Betsy Reeder is the author of the New River trilogy of historical fiction: Madam’s Creek, Broomstraw Ridge, and Salt in Boiling Water. She is also the writer/compiler of Broadus Unbound: The Oversized Will, Intellect, and Influence of a Small Baptist, a biographical collection of letters that illuminates the life of John A. Broadus, renowned preacher […]
2023 Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize
January 16, 2023 by Leave a Comment
2023 Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize Ends on February 1, 2023 Open to all poets writing in English. Please submit 18-24 pages of original poetry. Individual poems may have been previously published. Please submit your manuscript without your name on it. Simultaneous submissions are fine. Please notify. Judges are the Anhinga editors. Winner receives: $200 and 25 […]
January Read of the Month: “Jar of Pennies” by John Yearwood
January 4, 2023 by Leave a Comment
John Yearwood’s Jar of Pennies (John & Stephenie Yearwood Management Trust, 2022) is an impeccably written cultural and historical crime fiction novel. The author knows how to spin a tale, capture a character, set a scene, portray a community, and write in stellar prose. However, as established in its opening chapter, it is not a […]
Claire Hamner Matturro interviews author John Yearwood
January 2, 2023 by Leave a Comment
CHM: Thank you, John Yearwood, for giving Southern Literary Review a bit of your time and attention with these questions. First, let me congratulate you on writing such a powerful book. Jar of Pennies is an excellent novel, categorized as “cultural heritage fiction” and “historical murder mystery thriller.” Though primarily, perhaps, the story of a […]
“A Mother Speaks, A Daughter Listens: Journeying Together Through Dementia” by Felicia Mitchell
January 2, 2023 by Leave a Comment
A profound and poignant collection of poems, A Mother Speaks, A Daughter Listens: Journeying Together Through Dementia (2022) by Felicia Mitchell can be read as a daughter’s memoir in verse or as a mother’s partial biography. Their merging stories are captivating and heartfelt, moving, and above all else, genuine. Anyone who has cared for a […]
Literary Books in Brief
January 1, 2023 by Leave a Comment
This month Southern Literary Review takes a look at three recent publications from the University of Mississippi Press that focus on an aspect of Southern literature. “William Faulkner Day by Day” by Carl Rollyson I winced when I first saw the chronological, diary-like entries of William Faulkner Day by Day. I thought that format couldn’t […]