Book of the Year to be announced Sunday, December 15. Which one will win? Any of these titles make fine holiday gifts. (Finalists listed alphabetically by title.) Birdhouse Jesus by Terri Chastain Using a combination of charm and horror and finally transcendence, Chastain creates a protagonist who comes to terms with childhood abuse by […]
Bradley Sides interviews Maggie Nye, author of The Curators
December 4, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Maggie Nye’s debut, The Curators (Curbstone Books 2024), mixes magical realism with history. Set in Atlanta during the summer of 1915, The Curators follows a group of young girls–known as the Felicitous Five–as they create and deal with a golem in the aftermath of Mary Phagan’s murder and Leo Frank’s lynching. Nye’s novel boldly and […]
Bradley Sides interviews Willie Davis, author of “I Can Outdance Jesus”
November 19, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Willie Davis’ I Can Outdance Jesus (2024) is a rip-roaring collection of excellent rural short fiction–one that is almost certain to leave a lasting impression on readers. In Davis’ stories, songwriters taunt Episcopalians leaving church, a young girl preaches to chickens, and miracles appear (well—maybe not). It was my pleasure to be able to talk […]
Bradley Sides Interviews Jen Fawkes, author of Daughters of Chaos
October 1, 2024 by Leave a Comment
For those readers who believe nothing original or new is being written these days, check out and marvel at Jen Fawkes’s Daughters of Chaos, a shapeshifting, powerhouse novel that balances explorations of history, myth, identity, and monsters. Fawkes’s novel, told in letters and a variety of forms, tells the story of Sylvie Swift as she […]
Bradley Sides interviews Shaun Hamill, author of “The Dissonance”
August 21, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Shaun Hamill’s The Dissonance is a big and bold novel that mixes fantasy, horror, and heart. The magical story weaves between characters and time periods, as readers encounter themes of friendship and love. Just like with the author’s previous book, A Cosmology of Monsters, there are even monsters. Shaun Hamill received his BA in English […]
Fairy Tales, Monsters, and More with Bradley Sides, Author of “Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood,” and Dawn Major
August 21, 2024 by Leave a Comment
From a pond monster called King George to docile dragons and half-shark boys to monsters of the human variety, Bradley Sides’s Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood (Montag Press 2024) puts a new spin on how we view monsters and modern-day mythmaking. Clearly, monsters hold a special place in Sides’s writerly heart because we met […]