Contemporary Southern Writers

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
The Fang Family is a group of oddballs living mischievous lives. A good choice for readers who love Gary Shteyngart, Miranda July, and Magnus Mills. 

A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan
Horace Cross is a gay black teenager growing up in a small fundamentalist Baptist town in North Carolina. The story begins with Horace’s quest to turn himself into a bird. He fails and becomes possessed and experiences a series of flashbacks and revelations.

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
A likable 11-year-old Ellen survives appalling circumstances, emerging to find a home for herself in the world.

Given Ground by Ann Pancake
A vivid portrait of the Appalachian region; its landscape, people, economic and social conditions, and culture.

Edisto by Pagett Powell
Simons Everson Manigault is twelve-year-old boy growing up in the tiny town of Edisto, South Carolina, in the late 1960s. Taurus, an African-American boy moves into the cabin recently vacated by the Manigault’s maid. The two boys form a significant friendship over the hot Southern summer.  

Serenaby Ron Rash
Newlyweds George and Serena travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Serena does not shy from crews or rattlesnakes and deals ruthlessly with anyone who gets in her way.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
In the twelve days that make up this novel a hurricane builds threatening the town in Mississippi where a poor, motherless family sacrifices for each other where the poverty and lack of parental love and guidance necessitates.