Reviewed by William Walsh There’s something about the tactile sensation of opening a book and smelling the paper and ink that lends itself to seemingly unlimited possibilities. Two very distinct things prompted my anticipation of Southern Writers Bear Witness. One, I started off in the mid-1980s interviewing southern writers, including some of the same writers […]
“Messenger from Mystery,” by Deno Trakas
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl Messenger from Mystery is Dr. Deno Trakas’s first novel, but he’s not unknown to upstate South Carolina readers. He holds the Laura and Winston Hoy Chair in English at Wofford and has published both fiction and poetry in journals and anthologies. The novel harks back to the latter years of […]
“One Good Mama Bone,” by Bren McClain
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl To begin: This is a book about a woman who talks to a cow and comes to believe she can learn some things from the cow, Big Mama Red, whose child is a steer named Lucky. The woman is Sarah Creamer and the novel is set in the 1950s in […]