Southern Review of Books

“Tar Hollow Trans” Is Beautifully Goth and Full of Appalachian Queerness

By: Nicole Yurcaba March 4, 2025March 2, 2025

ReviewsNon Fiction, Stacy Jane Grover, Tar Hollow Trans, University Press of KentuckyLeave a Comment

Stacy Jane Grover’s “Tar Hollow Trans” is an essay collection about spending one’s life on the margins.

8 Books Toward Autonomy and Freedom

By: Caroline Fairey Meese March 3, 2025March 3, 2025

Featureseditor's choice, editorial featureLeave a Comment

SRB editor Caroline Fairey Meese collects a list of books that grapple with freedom for people who live within a multiplicity of marginalizations.

Fluidity in History: Tara Roberts’ “Written in the Waters”

By: Lauren Carpenter February 28, 2025February 18, 2025

ReviewsNational Geographic, Nonfiction, Review, Tara Roberts, Written in the WatersLeave a Comment

Reading Written in the Waters by Tara Roberts was a profound emotional journey into the heaviness of the past and how history moves fluidly into the beauty and problems of the present.

Seasons of Grief in “The Tears of Things”

By: Mandianne Berg February 27, 2025February 26, 2025

ReviewsCatherine Hamrick, Madville Publishing, Poetry, The Tears of ThingsLeave a Comment

A review of Catherine Hamrick’s poetry collection “The Tears of Things.”

The Humanity and Humor of “Origin Stories”

By: Barbette February 24, 2025February 6, 2025

ReviewsCorinna Vallianatos, Fiction, Graywolf Press, Origin Stories, Review, Short StoriesLeave a Comment

At a lecture she gave recently at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the world-renowned curator Ronni Baers juxtaposed images of two self-portraits: one by Gerrit Dou and one by Rembrandt. In the former, the artist sits within a grand imaginary niche, elegantly clutching the tools of his trade. A rich woven carpet hangs to…

“¡Somos Tejanas!” Is an Anthology of Resistance and Resilience

By: Prapti Kakati February 21, 2025April 1, 2025

Reviews¡Somos Tejanas!, History, Jody A. Marín, Literary Fiction, Norma E. CantúLeave a Comment

An anthology that explores the layered, often contested identity of Tejana women.

“People of Means” Explores Family, Class, and the Pursuit of Equality

By: Jenny Maattala February 20, 2025February 19, 2025

ReviewsFiction, Nancy Johnson, People of Means1 Comment

Nancy Johnson’s novel, “People of Means,” is filled with nuanced, vividly portrayed characters.

The Best Southern Books of February 2025

By: Chelsea Risley February 19, 2025February 19, 2025

Featuresbest of the monthLeave a Comment

Some of the best new books by Black authors coming out in February 2025.

Life Woven into Lines in “An Arm Fixed to a Wing”

By: Piper Rasmussen February 12, 2025February 13, 2025

ReviewsAn Arm Fixed to a Wing, LSU Press, Olivia Clara Friedman, PoetryLeave a Comment

A review of Olivia Clare Friedman’s latest poetry collection, coming after the award-winning writer published a novel and story collection.

“A Calamity of Souls” by David Baldacci: Not just Another Legal Thriller

By: Nicole Yurcaba February 10, 2025February 11, 2025

ReviewsA Calamity of Souls, David Baldacci, Fiction1 Comment

David Baldacci’s “A Calamity of Souls” is not merely another stereotypical quick-to-read legal thriller, it is also an uncomfortable reckoning with one of America’s darkest periods and the ideologies America as a whole seems too reluctant to leave behind.