Talking With a Dirty Guv’nah
Upon the release of a new album, lead singer for the Knoxville, Tennessee, band expresses the importance of place in making authentic Southern roots music.
Mountain Literature
Their song is sifted out Golden flakes mixed with pyrite How the baby died, how the food
Charleston Celebrates Oldest Library in the South
The Charleston Library Society marks 100 years in its Beaux Arts style building downtown on King Street.
The Crowd
It's 7:45 p.m. and break time, but there is no bell. There is no manager or team leader or whistle to let us know. There is only an analogue clock
Two Poems by Barbara Caceres
Gravity pulled color from the Irises into soil so heavy the garden became a pond of mud where cardinals flailed their wings and died
Review of Erika Robuck's 'Fallen Beauty'
This fictional account of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay celebrates the life worth lived.
Literary Friday, Edition 97
Celebrating National Poetry Month, a review of Erika Robuck's 'Fallen Beauty,' 50 Best Southern Novels Ever Written, the return of Ellen Gilchrist, and Elizabeth Spencer in Literary Events. Happy Literary (and Poetry) Friday!
Tales of Robert Johnson and Harriet the Spy from Oxford Conference for the Book
The 21st annual Oxford Conference for the Book was this past week, spanning March 26-28. Each year, journalists, fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, artists, students and others associated with literature and publishing come together to discuss just that: literature, specifically Southern literature, its roles in today’s society, and “writing the Southern landscape.” This year, the conference was held in conjunction with the Southern Literary Festival (SLF), which is held at a different Southern school each year. I happen to live in Oxford, so attending various panels was a breeze. (All sessions are also free and open to the public.) Though the conference is known for hosting some major literary powerhouses each year, I was especially excited about the author lineup. Megan Abbott (who is finishing up her post as the 2013 John Grisham writer-in-residence at Ole Miss) was speaking at various points throughout the conference; Ace Atkins was speaking on Robert Johnson; Laura Lippman was discussing Harriet the Spy, feminism and crime fiction; Jonathan Odell was discussing his latest novel, The Healing. To say the least, it was an exciting group of writers. On Wednesday, I attended “Fiction, Memory, and Southern History,” which was moderated by Ted Ownby, who is the director of