The Bright Years (Simon & Schuster 2025) by Sarah Damoff shimmers as an exquisite, poignant portrait of a family crumbling as their painful pasts push their way into the present. It is a story of addiction and recovery. Of love and loss. Of forgiveness and redemption. Set in Texas, The Bright Years takes readers on […]
SLR editors converse with Robert Bailey, author of “The Boomerang”
April 29, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Introduction: Southern Literary Review is pleased to present this three-way exchange about Robert Bailey’s newest book, The Boomerang, which is his eleventh novel. Robert joins Editor Donna Meredith and Associate Editor Claire Hamner Matturro in discussing The Boomerang, a political thriller that had Donna and Claire both going “Wow” when they read it. Robert is […]
“Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl” by Hyeseung Song
April 29, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Hyeseung Song lays bare the difficulties she encountered trying to fit into American culture as a girl of Korean descent in Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl (Simon & Schuster 2024). Throughout her young life, Hyeseung longs to be seen for who she really is. She feels she is either invisible to White Americans […]
“Dressing the Saints” by Aracelis Gonzalez Asendorf
March 21, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Aracelis Gonzalez Asendorf’s Dressing the Saints (Black Lawrence Press 2024) is a collection of nine short stories that vividly explores the lives of Cuban Americans. The book, which won the Gold Medal for Fiction at the 2025 Florida Book Awards, brings to life the close-knit immigrant communities of South Florida and the rich cultural heritage […]
2025 Word of South Music and Literary Festival April 4-6
March 21, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Tallahassee’s beautiful Cascades Park will host the tenth Word of South Music and Literary Festival April 4-6, 2025. This FREE event will feature music, authors, food and fun all weekend. The only paid event is the Violent Femmes and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 4. You can buy tickets here. Everything else is free. […]
“Boy With Wings” by Mark Mustian
March 21, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Is Johnny Cruel an angel or a demon or just an ordinary boy with an unusual birthmark? In Mark Mustian’s literary novel Boy With Wings (Koehler Books 2025), characters often struggle to make sense of Johnny Cruel’s unusual wings—and readers may feel the same. At times, Johnny is heroic; at others, vengeful. In this novel of […]