Southern Review of Books

14/10/2025

“I wrote poems as if they were teenage bedrooms, full of music posters and tchotchkes, especially because most poems in this collection explore adolescence, family, nostalgia, and Mexican-American culture…. So much of my adolescent depression was due to feeling like an outsider, and my method of escape was through movies and music. How could I not go into the particular references?”

Happy pub day to THE PAST IS A JEAN JACKET! Check out Cloud Delfina Cardona’s movie reference guide and read more about pop culture references in her essay on the SRB. Hub City Bookshop

https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/10/14/the-past-is-a-jean-jacket-cloud-delfina-cardona-feature/

10/10/2025

"I’ve listened obsessively to the way people in Kentucky speak, especially in rural areas. It’s glorious. There’s a music to it. I get in my car and carry on conversations with myself from the mouths of people I’ve heard speak just as a means of entertainment. I take that same energy to the page."

New interview with Chris McGinley and Wes Brown on THEY ALL FALL THE SAME. Crooked Lane Books

If you wanna take a hell-ride into central Kentucky, read Wes Browne’s newest novel, “They All Fall the Same.”

08/10/2025

"Marce Catlett is not interested in individual responses to how rural life and agriculture have changed during the last century but in the importance of communally remembering a history on the verge of being wiped out."

New review of Wendell Berry's latest, MARCE CATLETT: THE FORCE OF A STORY. Counterpoint Press

A review of Wendell Berry’s newest novel, “Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story.”

07/10/2025

"Girl Warrior dives into the inspiration and intentions that inspired Harjo’s career, including community activism, creative writing and music. Harjo does all this while oscillating between talking to the reader and to her younger self. 'You are my niece, grandchild, aunt, or friend, a young woman I have met along the way during my travels,' she writes."

New review of GIRL WARRIOR by Joy Harjo, out today! W. W. Norton & Company

Advice for living abounds in the latest essay collection from poet and jazz musician Joy Harjo.

03/10/2025

"There’s a beautiful coupling of the natural world, which gives life and nurtures but is also fierce and unpredictable. Nature demands one’s full attention in order to survive, and this potential peril is often present in the poems. Yet, Ardery appreciates the beauty it provides as well. This striking tension in the natural world often mirrors or conflicts with the internal world of the women in recovery."

New review of LEVEL WATCH by Mary Ardery. June Road Press

Mary Ardery’s debut poetry collection draws from her experience as a wilderness guide for women recovering from addiction.

30/09/2025

"These short stories and poems commune with the contradictions, violence, and unfulfilled promises found specifically in the hollers and creeks of North Carolina. From these writings, ghosts don’t seem to bother with the dealings of the living world until they interfere with the stories, the values, and the nature that created them."

New review of THE DEVIL'S DONE COME BACK, edited by Ed Southern. Blair

Ghosts seem to know better about who we are and what is right in “The Devil’s Done Come Back”

29/09/2025

"The crime story itself is compelling for sure, but it’s the backdrop that I found riveting. That backdrop is a peek into the hallowed halls of elite American fraternity life in the U.S. South, and, let me tell you, it’s not pretty."

New review of AMONG THE BROS by Max Marshall. Harper Perennial

A Review of Max Marshall’s “Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story.”

27/09/2025

"The guideline I’ve adopted for myself, in order to believe that I’m operating ethically, is that the writer should always make themselves more vulnerable on the page than anyone else. You should always be willing to look worse than other people you’re writing about. And it should be a balance; no one should be a one-dimensional hero or villain."

New interview with Erin Slaughter on THE DEAD DAD DIARIES.

An interview with Erin Slaughter on her memoir, “The Dead Dad Diaries.”

23/09/2025

"This is Sheppard at the height of her powers, weaving Cuban history, myth, and literature through the fabric of her family’s narrative of exile. Her prose, coupled with the vignette structure of the memoir, reads like an excavation of memory, an unearthing of its fragmented yet enduring nature."

Lael Flores reviews THE ETERNAL FOREST by Elena Sheppard. St. Martin's Press

A review of Elena Sheppard’s memoir, “The Eternal Forest.”

22/09/2025

"Nick Medina’s latest novel is the perfect way to ring in spooky season. Its alternating narratives trace two timelines in the main character’s life and build intertwined mysteries that kept me turning pages."

New review of THE WHISTLER by Nick Medina. Berkley Publishing Group

Nick Medina’s “The Whistler” is an Indigenous horror that pairs the loss of autonomy with paranormal folklore.

17/09/2025

“Memoir and childhood trauma are expertly woven into panels, paper dolls, board games and other experiments in a way that is gut-wrenching and emotionally impactful. It is a brilliant and innovative use of the comic form, one that will stay with you long after you read.”

Lean more about Kayla E’s PRECIOUS RUBBISH in this interview!

An interview with author Kayla E. on her debut graphic novel memoir.

15/09/2025

Looking for a new book this month? Check out these new Southern releases!

A collection of some of the best Southern poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of September 2025.