AM: Joseph, I’m thankful for the opportunity to interview you about Coventry, which is set in a prison camp. Like you, I’ve taught in prison. I took a prison literature course in graduate school. I’ve written about Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia and about my experience teaching in prison. So I’m particularly pleased to see […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Douglas Dell, Author of “Deep and Dirty”
January 15, 2020 by Leave a Comment
AM: “The funny thing about The South,” says the narrator in the prologue to your debut novel, Deep and Dirty, “is that it’s pretty, an odd choice of word but highly practical, take away the disasters sitting on almost every other corner and you’ll notice nature has this way of battling human influence by blotting out […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Patrick A. Howell, Author of “Yes, We Be”
November 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Patrick, I’m so glad we’ve finally found the occasion to discuss Yes, We Be. Let’s start broadly: what’s the book about? PH: Allen, Yes, We Be is different parts clarion call, first book of poetry and personal manifesto (the art and artifice to oneself of manifesting). I’ve been writing much, much longer than the […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Julie E. Justicz, Author of “Degrees of Difficulty”
October 3, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Julie, thanks for doing this interview about your debut novel, Degrees of Difficulty. Congratulations, by the way. This book is the heart-wrenching story of a family drawn together and torn apart by a series of struggles, most of which involve Ben, the disabled son and brother of the other characters: Perry (father), Caroline (mother), […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Marjorie Herrera Lewis, Author of “When the Men Were Gone”
August 21, 2019 by Leave a Comment
APM: Marjorie, so happy we get to chat about When the Men Were Gone, your novel that features protagonist Tylene Wilson, a teacher during World War II who winds up coaching a high school football team. There’s a sort of A League of Their Own vibe to the book. When did you think up this […]
Donna Meredith Interviews Allen Mendenhall, Editor of “Writers on Writing”
March 14, 2019 by 1 Comment
DM: Thanks for taking time from your very busy life to be interviewed. You are an associate dean at Faulkner University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, executive director of the Blackstone & Burke Center for Law & Liberty, and editor of Southern Literary Review. You blog at The Literary Lawyer. Your books include Literature and Liberty (2014), Oliver […]