"Wilderness isn’t pristine and doesn’t exist somewhere ‘out there’ away and distinct from humans; it is a force that is perpetually integrating, adapting, and thriving." Chaney Hill reviews A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMPTY LOTS by Christopher Brown. @timberpress.bsky.social

Looking for something new this month? Check out this list of fantastic Southern new releases! southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/10/24/b...

"The novel’s 'soft apocalypse,' as the narrator might call it, is set in the near future and bears many of the markers of dystopian science fiction. ... the planet provides no stability or safety; neither do institutions or governments." New review of HAPPY BAD by Delaney Nolan.

"Most of us don’t stay open to the world and refuse to be knocked from our soapboxes, but Harrigan does just that throughout the collection, mixing memoir and journalism, questioning his own memories and prior stances." New review of Stephen Harrigan's latest. @utexaspress.bsky.social

“Despite the heat of grief, the stories offer vignettes of respite in the catharsis that comes after loss, reminiscent of embers glittering like stars in ashen remains.” New review of WHAT REMAINS AFTER A FIRE by Kanza Javed. @wwnorton.com southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/10/20/w...

Cloud wrote about including pop culture in poetry for @southrevbooks.bsky.social (head over there to check out the list of Cloud's movie references): southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/10/14/t...

"I’ve listened obsessively to the way people in Kentucky speak, especially in rural areas. It’s glorious. There’s a music to it." Check out our new interview with Chris McGinley and Wes Browne on THEY ALL FALL THE SAME! @crookedlanebooks.bsky.social southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/10/10/t...

"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.

"Harjo describes her experiences with a combination of poetic grace and disarming honesty."   New review of Joy Harjo's GIRL WARRIOR, out today! southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/10/07/g...

"Ardery’s debut is both a memoir of survival and a meditation on what it means to carry weight — literal and metaphorical — and to keep walking anyway." @sara-eastler.bsky.social reviews LEVEL WATCH by Mary Ardery. @juneroadpress.bsky.social

"Our longing can become a wraith living beside us... The truth of grief running through this writing appears stealthily like a haint moving through the North Carolina woods." @tobyleblancauthor.bsky.social reviews THE DEVIL'S DONE COME BACK. @blairpub.bsky.social

"The crime story itself is compelling, but it’s the backdrop that I found riveting — 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." @amyrmartin.bsky.social reviews Max Marshall's AMONG THE BROS. @harperperennial.bsky.social

There's a myth that "grief begins on a one-way track called 'Denial,' en route to its final destination of 'Acceptance,' and after that, you’ve completed the process and are forever free from it. That misunderstanding, in my view, is one of many ways that victims of loss are made to feel unseen."

"In a celebration of the oral and written tradition of passing down stories from one generation to the next, The Eternal Forest preserves what might otherwise be forgotten." New review of THE ETERNAL FOREST by Elena Sheppard. @stmartinspress.bsky.social southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/09/23/t...

"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. @berkleypub.bsky.social

We don’t know about you, but we’ve been doing some porch reading lately, and this list is perfect for finding your next porch swing companion! southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/09/15/t...

@southrevbooks.bsky.social reviewed LULLABY and said Ashley M. Jones is "working at her peak" and that "[s]uch optimism, tempered by realism and emboldened with inner strength, is not easy to come by." southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/09/12/l...

“This collection is filled with love, caution, correction, and ferocity.” @duffusmatthew.bsky.social reviews LULLABY FOR THE GRIEVING by Ashley M. Jones. @hubcitypress.bsky.social southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/09/12/l...

SRB editor Chaney Hill rounds up some of the books about the South that have captured her imagination over the years. southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/09/10/s...

"A feat of embodied poetry, which is to say, folklore, emotions, and trauma take on corporeal form." @sara-eastler.bsky.social reviews SHEDDING SEASON by Jane Morton. @blacklawrence.bsky.social

"A precise portrayal of the tension between utopian immersion in nature and the relentless encroachment of money-mindedness. The novel delves into the consequences of commodification—reflected in the natural world and the self." Review of HOTHOUSE BLOOM by Austyn Wohlers. @hubcitypress.bsky.social

"Through persona and personal recollection, Wright brings old life back into the firelight — sometimes with a nudge, sometimes at knifepoint." YOU'RE CALLED BY THE SAME SOUND by Alicia Wright.

"Overall, this is not a tale for the faint-hearted — from snake bites to a sinister cult leader, Forget Me Not plunges straight into the thorns of Southern life, no gloves necessary." New review of Stacy Willingham's FORGET ME NOT.

We couldn't let August end without celebrating all the great new books that came out this month! southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/08/28/b...

Cheers to the end of summer and the end of our book club with Bradley Sides! What did you think about Dan Leach's JUNAH AT THE END OF THE WORLD? @hubcitypress.bsky.social

"A story of self-reflection and self-reclamation, as well as an exploration of the human connections and fulfillments one can find in places one never thought imaginable." @nyurtsaba.bsky.social reviews A DOG IN GEORGIA by Lauren Grodstein. @algonquinbooks.bsky.social

SRB Editor @amyrmartin.bsky.social highlights the nonfiction on feminism and women's rights she's been reading to meet this moment in history.

"Although the characters within Llewellyn and Buckley’s anthology are often incivil and act in incredibly petty (yet liberating) ways, Be Gay, Do Crime is more emotionally indulgent than renegade." New review of BE GAY, DO CRIME edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley.

"The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush isn’t a doorstopper of a book. In fact, it clocks in at just under 300 pages. However, there is a grandness to Gilmore’s novel. The story is large in how it depicts the community." New review of Susan Gregg Gilmore's latest from @blairpub.bsky.social.

The poems are interested in "the relationship that we have with ourselves, who we tell ourselves that we are, and how that’s impacted by the place where we live." New interview with Denton Loving on FELLER.

"Charlottesville: An American Story is not exactly a hopeful story, but it is one that refuses to let hate win. And that’s the version of this country I still want to believe in." @sarabethwest.bsky.social reviews CHARLOTTESVILLE by Deborah Baker. @graywolfpress.bsky.social

"Flannery O’Connor may have been right when she called the South 'Christ-haunted,' yet The Fabled Earth, with its seasoning of folktales and Germanic myths, shows the region is haunted in other ways, as well." New review of THE FABLED EARTH by Kimberly Brock.

"I think my main problem is that [Southern gothic] has so often been the purview of male writers. Maybe Southern Gothic is not the best term for what I do, maybe realistic Southern gothic, because my characters are people you meet at Walmart." Julie Liddell Whitehead on HURRICANE BABY.

Check out more from our interview with Jason Mott on his brand new book, PEOPLE LIKE US. @duttonbooks.bsky.social southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/08/05/p...

"A powerful family story that also ripples out to depict the ways that families are informed by the sense of belonging they cultivate or lack in the context of exile and immigration." New review of THE TILTING HOUSE by Ivonne Lamazares.

Read more about the psychedelic summers and monsters of HELLIONS in this interview with Bradley Sides and @juliaelliott.bsky.social as part of our Southern Summer Book Club! (And for more, check out our virtual book club discussion!) @tinhouse.bsky.social southernreviewofbooks.com/.../hellions...

"Martín-Santos was obviously a keen observer and appreciator of his countrymen and his city, and it’s a pleasure to travel high and low with him through midcentury Madrid." New review of TIME OF SILENCE by Luis Martín-Santos, translated by Peter Bush.

Tune into part two of The Southern Summer Book Club with Bradley Sides, focusing on Julia Elliott’s atmospheric and wildly surreal story collection, HELLIONS. @tinhouse.bsky.social

"CHILCO is a spellbinding fever-dream, swirling with socio-political conversations, mysteries, and self-reclamations." @nyurtsaba.bsky.social reviews CHILCO by Daniela Catrileo, translated by Jacob Edelstein. @fsgbooks.bsky.social

“Places have histories; things happen in their here, but are shaped by past lives and events. In many of these stories, old selves are fused with new beginnings, & place is the stage on which their lives’ transitions are performed.” Review of MAKE YOUR WAY HOME, Carrie Moore. @tinhouse.bsky.social

"In her atmospheric debut, Tennessee Hill steeps each page with the flawed characters, sinister events, isolated locale, and ramshackle landscaping that make up so many of our favorite Southern gothic stories." New review of GIRLS WITH LONG SHADOWS by Tennessee Hill. @harperbooks.bsky.social

"In a time of rising social and political divides, 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.

Check out our list of the best new July releases with Southern connections! southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/07/16/b...

"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." @nyurtsaba.bsky.social reviews MONSTERLAND by Nicholas Jubber. @scribepub.bsky.social

"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 @ctsalazar.bsky.social's interview with @kdunkelberg.bsky.social!

"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...'" New review of MAILMAN by Stephen Starring Grant. southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/07/09/m...

“A region fraught with contradictions needs to have a complicated definition of weirdness.” Check out @tobyleblancauthor.bsky.social’s review of THE WEIRD SOUTH by Melanie Benson Taylor. @ugapress.bsky.social

“Femininity becomes a double-edged sword without a hilt in these scenes.” New review of LADY SMITH by Jess Smith.

Read more about the making of BEHIND THE WATERLINE in this interview with Kionna Walkre LeMalle as part of our Southern Summer Book Club! @blairpub.bsky.social southernreviewofbooks.com/2025/06/27/b...

“Food, passed down & shared between generations, transcends mere flavor & imbues memory, identity, & 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. @atriabooks.bsky.social