Best of
Southern

2022

The Cicada Tree


Robert Gwaltney - 2022
    Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed. During a visit to Mistletoe, a plantation owned by the wealthy Mayfield family, Analeise encounters Cordelia Mayfield and her daughter Marlissa, both of whom possess an otherworldly beauty. A whisper, a sense of déjà vu, and an act of violence perpetrated during this visit by Mrs. Mayfield all converge to kindle Analeise’s fascination with the Mayfields.Analeise’s burgeoning obsession with the Mayfield family overshadows her own seemingly, ordinary life, culminating in dangerous games and manipulation, setting off a chain of cataclysmic events with life-altering consequences—all of it unfolding to the maddening whir of a cicada song.

Weddings, Lace, and Cake in the Face: A Sweet Romcom Novel (Good Girls Don't Come Last)


Jennifer Youngblood - 2022
    

Poster Girls


Meredith Ritchie - 2022
    There's a sameness to being different." After an unwanted southern migration, an upside-down world in 1943 offers military wife and mother, Maggie Slone, a job at Charlotte's largest wartime employer--the massive and dangerous Shell Assembly Plant. Meanwhile, military wife and Alabama native, Kora Bell's steadfast determination enables her to navigate the challenges she faces as a Black woman seeking employment under Jim Crow. A shared love of literature begins an unlikely friendship between Kora and Maggie, and the two work together to unify the plant's workforce. Stringent rules are necessary when the air is charged with gun powder and polite society, until Maggie and Kora must break them in order to support their families, end the war, and bring their husbands home.Told from two perspectives, Poster Girls is driven by the true but forgotten events and accomplishments of a diverse group of American women, both relevant and necessary to stop modern cycles of misunderstanding.