Best of
Southern-Gothic

2021

Revelator


Daryl Gregory - 2021
    These remote hills of the Smoky Mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family's personal god, an entity known as the Ghostdaddy.Years later, after a tragic incident that caused her to flee, Stella--now a professional bootlegger--returns for Motty's funeral, and to check on the mysterious ten-year-old girl named Sunny that Motty adopted. Sunny appears innocent enough, but she is more powerful than Stella could imagine--and she's a direct link to Stella's buried past and her family's destructive faith.Haunting and wholly engrossing, summoning mesmerizing voices and giving shape to the dark, Revelator is a southern gothic tale for the ages.

If or When I Call


Will Johnson - 2021
    Parker and Melinda are searching for themselves in the hollows of their estranged marriage. Parker, haunted by the demons of addiction, lives every moment at the edge of an undiagnosed disorder - a darkness that steals his awareness and throws him into convulsions. Melinda, on an odyssey of her own, knows Parker's struggles all too well, and as they try to help their teenage son come to terms with their lives apart, they have only their memories of a brighter life to get by.Haunting and lyrical, Johnson's powerful debut is a hymn to the lives we overlook in the quiet places around us. And how close we are to living them ourselves.Will Johnson is a musician and songwriter who has played in the bands Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Marie/Lepanto, Overseas, New Multitudes, and Monsters of Folk. He also releases records under his own name, and makes paintings centering on the subject of baseball and its history. His work has appeared in American Short Fiction. He was born in Kennett, Missouri, and currently lives in Austin, Texas. If or When I Call is his first novel.

Fugitives of the Heart


William Gay - 2021
    Marion Yates, a teenage orphan, is befriended by Black Crowe. Yates in turn nurses Crowe through a work explosion and the two form a seemingly lasting friendship. First love, racism, and betrayal—these are all topped with Gay’s signature wry humor in his signature Tennessee fictional setting of the Hurrikan. Gay again proves himself a master of prose.

Pine


Julia Koets - 2021
    Creating new landscapes of identity by reimagining form, modifying villanelles, sonnets, elegies, thank-you notes, and dictionary entries, Pine's imagistic and metaphorical associations between the body and the natural world form a queer ecology of longing and loss.