Literary Friday, Edition 108

Flying High Before the First Official Day of Summer

Tomorrow is the first day of summer, so we’re blowing it out for Literary Friday today. First, we fly high with Lisa Howorth, author of Flying Shoes — one of our summer reads released on Tuesday. Howorth is co-founder of Square Books in Oxford, where she lives, and her debut novel is set in a fictional, 1990s version of Mississippi’s literary mecca. Based on the real-life, unsolved murder of her stepbrother, the book is both crime tale and charming depiction of the complexities of the South. In the words of Southern literary master Bobbie Ann Mason: “Lisa Howorth’s dazzling verbal wit almost stops you in your tracks while you are flying along in this delicious prose … Mary Byrd is a bold, kooky, quirky character I won’t forget.” Oxford resident and writer Mary Sellers talks to Howorth about Flying Shoes in our interview, and we also have one copy of the book to give away courtesy of Bloomsbury.

To enter to win, comment on the interview and tell us why you need this book (trust us, you do). We’ll choose a winner on Wednesday, June 25.

Literary News

Our summer reading celebration continues with Mary Alice Monroe’s Lowcountry Getaway, as the author shares her favorite coastal spots in and around Charleston upon the release of her new book, The Summer Wind.

We also have an interview with Deep Ellum author Brandon Hobson (pictured), whose new books brings to life the Dallas neighborhood of the same name and introduces readers to a memorable, yet flawed, family in a mere 120 pages.

Retired professor of the University of Virginia Charles Wright was named the next poet laureate of the United States last week. He will succeed Natasha Trethewey, a native of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises make The Huffington Post‘s list of 6 Books for Backpackers.

Read about the inspiration for Karen White’s A Long Time Gone as part of She Reads’ Books of Summer.

Kensington Books has a Southern Lit Giveaway going on that includes Amy Conner’s The Right Thing plus three other Southern reads, an iced tea pitcher and serving glasses.

#Southernlit Social 

Get your signed copy of Flying Shoes from Square Books if you missed Lisa Howorth’s signing on Tuesday!

Literary Events

See Dorothea Benton Frank at Square Books at 5:30 p.m. today for a signing of The Hurricane Sisters. The bookstore also has a signing for The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty and Megan Abbott’s The Fever coming up.

The Sweet Potato Queen Jill Conner Browne comes to New Orleans this weekend for FestiGals, an event uniting women of all ages.

Mary Alice Monroe and Patti Callahan Henry will be at the Atlanta History Center‘s Margaret Mitchell House June 25 to discuss their summer reads.

Hemingway Days will take place in Key West, Florida, July 15-20, with highlights including the “Papa” Hemingway look-alike contest, prose and poetry readings, an offbeat “Running of the Bulls,” marlin tournament and the culmination of an internationally recognized short story competition directed by Ernest’s author granddaughter Lorian Hemingway.

The annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, with the theme “Faulkner and History,” will take place July 20-24 in Oxford, Mississippi.

Save the date for the Decatur Book Festival August 29-31 in Decatur, Georgia, with keynote speaker Joyce Carol Oates.

New in Southern Voice 

Carry Me Over, a short story about letting the dead bury the dead, by Arkansas writer Marla Cantrell.

To find out more about Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android. The app has recently been updated with several new sites and lots of new photos just in time for those summer road trips!