Literary Friday

Chat With ‘Auraria’ Author Tim Westover 

We’ll be chatting with Georgia author Tim Westover, whose new novel “Auraria” is included in our Fall/Winter Reading List, on Twitter today from 1-2 CST (2-3 EST). The hashtag for the chat is #southernlit, and we recommend using tweetchat.com. To find out more about “Auraria” and the mystical world Westover created in this former Gold Rush town, read our review and interview with him. We’ll also be giving away a few copies of “Auraria” during tomorrow’s chat, so stay tuned if you entered our giveaway.

Review of ‘Dixie Bohemia’

North Carolina retired professor and Southern scholar John Shelton Reed’s new book “Dixie Bohemia” is about a circle of bohemians, that included William Faulkner, in the 1920s New Orleans French Quarter. Read our review here and get the book from your independent bookstore now.

(Non)Required Reading 

Each week in October, we’re posting a ghost story in partnership with storytelling site The Moonlit Road. For more spooky reads this month, check out Goodreads’ list of favorite novels with ghosts.

The Scarlett O’Hara School of Self Deception about our favorite belle’s ability to put things off until tomorrow is posted on BookRiot this week.

Melinda McGuire’s latest Southern Creatives interview is with writer Louisa Dang, who posts about Permission to be Southern.

Earlier this month, University of North Carolina history professor Karen L. Cox wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times titled We’re Here, We’re Queer, Y’all.

Literary New & Blogs

The River Witch audiobook is out! Get it on sale from Audible for only $10.37.

We posted a look at James Franco’s filming of “As I Lay Dying” across Mississippi earlier this week.

Video of The Oxford American‘s New South Journalism Symposium in New Orleans September 28 is available for viewing on the magazine’s website.

Flavorpill has 15 Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels. Find out which Southern classic was called “a penny dreadful tricked up in fancy language” in its time.

Online Education Database’s 10 Haunted Libraries of the US includes three Southern spots, including one with books falling off the shelves. The list also includes a link to an extensive listing of Haunted Libraries in the South.

Hear an interview with UL Lafayette English professor Dr. Mary Wilson, who discovered a 50-year-old recording of Flannery O’Connor in her office last spring, on KRVS public radio.

BookRiot has 10 Bookish Facebook Feeds You Should Follow, including those by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edgar Allan Poe.

Literary Events 

Storytelling abounds throughout the South this month, with the Alabama Tale-Tellin’ Festival in Selma and Delta Storytelling Festival in Greenville, Mississippi, both happening this weekend.

Also this weekend is the free Southern Festival of Books in Nashville with guest authors Gillian Flynn, Lauren Groff, Kimberly Brock, Lydia Netzer, Junot Diaz, Ron Rash, Bobbie Ann Mason and lots more.

The 2012 James River Writers Conference in Richmond, Virginia, includes a workshop with Tom Robbins on October 19 at the State Capitol and workshops, panel discussions and more October 20-21.

Join Deep South in Lafayette on October 25 at The Saint Street Inn for a booksigning and talk with Cory MacLauchlin, author of the new biography on John Kennedy Toole, “Butterfly in the Typewriter.” MacLauchlin will be talking about Toole’s Lafayette connections, who he thinks the real model for Ignatius Reilly was and signing books from 5-6 p.m.

The Louisiana Book Festival will be held October 27 in Baton Rouge at the State Capitol. This festival lineup is finally out, with featured authors including Marcelle Bienvenu, Rick Bragg, Cory MacLauchlin, Wiley Cash, Tim Gautreaux, Olympia Vernon, Karen Spears Zacharias and lots more. See the festival’s banner ad at the top of our site for more info.

The Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, will hold its annual Halloween Bash on the grounds the evening of October 31. Dress in the theme of “Mobsters and Monsters.” Tickets are $25.

Also in Deep South events, the early registration deadline for the Flannery O’Connor Symposium we’re co-sponsoring in Lafayette is October 15. Take advantage of the chance to get $25 off the ticket price. Scheduled for November 9-10, the symposium is marking 50 years since O’Connor spoke on the UL Lafayette campus. For those of you who’ve been waiting to hear the recording of her talk that was found here, we’re close to being able to release an audio clip, so stay tuned. You’ll also be able to hear O’Connor speak if you attend the symposium.

Also the weekend of November 9-10 is the Georgia Literary Festival at the new Jekyll Island Convention Center, which will include Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Chef Hugh Acheson, Mary Kay Andrews and Steve Berry.

The Dahlonega Literary Festival will take place in historic Dahlonega, Georgia, November 10-11. So far, guest authors include K.M. Deal, Tim Westover and Regina Jeffers.

New Iberia, Louisiana, has a new Spanish festival, El Festival Espanol de Nueva Iberia, that will include a Dave Robicheaux Running of the Bulls 5K race on Saturday at 8 a.m.

New in Southern Voice

Hydrobiology of 5 Tubs, a creative nonfiction piece about the joys and sorrows of bathing in a claw-foot tub by Deb Moore.

To find out more about Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, including the Southern Festival of Books and literary spots in New Orleans, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, now available direct from iTunes and for Android.

Check out the Literary Friday Pinterest board here!