RD: You choose to show both the good and bad sides of life in the Deep South. How do you find this balance in your fiction? Do you feel as if your novels make any statements about the South? LB: For every racist or bigoted person I’ve ever encountered, I’ve met an open-minded, loving […]
“Alligator Lake” by Lynne Bryant
April 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Review by Rhett DeVane Lugging painful emotional baggage is difficult enough, but carting that baggage back to a small Mississippi town after ten years takes courage. When twenty-eight-year-old Avery Pritchett returns home to Greendale—“a place where racism reaches as deep and dark as the bottom of Alligator Lake”—for her brother’s wedding, she has more to […]
“Diary of a Mad Fat Girl,” by Stephanie McAfee
March 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Patricia O’Sullivan High school art teacher Graciela ‘Ace’ Jones thinks she has a big derriere, but in her hometown of Bugtussle, Mississippi, Ace is better known for her big mouth. In fact, Ace’s rants are famous in Bugtussle – like the time she stood up to a pack of mean girls bullying her […]
Adele Annesi Interviews Julie Cantrell
March 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
AA: You’ve written nonfiction in the past, but this is your first novel, correct? JC: I have published two children’s picture books (Zonderkidz, 2009), and I have contributed to a dozen books, including the most recent coffee table book, Mississippians (Ed. Neil White, 2011 and 2012), but this is my debut novel. AA: What was […]
March Read of the Month: “Into the Free,” by Julie Cantrell
March 1, 2012 by 1 Comment
Review by Adele Annesi Julie Cantrell’s debut novel, Into the Free, offers a poetic voice and compelling story for young adults and adults that engages readers in tales of segregation, challenges, secrets and hope in unexpected places. Set in Depression-era Mississippi, Into the Free is the story of Millie Reynolds, whose mixed Choctaw and white […]
Profile: Donna Tartt
January 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Profile by Cameron Elizabeth Williams By the age of thirteen, Donna Tartt had already begun to establish herself as an emerging literary talent. Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1963 and raised in nearby Grenada, Tartt spent her childhood enjoying the company of her great-aunts, great-grandparents, and grandparents. Tartt was especially fond of—and likewise adored by—her […]