Literary Friday, Edition 63

‘Dream With Little Angels’ Book Giveaway

A coming of age novel with an 11-year-old main character who’s been compared to “To Kill A Mockingbird”‘s Scout, “Dream With Little Angels” is Canadian writer Michael Hiebert’s first novel. Although Hiebert had never been to the state of Alabama, he has a friend who lives in Auburn and chose to set his story in the fictional town of Alvin. “Dream With Little Angels” centers around Abe Teal, a young boy haunted by a tragedy that happened in his hometown before he was even born. Abe narrates the story as he helps search for a missing girl, supports his mom, the town’s only detective, and keeps an eye on a suspicious neighbor. Carolyn Haines, 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writers, had this to day about the novel: “A trip to the dark side of a town much like Mayberry, filled with that elusive quality of childhood and the aura of safety that often settles, unjustifiably, over rural small towns in the South.”

“Dream With Little Angels” is also one of our Summer Reading List picks. Read Hiebert’s guest post about how he created the setting for the book, complete with a map of Alvin, and comment on Literary Friday through the weekend for the chance to win a copy of the book. We have 6 to give away courtesy of Kensington Publishing!

A Message From Yazoo City on the Literary Legacy of Henry Herschel Brickell

Henry Herschel Brickell (1889-1952) was born in Senatobia, Mississippi, on September 13, 1889. He grew up in Yazoo City, attending the local schools and no doubt visiting the historic Ricks Memorial Library. He went on to attend the University of Mississippi, where he began his career as an editor, writer and literary critic. He served as editor and critic in cities across the United States, from Montgomery, Alabama, to Pensacola, Florida, Jackson, Mississippi, and New York City. Writers such as Arthur Palmer Hudson, Stark Young and Eudora Welty were encouraged by Brickell at different times during his career.

In 2010, the Yazoo Historical Society, the Brickell Family Foundation and the Ricks Memorial Library joined efforts to create the Henry Herschel Brickell Memorial Yazoo Literary Walkway. Joining the old Main Street School (now the Triangle Cultural Center) once attended by Brickell to the Ricks Memorial Library, this walkway now honors the memory of over 100 Yazooans who have gone on to contribute to the literary world. Ranging from local history, fiction, biography, literary criticism, photography and beyond, many of these published Yazoo authors’ works can be found in the Ricks Memorial Library today.

A full list of the honored authors can be found on the Visit Yazoo website.

Literary News & Blogs 

Matthew Guinn’s “The Resurrectionist,” one of our Summer Reading List picks and described as a Southern Gothic tale of shocking crimes and exquisite revenge, is out this week.

Southern Lit Lovers group on Goodreads is reading Amy Franklin-Willis’s “The Lost Saints of Tennessee” this month. Click here to read an essay about going home by Willis.

“Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’” is one of 50 books honored for its cover by Design Observer. Read Hunter Murphy’s book review and interview with author Cory MacLauchlin here.

Photographer Kerry Mansfield’s “Expired,” a series of discarded and withdrawn library books, includes Harper Lee’s beloved “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

Gridley Fires blog has an interview with Southern writer Tom Honea about his recent novel “A Confluence of Rivers.” 

Literary Events

The Friends of the Birmingham Public Library Book Sale runs through July 14. For $6, you can purchase a book bag and fill it up with as many books, magazines and audiobooks as will fit.

An exhibit at Southside Gallery in Oxford, Mississippi, celebrates two of William Faulkner’s works with art by printmaker Boyd Saunders through August 3.

Flat Rock Playhouse is presenting “World of Carl Sandburg” and “Rootabaga Stories” through August 10 at the Sandburg Home Amphitheater located on the grounds of the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site outside Hendersonville, North Carolina.

The Historic New Orleans Collection has an exhibition titled “Pipe Dreams: Louisiana under the French Company of the Indies, 1717–1731” that focuses on the incredible find of an unpublished memoir by Marc-Antoine Caillot. The manuscript contains Caillot’s recollection of traveling to Louisiana and his experiences in the early French colony, and the exhibit also includes engraved maps, artwork, archaeological artifacts and trade items through September 15.

On July 24, the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum Association will celebrate Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald’s 113th birthday by hosting a booksigning for Italian author Tiziana lo Porto and her new graphic novel “SuperZelda.” Read our review of the book here.

Many of the authors on our Summer Reading List have booksigning events coming up this weekend and next week. See our Summer Booksignings Calendar to find out if they’ll be in your town.

New in Southern Voice 

Miss 1972, a story about a shell lamp by UL Lafayette creative writing major Erin Holden.

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