Literary Friday, Edition 206

Guest Post By Wendy Wax 

Author Wendy Wax grew up on the beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, and spent most days on Pass-a-Grille at the Rellim Hotel swimming in the pool, doing summersaults and eating ice cream sandwiches. She channeled those happy memories into her latest book Sunshine Beach, using a mixture of real Pass-a-Grille spots and fictional locations. After losing their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, her characters Maddie, Avery and Nikki continue to rebuild their lives — this time stumbling across a once glorious beachfront hotel (modeled after the Rellim) that has fallen into disrepair. With the cameras of their restoration television show rolling, everything goes wrong, and the discovery of a decades-old unsolved murder just might bring their lives tumbling down all over again. Wendy Wax guest posts this week with a piece titled The Beach I Grew Up On.

Literary News

Visit the birthplaces of some of the South’s most influential writers this summer with our 9 Literary Small Town Getaways.

First Comes Love author Emily Giffin shares her favorite books about sisters over on Goodreads.

Hear Suzanne Vega’s new song from her upcoming album inspired by Carson McCullers.

In other news, Columbus State University has announced a series of events to celebrate Carson McCullers’ 100th birthday in February.

Check out the first issue of The Swamp literary magazine with poems by Jack B. Bedell and Canese Jarboe and fiction by Dan Leach and Sam Slaughter.

And the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville has released its author lineup with Megan Abbott, Yaa Gyasi, Donald Ray Pollock, Brad Watson, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Ron Rash.

Literary Events, Workshops & Contests 

South Florida Poetry Journal is seeking poetry submissions for its August issue. Send three unpublished poems and a brief bio to [email protected].

Flat Rock Playhouse will debut two new plays at the Carl Sandburg Home in North Carolina. “Spink, Skabootch and Swipes in Rootabaga Country” will be performed Wednesdays and Fridays through August 12, and “Rootabaga Express” will be performed Thursdays and Saturdays from through August 13.

The 36th annual Hemingway Days Celebration in Key West, Florida, is scheduled for July 19-24 this year. Events include a lookalike contest for Hemingway imitators, prose and poetry readings and a three-day marlin tournament.

Mr. Toole, a new play about the life of John Kennedy Toole written by one of his former students, is being performed at the Mid-Town International Theater Festival in New York July 21-31.

Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo” opens July 22 at Dillard University in New Orleans and runs through August 7.

Writer’s Digest Editor Brian A. Klems will be a featured speaker for a How to Get Published workshop in Nashville, Tennessee, July 23.

The deadline for submissions to the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence is August 15. The contest, which includes a $10,000 prize, is open to fiction (novels or short story collections) published in 2016.

Andalusia Farm has launched extended evening hours and is hosting Thursdalusia!, an open mic program every third Thursday.

Register now for The Writer’s High Retreat with Joshilyn Jackson and Michael Morris September 9-11 at Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris, Georgia.

Save the dates for upcoming book festivals, including the Mississippi Book Festival August 20, Decatur Book Festival September 2-4 and Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 14-16.

Latest In Southern Voice

Splintered, a new Dorothy Jane story about a child’s relationship with her father after her mother dies, by Collier McLeod.