“Our Bodies Electric” Celebrates Eccentricities, Youth’s Exuberances

Bold and inspiring, Zackary Vernon’s “Our Bodies Electric” offers the South its own version of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”

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Women Rage Against Patriarchy in Dystopian “Exile in Guyville”

A review of Amy Lee Lillard’s short story collection, “Exile in Guyville.”

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Rhythm of Trout Fishing Juxtaposes Uncertainty in “Yellow Stonefly”

Sandy Holston seeks solace in the Ripshin River valley of western Virginia, only to discover that the problems of the world exist in even the most serene settings. Can she learn to adapt?

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Magical Realism in the “Pages of Mourning” by Diego Gerard Morrison

Diego Gerard Morrison’s second novel, Pages of Mourning, may call Mexico its mainhome, but its first scene is a literal writer’s nightmare in a New York City coffee shop. Aureliano Más, the novel’s rarely sober, often haunted, and slyly named protagonist, sees dead people. It happens when he’s asleep and even, sometimes, when he’s awake and…

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Appreciating the Foodways and Resilience of Appalachia in “Hungry Roots”

In Hungry Roots: How Food Communicates Appalachia’s Search for Resilience, Ashli Quesinberry Stokes and Wendy Atkins-Sayre examine the many ways that food sends messages about the complicated nature of regional resilience. Their work fills an important gap in recent scholarship about the region because the authors incorporate fieldwork methodology to offer new insights in both…

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Past and Present Are Interconnected in “The Eighth Moon”

Jennifer Kabat’s memoir, “The Eighth Moon,” seeks to make sense of family, politics, and land today through the lens of the past.

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“The Trouble with Light” Finds Humanity and Triumph in Trial

This debut poetry collection follows a heroic speaker on a journey of transformation.

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