2022 Book of the Year: “Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans” by Janisse Ray

The editors of Southern Literary Review select one book each year to receive special recognition. It recognizes books published between October of the previous year to October of the current year.  The Book of the Year should Be written by a Southern author or have a Southern setting. Have lasting value as part of the […]

Dawn Major interviews Janisse Ray, author of “The Woods of Fannin County”

Associate Editor of Southern Literary Review, Dawn Major originally met Southern author, poet, activist, Janisse Ray while Major was a graduate student attending the Etowah Valley MFA Creative Writing Program. Ray taught a nonfiction workshop then and was the keynote speaker for the graduating class. DM: I know you had some anxiety over publishing fiction […]

December Read of the Month: “The Woods of Fannin County” by Janisse Ray

Astounding as it may seem for admirers of Southern author, poet, activist Janisse Ray, The Woods of Fannin County (Janisse Ray, 2022) is her first time publishing fiction. Maybe more surprising is her anxiety over venturing into fiction. The Woods of Fannin County is an unfathomable story, and perhaps, fiction made it easier to tell […]

SLR Interviews Janisse Ray, Author of “Wild Spectacle”

December Read of the Month: “Wild Spectacle,” by Janisse Ray

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Janisse Ray’s writing has always been robust and rich with that magical, evocative touch that pulls her readers into a scene, a thought, an emotion, or an insight. Just as in her acclaimed Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Ray’s insightful, eloquent writing shines in Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a […]