Literary Friday, Edition 88
Save the Date …
For our interview, giveaway and Twitter chat with Wiley Cash next Friday. The interview will go up mid-week and on January 31 we’ll be giving away a copy of his new book This Dark Road to Mercy and chatting with him from 1-2 CST using the hashtag #southernlit. The book releases that day, so you’ll have a chance to win it here first and get the back story before reading.
Faulkner & Flannery
Editor Erin Z. Bass is taking a class on Southern Gothic literature through UL Lafayette for the next couple of weeks, and we promised on Facebook that we’d share insights and notes for those of you who can’t get down to South Louisiana to attend. Wednesday was the first class, and the reading assignment was three of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories: “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” “Parker’s Back” and “Judgement Day.” English professor Mary Ann Wilson opened with an introduction to Southern Gothic and discussed the similarities and differences between O’Connor and William Faulkner before holding an open discussion on the three stories. Read Erin’s notes from the discussion here, and if you want to continue to follow along, next week’s reading assignment is O’Connor’s novel “The Violent Bear It Away.”
Literary News
Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday was last Sunday. Mental Floss had 10 Versions of “The Raven” in celebration.
Flavorwire has 10 Gothic Short Stories You Can Read Online Right Now.
Speaking of Faulkner, McSweeney’s has Highlights From the Real Housewives of Yoknapatawpha County that will have you finally rushing to read “As I Lay Dying.”
And The New Yorker mentions his map of Yoknapatawpha in its story on literary cartography.
Join blog Books Speak Volumes for Jazz Age January with a reading list that includes both Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Hemingway.
The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival has compiled a list of 10 New Orleans Po-Boys You Must East Before You Die, including an Eggs Benedict version from Stanley Restaurant.
In Social Media
We’re glad to jump on the #readwomen2014 bandwagon this month and have been advocating for female Southern writers since Literary Friday began 87 editions ago. If you’re not familiar with Joanna Walsh’s movement, started by a set of bookmarks depicting her favorite female authors, including Carson McCullers, that she gave out as Christmas gifts, you can read more about it here.
Literary Events
Zora! Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year starting tomorrow in Eatonville, Florida, and continuing through February 2.
In celebration of Black History Month, the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana is hosting author Kim Marie Vaz for a discussion of The ‘Baby Dolls’: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition. The program is free and will be held February 6.
RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia, presents Aquila Theatre’s production of Fahrenheit 451 February 11 in partnership with the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries’ “The Big Read” event.
The Savannah Book Festival will be held February 13-16 with guest authors Wiley Cash, Alice Hoffman, Wally Lamb, Anita Shreve and more.
Save the date for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival March 19-23 with Dorothy Allison, Megan Abbott, Judith Chapman, Ann Hood, Diane Ladd and Laura Lippman.
New in Southern Voice
Reconstructing, an essay about the saving grace of home improvement, by Rivers author and Columbus, Mississippi, resident Michael Farris Smith.
To find out more about Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android.
Anita / January 24, 2014
I love all these events. Trying to make it to the Zora event. It’s not far from me. I am headed to Savannah next moth. If I can help with any news of these events let me know.
Erin Z. Bass / Author / January 24, 2014
Let me know if you make it to the Zora! Fest, Anita. Would love to hear about it.
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