Literary Friday, Edition 65

Chat With Beth Hoffman and a Giveaway for “Looking for Me” 

Today we’re chatting with “Looking for Me” author Beth Hoffman on Twitter from 1-2 CST (2-3 EST). Join us using the hashtag #southernlit or our chat room on Twubs. We interviewed Hoffman earlier this week to find out how her deepest passions inspired this book and how she used opposites to create drama with her setting. We also have a copy of the book to give away to one lucky chat participant!

Chat co-host is Tamara Welch, who also spoke to Hoffman this week about her favorite books, literary confessions and crushes.

Literary News & Blogs 

Even though Zelda Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway were rivals, they share a birthday week. We celebrated Zelda’s with some links for recommended reading and Hemingway’s with The Bailey cocktail.

Making the rounds in literary news this week is Harper Lee’s courtroom battle to get the copyright for “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Vanity Fair has the whole saga from beginning to end.

The Idaho Statesman has deemed Beth Albright’s “The Sassy Belles” a “fantastic Southern Summer Read.” We agree, since the book is one of our Summer Reading List picks and will have a guest post from Albright next week.

Head over to Southern Spines to listen to a podcast with “Keowee Valley” author Katherine Scott Crawford, who Pat Conroy called “a name to be remembered.”

Another book getting a lot of buzz this summer is “Tampa” by Alyssa Nutting. Read a review at Jenn’s Bookshelves that explains why she couldn’t put down the book even though she wanted to.

The Millions’ list of the most anticipated books in the second half of 2013 includes a few that will have Southerners wishing it were September already. The list is long, so keep an eye out for Daniel Woodrell, Allan Gurganus, Donna Tartt and “Flannery O’Connor’s Prayer Journal.”

“The Color Purple” author Alice Walker’s take on Trayvon Martin is published in The Guardian.

South Carolina author Dave Newell announced that his first novel “Red Lory” will be made into a movie. No word yet on who will star in it, but Newell is asking readers to tweet or Facebook him with suggestions.

Literary Events 

The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival presents “Romeo and Juliet” at Tulane University through July 27.

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.

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

New in Southern Voice 

Only in the South, an essay about going home, Jesus and soda pop, by returning writer Jamie Berube.

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