Allen Mendenhall Interviews Dan Leach, Author of “Floods and Fires”

AM:  Congratulations on the publication of your collection of stories, Floods and Fires.  We share a publisher—the University of North Georgia Press—as well as a connection to Greenville, South Carolina, where I went to school at Furman.  You graduated from Clemson in 2008.  Were you writing stories then?  DL: Thanks, Allen. Congratulations to you, as […]

“A Different Harbor,” by Elizabeth Genovise

Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl The five stories in Elizabeth Genovise’s A Different Harbor mark her publishing debut and are impressive for their clear-eyed compassion.  The stories are beautifully intimate and intensely direct, poignant journeys into the burl-wood heart of what it means to be not only humanly complicit but also safe from strife while […]

“A Clear View of the Southern Sky: Stories,” by Mary Hood

Reviewed by Dan Sundahl I once had a student who wrote a poem about a farmer coming home mid-afternoon. In the farm-house kitchen, refreshed by some icey-sweet tea, he listened to muffled voices in an upstairs room. Carefully and quietly he mounted the steps and then down the darkened hallway to a room with a […]

William Bernhardt Interviews Amy Susan Wilson, Author of “Want v. Need: Stories From Pottawatomie County”

WB: First of all, congratulations on your first collection, Want v. Need. It’s a magnificent achievement. You write exclusively about community and bonds rooted in contemporary, small-town American South, specifically, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma, in rural Oklahoma. Where did these characters come from? ASW: The different protagonists sprang to life when the factual world of Pottawatomie County […]

December Read of the Month: “Want v. Need: Stories from Pottawatomie County,” by Amy Susan Wilson

Reviewed by William Bernhardt Just when the cynics begin to wonder if the short story as a literary form is lost, moribund, or permanently encased in amber, Third Lung Press presents a collection that reminds us how rich, how enriching, and how truly American this form is. Want v. Need: Stories from Pottawatomie County is […]

“The Long Rifle Season,” by James Murray

Reviewed by Yasser El-Sayed James Murray’s short story collection, The Long Rifle Season, is a beautiful rough diamond, as hard-tumble and razor-edged as it is luminous; its characters navigate harsh physical and psychological landscapes. In the hands of a less capable author, these stories might seem sensationalistic or gimmicky. In Murray’s, however, they are grit-lit […]