Meet the Editors

Donna Meredith is publisher and editor-in-chief. Claire Hamner Matturro, Dawn Major, and Mary Ellen Thompson serve as associate editors. RIGHT: Photographs by VanessaK Photography, LLC.

“Horse People” by Sara Warner

Horse People  (2025) by Sara Warner is absolutely everything a stellar book should be. At times it moved me to tears. Other times the actions of villainous characters left me nauseous. I am a dog person and don’t know horses, yet I fell in love with the horses in this novel. Sara Warner helped me […]

Anhinga Prize for Poetry

Southern Literary Review welcomes Hank Lazer as our new Poetry Review Editor!

Hank Lazer has published thirty-six books of poetry, including most recently Abundant Life: New & Selected Poems (Chax Press), As We Vanish from Public View (7 Points Press), and field recordings   of mind   in morning (BlazeVOX, with 15 music-poetry tracks with Holland Hopson on banjo – available on YouTube). In 2025, Lavender Ink published What […]

“Break My Fall” by Lynn H. Blackburn

Reviewed by Alana Pate Break My Fall (Revell 2025) by Lynn H. Blackburn is an exceptional read about Meredith Quinn, a dentist who moves back to her small hometown Gossamer Falls, North Carolina. This story is about love and an investigation of the drug world of Neeson County, which neighbors Gossamer Falls. It hooked me […]

“Pineville Trace” by Wes Blake

Reviewed by Cheyanne Hensley Life is challenging, and part of the circle of life involves trying new things and accepting changes. Oftentimes, people find it difficult to start a new chapter in their life when it is so much easier to gravitate toward the past and stick with what we know. In Wes Blake’s novella […]

“The Ballad of Karla Faye Tucker” by Mark Beaver

Reviewed by Addison Summers As an avid reader, few books have ever fully captivated me quite like The Ballad of Karla Faye Tucker (University Press of Mississippi 2023) by Mark Beaver. This emotional and deeply moving work tells the true story of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since 1863. Tucker and her […]