Literary Friday, Edition 62

Twitter Chat With Erika Marks & “The Guest House” Giveaway! 

Today we’re chatting with “The Guest House” author Erika Marks on Twitter from 1-2 CST (2-3 EST). Join us using the hashtag #southernlit. We talked to Erika earlier this week about why she chose the theme of North vs. South in her new book, which is set on Cape Cod but revolves around a family from North Carolina. She also revealed her thoughts on the  geography of love and tells us how she researched her Southern characters. Our co-host will again be Tamara Welch of Traveling With T, and one lucky chat participant will be receiving a copy of the book!

Summer Reading

Two books on our Summer Reading List  hit shelves this week – Michael Hiebert’s “Dream With Little Angels” and Mary Alice Monroe’s “The Summer Girls” – just in time for the Fourth of July holiday.

We featured a great destination for beach reading in our Travel section this week: Georgia’s Tybee Island. Get a peek inside the beachhouses of author Mary Kay Andrews and even rent one through Mermaid Cottages.

Today is the last day to win a copy of Beth Albright’s “The Sassy Belles” from Traveling With T.

Enter to win a copy of Stephanie McAfee’s latest in her Mad Fat Girl series “Down and Out in Bugtussle” through July 3 on Goodreads.

Literary News & Blogs 

Brain Pickings has audio of Tennessee Williams reading two poems by Hart Crane: The Hurricane and The Broken Tower.

Paula Deen has been all over the news this week for admitting she’s made racial slurs in the past. Eatocracy has an elegant take on the issue that examines the roots of Deen’s cooking and concludes credit is past due to the African American community responsible for such iconic Southern dishes as fried chicken and gumbo.

And for those who want to delve further into the issue, culinary historian Michael Twitty has a thought provoking Open Letter to Paula Deen on his blog.

Writer Judy Smith visits Mississippi’s Ironic Presidential Library in Starkville in our Culture section this week.

Can you guess which Southern author (and stylish character) made it into The Huffington Post‘s 11 Unforgivable Changes Made to Book Adaptations? 

Flavorwire’s Wedding Photos of 16 Famous Authors in Love includes Hemingway’s marriage to Hadley Richardson (pictured) and Margaret Mitchell’s to first husband Red Upshaw.

Literary Events

The Birmingham Festival Theatre ends its run of “The Last Flapper,” a play by William Luce about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, June 29.

An exhibit at Southside Gallery in Oxford, Mississippi, celebrates two of William Faulkner’s works with art by printmaker Boyd Saunders (pictured at top). The exhibit opens July 9 and runs through August 3.

Mary Alice Monroe and Mary Kay Andrews both have booksigning events coming up next week. See our Summer Booksignings Calendar to find out if they’ll be in your town.

New in Southern Voice

Sea Trees and Silver Dusk, a pair of summer poems by Phoebe Brown.

To find out more about Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android.