Literary Friday, Edition 132

Literary Gifts 

Shopping for a certain Southern lit lover (or maybe yourself) this year? We have a list of 10 gift ideas that can help, starting with Southern Lit Atelier’s candles with a story. Each Southern-sourced candle has a unique repurposed glass and a scent inspired by a classic Southern novel, like the woodsy, campfire fragrance of Vespers & Reveille named for Ernest Hemingway. Our official gift guide also has a few literary gifts. How about a signed copy of a Southern novel or cookbook from TurnRow Books or a prayer journal from Val Marie Paper? Praying to be a good writer sure worked for Flannery O’Connor.

Literary News 

Read author Billy Coffey’s guest post about spending Five Minutes With Pat Conroy, then join Southern Lit Lovers on Goodreads as they discuss his novel In the Heart of the Dark Wood this month.

Bustle’s book writers picked their Best Books of 2014, including Laird Hunt’s Neverhome.

Pop South writes about Gone with the Wind and America’s Nostalgia for the Old South upon the 75th anniversary of the movie premiere in Atlanta earlier this week.

People Magazine offers a First Look at Judy Blume’s New Novel In the Unlikely Event. Her first novel for adults in more than 50 years, the book is set against the backdrop of real-life plane crashes that occurred in 1951 and 1952 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and is due out in June.

Megan Abbott’s The Fever was named one of Buzzfeed’s 28 Best Books By Women in 2014. Read our interview with Abbott here.

Literary Events 

Save the date for the launch of Colleen Oakley’s Before I Go January 6 at Foxtale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, Georgia.

The Key West Literary Seminar takes place January 8-11 with the theme “How the Light Gets In: Literature of the Spirit,” which will investigate literature’s relationship to the inexplicable. Authors scheduled to appear include Marilynne Robinson and Wally Lamb.

A booksigning with Natalie Baszile for Queen Sugar at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, is scheduled for January 30.

New in Southern Voice 

The Hidden Pleasures of a Good Housecoat, an essay by Cindy Price, and a short short about Christmas decorations by Susan Harlan.

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 fall road trips.