Literary Friday, Edition 146

Sponsored By A Sporting Life

Pat Conroy has said “Nobody picks at the scabs of South Carolina like her native son, Ken Burger.” Burger spent almost 40 years writing for two South Carolina newspapers, a career that included stints covering sports, business, politics and life in the Palmetto State. While writing sports for The Post and Courier in Charleston, he won numerous statewide writing awards and was named one of the nation’s best sports columnists three times. His new book, A Sporting Life, is a collection of those columns written over more than 20 years. Readers who miss Burger’s columns in the paper will be delighted with the 45 selected for the book, in addition to postscripts about what was going on behind the scenes and where his subjects are now.

A Sporting Life is available on Burger’s website, along with his four other books, which include a South Carolina trilogy and an award-winning collection of essays about life in the South.

Literary News 

The Great Gatsby was published 90 years ago today by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Reception to the book was mixed, but it’s now considered one of the great American novels of the 20th century.

Our second poet interview of the month is with C.D. Wright, a native of Arkansas who expounds on the division between urban and rural, pacing of Southern poetry and encountering poetry in unlikely places.

We also have an excerpt from 25 Definitive New Orleans Restaurants (& A Dozen Damned Good Places to Drink) that attempts to explain the origin behind a misleading classic New Orleans dish — and a giveaway for the book.

Learn about a new recording of a lecture from Barry Hannah over at The Oxford American and how to get your own copy on vinyl.

(Non)Required Viewing 

A teaser for the second season of HBO’s “True Detective” was released yesterday. Although the story moves to California, New Orleans-born writer Nic Pizzolatto is still at the helm. And if season one was any indication, we can expect at least a few literary references in the new season, which premieres June 21.

Literary Events

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

Tallahassee Community College will hold its first annual Word of South Festival this weekend with Ann Patchett, The Avett Brothers, Mary Gaitskill and Robert Olen Butler.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Louisiana Center for the Book is announcing the fifth annual Just Listen to Yourself: The Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets April 21 at 1:30 p.m. at the State Library.

The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum‘s jazz-themed gala May 2 will feature dinner, drinks, dancing, a costume contest and more. Attire is flapper of course, as the event pays tribute to the 90th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby. (photo by Thomas Lucas Photography)

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

Save the date for SAFTA’s Fiction Writing Retreat May 29-31 and Poetry Writing Retreat June 12-14 at Firefly Farms in Knoxville, Tennessee.

New in Southern Voice

Asheville Dance and Leaf Season, Asheville, a pair of poems heavily inspired by place by Marty Weil.

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.