“Don’t Date Baptists—and other things my mother told me,” by Terry Barr

Reviewed by Walter Bennett Terry Barr’s Don’t Date Baptists is foremost a book of stories—an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative—about a boy’s coming to manhood and moral awareness in the deep South of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, a propitious time and place indeed to be the son of a Jewish father and Methodist mother. And that […]

Walter Bennett

Walter Bennett is a former civil rights attorney, judge, and law professor who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  He is the author of The Lawyer’s Myth: Reviving Ideals in the Legal Profession (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and the novel Leaving Tuscaloosa (Fuze Publishing, 2012).  He is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 

“All the Governor’s Men,” by Katherine Clark

Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl I title this review “The Overly-Stuffed Novel,” a designation that calls attention to Willa Cather’s credo stated with some punchy forcefulness in her essay “The Novel Demeuble.”  The point is simple enough: Aesthetically, the novel does not merely catalog the furniture of life, physical things, processes, sensations, thoughts.  She analogizes […]

“My Southern Journey,” by Rick Bragg

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Rick Bragg can spin a charming, compelling story about coleslaw—that’s the range of this man’s creativity and talent, which I’ve been appreciating since reading (savoring) his hauntingly beautiful memoir about growing up hard, fast and poor in Alabama, All Over But The Shouting (Pantheon 1997). I wasn’t the only one […]

Joshua S. Fullman

Joshua S. Fullman is an Assistant Professor of English at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama. He earned his bachelor’s and Master’s at California State University, another Master’s at the University of Edinburgh, and his PhD at Southern Illinois University. He currently serves as the Director of the Institute of Faith and the Academy at Faulkner, […]

“The Professor,” by Robert Bailey

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Move over, John Grisham, there’s a new kid on the legal thriller playing field. Robert Bailey, an Alabama trial attorney and graduate of The University of Alabama School of Law, returns the kickoff for a 100 yard touchdown with his debut novel, The Professor. The football reference is apropos as […]