Southern Review of Books

07/21/2025

"In the midst of the drama, trauma, and sisterly intertwinings, there are breaks throughout the book that offer a Greek chorus-like angle from the Front Porch Chorus, giving the reader a look into the collective perspective of the townspeople who grew up watching these sisters from afar."

New review of GIRLS WITH LONG SHADOWS by Tennessee Hill. Harper Books

A review of Tennessee Hill’s atmospheric debut novel, “Girls with Long Shadows.”

07/20/2025

"In a time of rising social and political divides, Rey Terciero and Claudia Aguirre’s heartfelt Dan in Green Gables reminds us that at the end of the day, we’re all kin, and sometimes home means setting aside our differences to let each other in."

New review of DAN IN GREEN GABLES by Rey Terciero and illustrated by Claudia Aguirre.

A review of the young adult graphic novel “Dan in Green Gables” by Rey Terciero and Claudia Aguirre.

07/17/2025

Check out our list of the best new July releases with Southern connections!

https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/07/16/best-southern-books-of-july-2025/

07/15/2025

"With careful attention and respect, Jubber also examines how traditions, people, and communities are bound together by creatures meant to frighten outsiders and teach valuable lessons... These chapters show how those creatures humanity fears are, in many ways, simply mirrors of one’s self."

New review of MONSTERLAND by Nicholas Jubber. Scribe Publications

“Monsterland” by Nicholas Jubber examines the social, cultural, and environmental history of monsters.

07/14/2025

"If 'Tree Fall' is loss — that things change, life ends, meaning is lost — what could represent the opposite qualities of birth, of creation, of fullness. An early poem gave me my answer with 'Birdsong.'"

Read more from C.T. Salazar's interview with Kendall Dunkelberg on TREE FALL WITH BIRDSONG!

“I knew that mortality was goig to be a big part of the collection.” An interview with Kendall Dunkelberg about Tree Fall with Birdsong, his fourth poetry collection.

07/10/2025

Check out the rest of our interview with Ellen Ann Fentress on THE STEPS WE TAKE!

https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/07/08/the-steps-we-take-ellen-ann-fentress-interview/

07/09/2025

"Grant sings the praises of the USPS as a unique signifier of our bonds across any and all divides, insisting that it can remind us 'that we are a people, that our job is to love and protect each other, that our government at its best is us, and that when we are alone, we are still together, joined by ideas, history, correspondence, chicken feed, and refrigerators. Out of many, one.'"

New review of MAILMAN by Stephen Starring Grant. Simon & Schuster

A review of Stephen Starring Grant’s wild-ride of a memoir, “Mailman.”

07/02/2025

"Taylor depicts a South haunted by its own history. For it to exist, the oppression of people, as well as flora and fauna, was instituted. The weird occurs when the ghosts of this past slip into the present, not only to haunt it, but to live alongside it."

New review of THE WEIRD SOUTH by Melanie Benson Taylor. University of Georgia Press

A review of Melanie Benson Taylor’s “The Weird South: Ecologies of Unknowing in Postplantation Literature.”

07/01/2025

“Femininity becomes a double-edged sword without a hilt in these scenes. However, as she panders to men for tips or kisses or validation or excitement, the poet also lambasts herself with the same blade. After all, who is more foolish? The fool or the woman who knowingly follows him?”

New review of LADY SMITH by Jess Smith. University of Akron Press

A review of Jess Smith’s poetry collection, “Lady Smith.”

06/30/2025

"After a while, Eric's voice became so prominent, I removed all of Ruth’s narration, and decided to tell the entire story through his voice. That was a hard decision. I remember crying. I literally grieved Ruth’s narration, but to be true to her character, I had to lose her narrative voice."

Read more about the making of BEHIND THE WATERLINE in this interview with Kionna Walker LeMalle and Bradley Sides!

In this interview, Kionna Walker LeMalle shares the experience and magic behind her debut novel.

06/25/2025

“In the novel, food, passed down and shared between generations, transcends mere flavor and imbues memory, identity, and therapeutic effects, a magical extension of our own world where food carries culture and context with it.”

New review of MY MOTHER CURSED MY NAME by Anamely Salgado Reyes. Atria Books

Set in a small Texas town near the U.S.-Mexico border, this debut magical realism novel follows Olvido, Angustias, and Felicitas as they reunite for Olvido’s funeral.

06/24/2025

SRB editor Jennette Holzworth writes about seven books that resonate with her because they allow readers to "step inside the mind of another and find comfort and camaraderie and to develop empathy for those with a lived experience different than our own."

SRB Editor Jennette Holzworth talks about seven books that offer readers an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes.