Southern Literary Review congratulates Associate Editor Dawn Major on the publication of her debut novel, The Bystanders (Mooncove Press, 2023). SLR’s Editor Donna Meredith and Associate Editor Claire Matturro discuss Dawn Major’s novel, The Bystanders. DM: The first chapter begins with the archetype of a stranger coming to town. In this case, the strangers […]
A Conversation on the April Read of the month: “The Bystanders” by Dawn Major
April 5, 2023 by 1 Comment
“The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia” by Emma Copley Eisenberg
April 4, 2023 by Leave a Comment
With elegant prose, Emma Copley Eisenberg pushes all the boundaries in her nonfiction book, The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia (Hatchette, 2020). It is part true crime, but her lens focuses tighter on the people involved than the typical crime story. Eisenberg delivers the life stories of the […]
“The Devil’s Fools” by Mary Gilliland
April 4, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Award-winning poet Mary Gilliland has led writing retreats and found inspiration in sites in Greece and Scotland, and as we will see, in the most pedestrian of venues—her bowls on kitchen shelves, the farmer’s field, her mother’s weary body as it climbs into bed. Mary Gilliland’s bows to the smallest of creatures, the most ancient […]
“The Gospel of Rot” by Gregory Ariail
March 15, 2023 by 1 Comment
When deciding to review a book I try to avoid blurbs, other reviews, or anything that may influence my review. I’ll read the author’s bio or visit their website, but initially I prefer to select a book based on the author’s synopsis. So, when I read the back of The Gospel of Rot (Mercer University […]
“The Ballad of Cherrystoke and Other Stories” by Melanie McGee Bianchi
March 15, 2023 by 1 Comment
To the surprise of many who were raised on Hee Haw and The Beverly Hillbillies, the Appalachian region, rich with Scots-Irish, African-American, Hispanic, European, and Native American influences, positively simmers in diversity, like a pepper sauce in the stew that makes up the region’s populace. An expanse where abject squalor lives hand-in-calloused-hand with blue collar […]
“Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology” edited by Julie E. Bloemeke and Dustin Brookshire
March 14, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023) is a complete delight. It is filled with poems which are alternately bold, splashy, wise, personal, revealing, poignant, funny, thoughtful and thought-provoking, utterly charming, or more—just like the iconic cultural figure the anthology pays homage to in verse. […]