Flight of the Wild Swan (Bellevue Literary Press 2024), a historical fiction novel written by Melissa Pritchard, portrays the complicated and inspiring life of Florence Nightingale. Written in a chronological manner, Pritchard showcases Nightingale’s ambitious nature and gritty determinedness from her childhood years in Derbyshire, England, to her adult years as a nurse in Constantinople, […]
Books of Note: “Queen of the Clouds” by Taylor C. Phillips and “Greed at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort by Leslie Noyes
March 18, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Queen of the Clouds by Taylor C. Phillips First woman to fly around the world—Amelia Earhart, right? Wrong! Yet most of us remember Earhart’s name rather than the two women who did complete that amazing solo journey. Queen of the Clouds: Joan Merriam Smith and Jerrie Mock’s Epic Quest to Become the First Woman to […]
The World That I Know: Stephen Corey’s “As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New & Selected Poems, 1981-2020”
March 17, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Steven Croft The poet, a “poet,” is a crafter of words, and if very successful, maybe a magician of words. A philosopher, if wise, gives great thought to fundamental ideas and questions, even if wisdom knows final answers will remain elusive. Stephen Corey’s volume, As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New […]
Focus on Resource Extraction with “Beyond Buffalo” and “Filling the Big Empty”
March 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This month Southern Literary Review is focusing on the damage resource extraction causes to the environment and to people and the communities they live in. Two fine environmental novels share the honor of March Book of the Month. The first is Beyond Buffalo by Betsy Reeder. It shines a light on the psychological damage following […]
“Filling the Big Empty” by Rhonda Browning White
March 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
It’s easy to understand why Rhonda Browning White’s debut novel, Filling the Big Empty (Redhawk Publications 2024) was shortlisted for the 2022 Neilson Prize. The novel is a tour-de-force, relentlessly examining environmental issues in Appalachia. While never losing focus on a young couple’s relationship, the story drops readers into the horrors of mountaintop removal to extract coal, the […]
“Beyond Buffalo” by Betsy Reeder
March 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Beyond Buffalo by Betsy Reeder takes readers beyond the deaths and physical destruction caused by the Buffalo Creek disaster to explore the long-term psychological impacts on survivors. The Buffalo Creek flood occurred in Logan County, West Virginia, on February 26, 1972, when three coal slurry impoundment dams fail during heavy rainfall, killing 125 and injuring 1,121. Over 4,000 were left homeless. But […]