APM: Thanks for taking the time to sit down for this interview, Bob. Your novel The Inside War is about an Appalachian mountain family during the Civil War. How long have you been interested in the Civil War? RJE: I have had an interest in the Civil War for many years. Specifically, the effect of […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Barbara Davis, Author of “The Wishing Tide”
November 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
APM: Through my fault. Through my fault. Through my most grievous fault. So opens your novel The Wishing Tide. This refrain is repeated elsewhere in the novel in chapters attributed to the character Mary. It’s a rhythmic reminder, I think, of the crashing and retreating tides of love and life. What about this […]
“The Mockingbird Next Door,” by Marja Mills
September 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall Nelle Harper Lee has been embroiled in lawsuits over the last couple of years and making headlines for her alleged litigiousness. Marja Mills’s The Mockingbird Next Door is a welcome and timely look at Nelle (as her friends and family call her) from another angle, one that offers us a fuller […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Jolina Petersheim
August 4, 2014 by 1 Comment
APM: Thanks for taking the time to talk to Southern Literary Review, Jolina. Your latest novel, The Midwife, follows closely on the heels of The Outcast. Did you expect these books to be the successes they’ve been? All authors dream that their novels will be successful, and I was certainly no exception. Still, I had […]
“Emigration to Liberia,” by Matthew F.K. McDaniel
April 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall Emigration to Liberia is the story of the nearly 500 African-Americans who left Columbus, Georgia, and Eufaula, Alabama, from 1853 to 1903, to emigrate to Liberia, the West African nation that was founded in 1822 by United States colonization. Matthew F.K. McDaniel marshals evidence from written correspondence and newspapers to piece […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews James Elkins About Law, Literature, Poetry, and Teaching
March 19, 2014 by 2 Comments
AM: Jim, thank you for doing this interview. You recently came out with a book, Lawyer Poets and That World We Call Law. You’ve been researching and writing about lawyer poets for some time now. What is it about lawyer poets that fascinates you, and what is it about this type of person that makes him […]