Literary Friday, Edition 121
Our Fall/Winter Reading List is Here!
Subscribers got an exclusive preview of the list on Wednesday, and it went live on our site yesterday. From books about teenage murderesses in Memphis to a prequel to Gone With the Wind and finding love in a Virginia college town, our list rounds up 27 of the latest mysteries, thrillers, historical romances and author debuts to take you through the crisp days of fall on into winter. You can also look forward to author interviews, book reviews and Twitter chats over the coming months as we work our way through the list and celebrate the literary wonders of fall.
First up is an interview with Queen Sugar author Natalie Baszile about the drive through a South Louisiana sugarcane field that resulted in her debut novel. Get to know Natalie before she hits the Southern book festival circuit, eventually making her way to the Louisiana Book Festival November 1.
Literary News
South Louisiana celebrates native author Ernest Gaines through November with talks, readings, a film series, exhibit and appearance at the Louisiana Book Festival.
Flavorwire shares everything it knows about True Detective Season 2 so far, including author Nic Pizzolatto returning as showrunner, a theme of murder and the occult and a California setting.
The Huffington Post has a review of Laird Hunt’s Neverhome, one of our chosen fall/winter reads about a woman who poses as a soldier in the Civil War.
And Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is on the HuffPo’s list of 12 Banned Books Every Woman Should Read.
New Orleans Young Leadership Council has announced the book Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas as its read to celebrate the 10th anniversary of One Book One New Orleans. YLC will donate more than 400 copies of the book to local adult literacy learning centers as part of the campaign, which runs through October 30.
(Non)Required Reading
The Late Stephen Colbert in The New Yorker laments the rise of the South Carolina native talk show host to CBS’s “The Late Show” and wonders what will happen to the faux-conservative pundit we’ve fallen in love with on Comedy Central.
Literary Events
An exhibit titled William Faulkner’s Books: A Bibliographic Exhibit is on display on the third floor of J.D. Williams Library on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford through December 12.
The Eat Drink Read Write Festival will take place in Birmingham, Alabama, October 3-10, featuring the area’s best food and beverage offerings served up with a literary twist and including our own Editor Erin Z. Bass.
Close out the summer with Erika Marks, Kim Boykin and Barbara Davis at FoxTale Book Shoppe in Atlanta October 9.
The 26th annual Southern Festival of Books is scheduled for October 10-12 in Nashville, Tennessee. This year’s theme is “A Celebration of the Written Word,” and the extensive list of authors includes Pat Conroy, Joshua Ferris, Amy Greene, Lisa Howorth, Joshilyn Jackson, Frances Mayes, Marja Mills, Ron Rash and George Singleton.
The Delta Hot Tamale Festival in Greenville, Mississippi, will host a Literary/Culinary Mash-Up October 16-17 with a dinner and booksignings at the Burrus House (known for its role in Tennessee Williams’ “Baby Doll”) and a panel discussion with Roy Blount, John Currence, John T. Edge, Donald Link and more special guests.
The Texas Book Festival in Austin will take place October 25-26 with the largest lineup of authors in its 19-year history, including Martin Amis, Ziggy Marley, Joyce Carol Oates and Hector Tobar.
Save the date for the Louisiana Book Festival November 1 in Baton Rouge with authors Jill McCorkle, Natalie Baszile, Rick Bragg, James Carville, Laura Lane McNeal, Ernest Gaines and lots more. Five writing workshops will be held in conjunction with the festival October 31 with author-instructors Jill McCorkle, Mark Dunn, Ava Leavell Haymon, Barbara Slate and Earl Swift.
New in Southern Voice
The Antique Dealer, a story about moving on in the afterlife, by Rachel S. Miller.
To find out more about your favorite Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android and perfect for those summer road trips.
