Hard To Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic Fiction Includes The Short Story, Tallulah

The short story, Tallulah, published originally in Stylus Lit magazine out of Australia, has been included in this anthology Hard To Find, edited by Meredith Janning, an editorial assistant at Stephen F. Austin State University Press. 

Meredith earned her BA in Mass Communication from SFA in May of 2021 and is set to receive her MA in Publishing in May of 2023. Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic is the result of her love of the Southern Gothic and is particularly inspired by Flannery O’Connor’s work.

Publisher: Stephen F. Austin State University Press. ISBN: 9781622889457. Number of pages: 160. Dimensions: 229 x 152 mm

Here is a link to the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Find-Anthology-Southern-Gothic/dp/1622889452

And a link to Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hard-to-find-meredith-janning/1142714980

This is from the book's listing online:

"In its own way, the American South is riddled with elements of the gothic genre. Instead of empty, isolated castles it has small towns, though just as haunted, just as full of secrets. The Southern Gothic is a clash between the old and the new, tradition and breaking the cycles its people are, or should be, ashamed of. It's grotesque and violent, surreal and symbolic but it makes people listen. It's about calling people to change or be forgotten. In the past, this genre had writers like O'Connor, Faulkner, Allison, and Williams, but these ideas and experiences are just as present today as they ever were."

Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic is an anthology focused on giving writers an opportunity to shed light on the issues faced by the people of the American South today, whether those are new issues or just new ways of taking on the same ghosts. How do you define the South? What makes Southern people different? Has anything really, truly changed from its history?

This is from the book's introduction by Joe R. Lansdale, https://joerlansdale.com/

"As Charlie Parker, better known as the 'Bird' said about his love of country music, 'It’s the stories, man, it’s the stories.' We will call these stories neither snail nor escargot, but what is clear is they wear the lanyard of Southern Gothic dangling around their necks. Beneath the lanyard is the skin, blood and bones of all good fiction."

Find more about Joe here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/58971.Joe_R_Lansdale

And here: https://nocturnalrevelries.com/2022/04/03/joe-r-lansdales-best-short-stories/

Joe R. Lansdale, pictured above.

Find him at: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/joe-r-lansdale/

Lastly, here you'll find Chelsea Riley's review of the anthology at the Southern Review of Books: 

https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2023/07/14/books-to-celebrate-in-july-2023/

Or you can purchase the anthology here from Waterstones UK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hard-to-find/meredith-janning/9781622889457

Or here directly from the Southern Review Bookshop US:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/hard-to-find-an-anthology-of-new-southern-gothic-meredith-janning/7c44195b5017a690?ean=9781622889457&next=t&next=t&affiliate=100

                                               

A Small Key Opens Big Doors -- A Peace Corps Anthology To Celebrate Its 50th Anniversary

This anthology of 40 stories was edited by Jay Chen and published in 2011 as part of a series covering the globe to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Peace Corps. Some of the stories harken back to early Peace Corps years in Iran and Turkey. Others engage with the newness of democratic freedoms, drawing back the curtain on old suspicions. All of them take place in Eurasia, Asia Minor, the Middle East.

Find the anthology here at Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1609520033/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tu00_p1_i7

My contribution, Boss Visa, takes place in Ukraine in 1993. It was originally published in The Istanbul Review.

It later appeared in a slightly different form in the collection, Off To The Next Wherever. https://www.fomitepress.com/off-to-the-next-wherever.html

Living Between The Leaves, An Essay By John Flynn Published in Being Home, an Anthology

 

The essay Living Between The Leaves was published by Madville Publishing in the anthology Being Home, edited by Sam Pickering and Bob Kunzinger. 

To quote from the back cover, each of the essays in this anthology is about: "the spirit of place...the juncture of memory and emotions...where we make our most important discoveries....these are not quarantine, stay in place Covid-19 essays...."

Find the book here at Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Being-Home-Anthology-Sam-Pickering/dp/1948692627

Or directly from Madville Publishing: https://madvillepublishing.com/product/being-home/

Leap Into The Sun, A Basil Rosa Essay Published in Behind The Plots, An Anthology

The Basil Rosa essay Leap Into The Sun was published by JD Russell in Behind The Plots, an anthology of essays by 15 authors sharing their various approaches to the writing process. 

Click here to learn more about this anthology, as well as the Writing Bad blog, including a video trailer: https://writingbad.org/2022/09/12/behind-the-plots/

The anthology is available here from Amazon US: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BD6V5FV3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZU3S92Z7AFL6&keywords=B0BD6V5FV3&qid=1662903896&sprefix=b0bd6v5fv3%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

And from Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BD6V5FV3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BHRWRMFIBTRT&keywords=B0BD6V5FV3&qid=1662903970&sprefix=b0bd6v5fv3%2Caps%2C357&sr=8-1

From Editor JD Russell:

This collection of creative, nonfiction essays written by a diverse range of published authors gives the reader an opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a writer, to travel through their most memorable Eureka! moments and most devastating rejections. For a moment, discover what it is that drives an author to continue to pick up their pen each day in spite of the growing mountain of rejections on their desk. Perhaps you will find within these pages the secret to successful publication in spite of the odds!

Here is the Table Of Contents

1. Rejecting Rejection by Robin Gaines.................................... 1 

2. Fight Fire with Fire by Gayle Bell ........................................... 10 

3. As Written for Writers by Jeff Ferris ....................................... 13 

4. The Inside Word by William Sells........................................... 31 

5. A Writer’s Confession: Sins of Omission and Commission 

by Sarah law............................................................................. 38

 

6. 4:00 AM Reflection on Writing by Rebecca Redshaw.......... 55

 

7. The Weight of Childhood Muses by Diana Raab ................. 62 

8. Guided by Quotes by Steve Bailey .......................................... 78 

9. Three Essays on Finding the Right Help, the Path to Show, and the Wrong Words 

by Katherine Benfante ....................... 90 

10. Dealing with Rejection and Improving Your Chances of Publication 

by Katie Kent....................................................... 105 

11. The Alchemy of Writing Science Fiction: Memory, Imagination and Characterization 

by Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD .................................................. 118 

12. Leap into the Sun by Basil Rosa............................................. 133