Unpacking the Past
…exploration of the scars that neglected, abused, and abandoned children bear for life. Lyda Phillips is a veteran journalist who grew up in Memphis and has earned degrees from Northwestern,…
Earth and Fire
In Helen Wecker’s debut novel, The Golem and the Jinni, it is 1899, and two magical creatures appear on the teeming streets of New York’s Lower East Side. The Golem…
Everything You Know about Pit Bulls is Wrong
Ken Foster’s first “pit bull,” Brando, was pulled from a New York City shelter in 2001. The shelter identified him as a pit bull simply because he had a brindle…
Catching the Playhouse Killer
To stop the shakes, Jackie Lyons is popping sinus pills and beer in a down-and-out Memphis bar when she gets a call from her ex-partner. A new corpse has turned…
A Human Thing of Mystery
Daniel Woodrell’s The Outlaw Album is a collection of twelve stories of murder, revenge, regret, and a bewildered reaching for some meaning to life. Set in the rough hollows and…
The Lord God Bird
”Being seventeen and bored in a small town, I like to pretend sometimes that I’m a pessimist,” says the narrator of Where Things Come Back. “Pretend” is the operative verb:…
