Literary Friday: Summer Reading List Debut

Summer Reading List 

It’s time! Our Summer Reading List is here with 31 of the best beach reads, mysteries, debuts and romances from the South. We are also introducing a new Summer Reading section this year, complete with sublists (just looking for a beach read?), travel guides, our Twitter chat schedule, a beach bucket list and more.

Peruse the list, then join us from 1-2 CST this afternoon for a Twitter chat discussing the books and authors you’re most excited about reading. We’ll be using the hashtag #southernlit, but you can also sign into our chatroom here.

Literary News

Southern lit fans and letter writers got some great news this week with the announcement that the U.S. Postal Service is introducing a Flannery O’Connor stamp June 5.

Summer Reading List author Laura McNeill blogs about why Harper Lee’s new book will not ruin my life. (Hint, it’s due out the same day as McNeill’s Center of Gravity, but we know you’ll want to read both.)

Former intern and Southern Voice contributor Mary Sellers has started new literary journal Siren. Named for the mythological creature resembling the mermaid, Siren is a creative community for the female voice, although men are welcome to submit.

Pre-order The Oxford American‘s Summer Fiction Issue with stories by Jill McCorkle, Micah Stack and Jayne Anne Phillips.

Literary Events

Tennessee Williams: The Playwright and the Painter exhibit at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans comes down May 31.

Have dinner with the cast of A Streetcar Named Desire under the stars at Serenbe May 31 before the summer drama opens June 11.

The Welty Biennial in Jackson, Mississippi, is happening now through July 3 with exhibits, concerts, a dance party and snapshot contest.

SAFTA’s Fiction Writing Retreat is coming up this weekend, and their Poetry Writing Retreat takes place June 12-14 at Firefly Farms in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Join the Beach Party at Foxtale Books in Woodstock, Georgia, June 1 to celebrate the release of Mary Alice Monroe’s The Summer’s End. The party continues June 8 with Mary Kay Andrews and Beach Town.

Walker Percy Weekend in St. Francisville, Louisiana, is scheduled for June 5-7 with panel discussions, craft bourbon, culinary events and documentary films.

New in Southern Voice 

Our series of summer fiction kicks off with Edisto Island, a vacation story set on this day in 1940, by Collier McLeod.

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.