pivotal unsung roles women played in history is a trend that Tracy Lawson continues in Answering Liberty’s Call (Gray Lion Books 2022). In this captivating novel, Anna Stone, a young mother of three, sets out to carry medicine and warm clothing to her husband and brother garrisoned at Valley Forge. The result is […]
“End Times” by John Williams
January 1, 2024 by 1 Comment
Introduction: Southern Literary Review’s Associate Editor Dawn Major met the author of End Times, John Williams, through Reinhardt University’s Etowah Valley MFA Writing Program. Williams was Major’s critical thesis adviser, and he offered her an enormous amount of support and guidance while she wrote her critical thesis about the work of the late author, William […]