Southern Review of Books

04/30/2025

"Community unites voices to form a battle cry... When you get together with people who don’t make you feel alone, you feel like your voice matters. And that’s crucial to finding your place to belong and fighting to keep it."

New interview with Matthew Hubbard on THE REBEL'S GUIDE TO PRIDE.

An interview with Matthew Hubbard on “The Rebel’s Guide to Pride.”

04/28/2025

"Her poetry is an act of beauty and bravery and draws attention, for a moment, to the difficulty of a life built on something as tenuous as a farm."

New review of SON OF A BIRD by Nin Andrews. Etruscan Press

A review of the poetry collection “Son of a Bird” by Nin Andrews.

04/25/2025

"Uplifting in Bostwick’s signature way, it’s a historical fiction story in the women’s lit vein about women who want more and decide to pursue it. It’s about the way friendship and identity form as the world chafes against one pursuing her dreams."

New review of THE BOOK CLUB FOR TROUBLESOME WOMEN by Marie Bostwick. Harper Muse Books

Marie Bostwick’s latest novel, “The Book Club for Troublesome Women,” will inspire readers to get into some trouble of their own.

04/23/2025

New interview with Virginia Evans on THE CORRESPONDENT! Crown Publishing

https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/04/23/the-correspondent-virginia-evans-interview/

04/22/2025

"THE ANTIDOTE is a story about stories — of memories lost, revived, surrendered, altered, and ultimately woven together."

New review of Karen Russell's THE ANTIDOTE. Alfred A. Knopf

A review of Karen Russell’s newest novel, “The Antidote.”

04/21/2025

“For every few vignettes, there is a passage from an academic article, research guide, or popular essay, and/or from literary writers (Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Gertrude Stein, Susan Sontag, among others) who penned their own cancer or caregiver narratives. In addition to the frankness of Gore’s writing (no “upside of cancer” here), this quilting style is what I enjoyed most about the book.”

reviews REHEARSALS FOR DYING by Ariel Gore.

A review of Ariel Gore’s memoir, “Rehearsals for Dying: Digressions on Love and Cancer.”

04/17/2025

Check out this month’s roundup of new releases + lots of poetry collections to celebrate National Poetry Month!

Check out this roundup of new Southern releases with a special focus on poetry for April!

04/15/2025

"Callier’s poems are not merely acts of expression but of revelation. There is an economy in her lines, a compression of image and feeling that allows each poem to hold contradictions: tenderness and brutality, silence and speech, transformation and loss."

New review of Mary Helen Callier's WHEN THE HORSES. Alice James Books

In the spirit of Jane Kenyon, Mary Helen Callier’s poems inhabit spaces of tension. The body, landscape, and time all become sites of reckoning.

04/14/2025

Hi friends! We are SO excited to announce our new summer book club! The SRB crew and Bradley Sides invite you to be a part of the literary communities we're building in the South and read along with us (on your own or maybe with your regular book club)!

How it works: Snag a copy of the book from your local indie bookstore and read at your own pace. We'll post virtual discussions with a group of fellow writers, teachers, librarians, and/or book-world voices on our website in the last week of June, July, and August. Watch and share with anyone else whose read these awesome books, and tell us what you think in the comments! Plus, stay tuned for an interview with the author of each of our featured books.

As always, we are thrilled to celebrate contemporary Southern lit with y'all!

04/12/2025

"Foreboding, however, flavors much of Book of Potions. Amidst the oddities and wonders, stark narratives emerge. Wars loom, the climate warms, mental illness haunts. People — the speaker, for one, and much to her surprise — age. ... The dark mixes smoothly with the light in these brews."

New review of BOOK OF POTIONS by Lauren K. Watel. Sarabande

A review of Lauren K. Watel’s collection of hybrid poetic forms.

04/10/2025

"Of course, the poem overflowed that original inspiration and other themes cropped up: rage against the systemic abandonment I continue to see on the streets everyday, against the logic of capital accumulation and reactionary fascism, against the punitive responses I was seeing to poverty—but also a fortifying sense of collective love and solidarity in struggle, a feeling that leaning into that love was the best way for us to survive long enough to build something else."

M. Randal O'Wain interviews Joshua Po***ck on NARCAN INCANTATIONS. Garganta Press

An interview with Joshua Po***ck about his poetry collection “Narcan Incantations.”

04/07/2025

“While these characters couldn’t differ more on the surface… they find compatibility in the sticky, smoke-filled bar, along the dusty country road, amongst the detritus of life and its curve balls. Collins is able to provide us with an intimacy so tangible that we feel like we are right there beside them at this h***y tonk.”

New review of WALK SOFTLY ON THIS HEART OF MINE by Callie Collins. Doubleday Books

Callie Collins’ “Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine” is all about belonging, longing, and the shared intimacy of the blues.

04/04/2025

SRB editor Anna Harris-Parker rounds up some of the resources that helped her along her journey to transitioning out of academia.

SRB editor Anna Harris-Parker rounds up some resources for making a major transition out of academia.

04/02/2025

"Driskell’s poems are a lesson in creaturehood, motherhood, and the act of mothering creatures in this world. The voices are many and spatially arranged, capturing events in nature — whether real and local or mythic and imagined."

New review of GOAT-FOOTED GODS by Kathleen Driskell.

A review of Kathleen Driskell’s “Goat-Footed Gods.”