Literary Friday, Edition 138

Literary News 

We have an interview with My Sunshine Away author M.O. Walsh about the childhood story that inspired his plot, defending his Louisiana hometown and what he’s teaching Southern writers today.

Get 4 Books to Fall In Love With in February as Valentine’s Day approaches tomorrow.

Fall for Literary Savannah and cross that literary road trip off your bucket list as we visit the Childhood Home of Flannery O’Connor, Mercer-Williams House and Bonaventure Cemetery.

Oprah has named Ruby by Cynthia Bond, one of our reading picks from last summer, as her fourth pick for Book Club 2.0.

Get out final Books & Film Notes for Week 5 as we discuss the depiction of Louisiana on TV shows like “Swamp People,” “Duck Dynasty” and “True Detective.”

Harper Lee’s attorney Tonja Carter talks to The New York Times about finding Go Set a Watchman and responds to all the recent controversy.

(Non)Required Viewing 

Watch a short film by actress Gillian Anderson in which she resumes her role as Blanche DuBois in an imagined prequel to Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.

Literary Events 

See Tennessee Williams: The Playwright and the Painter (pictured) on exhibit at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans through May 31.

The Savannah Book Festival is this weekend with special guests Janet Evanovich, P.J. O’Rourke and Anne Rice.

OUTSpoken workshops will be held February 21 and March 28 at Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, Tennessee, to create a platform for the LGBTQ+ community to record and perform the experiences of sex- and gender-diverse individuals in the South.

New Orleans musician Irvin Mayfield will perform a free concert of works inspired by writer Ernest Gaines February 24 at Angelle Hall on the UL Lafayette campus.

Save the date for two Tennessee Williams celebrations in March, one in Key West, Florida, March 2-31 and the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival March 25-29.

The Dahlonega Literary Festival in Georgia is scheduled for March 28-29 with featured authors Erika Marks, Ann Hite, Frances Mayes and Raymond Atkins.

Save the date for The Yokshop in Oxford, Mississippi, a three-day workshop with host M.O. Walsh scheduled for May 15-17.

Reading Recs From Our Sponsors

Our homepage has once again been taken over by a new book from Sarah Addison Allen. This month it’s First Frost about the Waverley women who are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree.

You may have also noticed the dashing picture of Scarlett and Rhett in an ad on our sidebar for the Official Home of Gone With the Wind. Step into their sweeping romance by visiting Clayton County, Georgia.

New in Southern Voice 

Missing New Orleans More Than I Miss the One I Care For, an essay by Sophie Unterman, and Crackers and Collard Greens: A Floridian’s Southernness, an essay about a bus trip to Savannah by Tyler Gillespie.

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.