Reviewed by Mary Ellen Thompson With her debut novel, Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace, Tracey Buchanan has just spiced up the genre of semi-humorous historical fiction when she introduces the reader to Mrs. Minerva Place, a persnickety middle aged woman who converses with ghosts from the local cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky. The proverbial […]
“Malone Ridge” by James K. Dill
July 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Malone Ridge (Little Star Books 2023) is a well-conceived, well-told tale of spirit triumphing over circumstances. And for Eve Malone, the protagonist, the circumstances are, if not dire, close enough. Born in Nitro, a small West Virginia community in Appalachia, she is living in poverty in a trashy, once-abandoned hunter’s trailer with an outhouse in […]
July Read of the Month: “Deeper than African Soil” by Faith Eidse
July 5, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Deeper than African Soil (Masthof Press, 2023) by Faith Eidse is a most unusual and exceptionally fine memoir. No wonder Florida State University recognized it with the Kingsbury Award, given annually to a graduate student who demonstrates lasting intellectual value in writing, and with the English Department’s Ann Durham Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award. Several chapters […]
Gwaltney named Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel
June 21, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Congratulations to Robert Gwaltney for his latest award: Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel. Read Dawn Major’s review of his novel The Cicada Tree. Dawn also interviewed Robert. And here is an essay Robert wrote about a writer’s residency. See all the winners in the 2023 contest here.
“With the Devil’s Help” by Neal Wooten
June 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Neal Wooten’s powerful memoir, With the Devil’s Help (Simon & Schuster 2022), begins with a knock-knock—and it isn’t a joke. The men in black suits have shown up at four-year-old Neal’s door and want to speak to his father. This is Neal’s introduction—and ours—to a family mystery: who are these men? Why are they threatening […]
“Yellow Wife” by Sadeqa Johnson
June 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Yellow Wife (Simon & Schuster, 2021) by Sadeqa Johnson has garnered much recognition already: A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and Christian Science Monitor, and a Goodreads Choice Award. Yet Southern Literary Review didn’t want to let this extraordinary historical novel escape our readers’ notice, so Donna Meredith and Claire Matturro discussed the novel’s merits […]