Penalties of June (McSweeney’s 2024) by John Brandon is a well-crafted, invitingly atmospheric tale of a motley group of anti-heroes and a lovely, hard-working young woman in 1998 Florida. These characters cross fortunes and fates as their lives interlace again—and again—in a tale that carries a hint of the Southern Gothic within its absorbing pages. Kirkus […]
“Gothictown” by Emily Carpenter
January 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Most times in life when things seem too good to be true, they are. Such is the case in Emily Carpenter’s latest novel, Gothictown (Kensington, 2025). If you liked Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” you are bound to enjoy the mysteries hidden behind the innocent façade of Gothictown. Carpenter begins the novel with brief […]
The Professor’s Bayonet Podcast of “Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood” by Paula Delgado-Kling
January 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Dr. Jason Dew has released a podcast of Paula Delgado-Kling’s Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood, which Dew previously reviewed for SLR. Check out his podcast.
Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home to Kick Off Author’s Centennial Year with Panel on Faith, Race, and Disability
January 14, 2025 by Leave a Comment
WHAT: The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the legacy of one of the South’s greatest writers, invites you to Flannery O’Connor: Faith, Race, and Disability, a panel discussion focused on faith, race, and disability in Flannery O’Connor’s work and in the modern South. A reception will follow the discussion. Panelists include: […]
“Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood” by Paula Delgado-Kling
January 13, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Paula Delgado-Kling’s aptly named book, Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood (OR Books 2024), details in vivid and sticky language the plight of a poor Columbian girl whose destiny could never be anything else but what it was: a tangled, complicated, and, ultimately, violent relationship with the only authority that even pretended to care about […]
J. Michael Dew
January 13, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Michael Dew is a Professor of English at Georgia State University – Perimeter College. His books include Gadly Plain (Cladach Publishing 2013) and All the Bad Things (currently out of print). He is the creator of The Professor’s Bayonet, which is a weekly podcast that explores literature and theology with an eye toward social commentary.