Donna Meredith

Tallahassee

Freelance Writer and Author at Freelance

Editor at Southern Literary Review

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Articles

“Dressing the Saints” by Aracelis Gonzalez Asendorf

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Aracelis Gonzalez Asendorf’s Dressing the Saints (Black Lawrence Press 2024) is a collection of nine short stories that vividly explores the lives of Cuban Americans. The book, which won the Gold Medal for Fiction at the 2025 Florida Book Awards, brings to life the close-knit immigrant communities of South Florida and the rich cultural heritage they carry with them. Vivid Sense of PlaceAsendorf’s writing engages all the senses.
2025 Word of South Music and Literary Festival April 4-6

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Tallahassee’s beautiful Cascades Park will host the tenth This FREE event will feature music, authors, food and fun all weekend. The only paid event is the Violent Femmes and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 4. You can buy tickets here. Everything else is free. A few of the authors appearing are Kristen Arnett, Chris Bohjalian, David Campbell, James Kimbrell, David Kirby, Mark Mustian, Diane Roberts, Jeff VanderMeer, and M.O. Walsh. Here’s a list of all the artists appearing.
“Boy With Wings” by Mark Mustian

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Is Johnny Cruel an angel or a demon or just an ordinary boy with an unusual birthmark? In Mark Mustian’s literary novel Boy With Wings (Koehler Books 2025), characters often struggle to make sense of Johnny Cruel’s unusual wings—and readers may feel the same. At times, Johnny is heroic; at others, vengeful. In this novel of magical realism, religion, and morality, the lines between good and evil blur.
“The Best That You Can Do” by Amina Gautier

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Amina Gautier’s The Best That You Can Do (Soft Skull, 2024) is a powerful, multi-award-winning collection of short stories centered on characters from the Puerto Rican and African diaspora. The book has received numerous accolades, including the Midwest MLA Book Award, the Florida Book Awards Silver Medal, and the 2023 Soft Skull-Kimbilio Publishing Prize. It was also longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and The Story Prize.
“2000 Blacks” by Ajibola Tolase

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

2000 Blacks (University of Pittsburgh Press 2024) by Ajibola Tolase is a powerful poetry collection that has garnered significant recognition, winning the Gold Medal for Poetry in the 2025 Florida Book Awards as well as the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Tolase’s poetry is deeply evocative, blending personal history with broader cultural and political themes.
Books of Note: “Queen of the Clouds” by Taylor C. Phillips and “Greed at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort by Leslie Noyes

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Queen of the Clouds by Taylor C. PhillipsFirst woman to fly around the world—Amelia Earhart, right? Wrong! Yet most of us remember Earhart’s name rather than the two women who did complete that amazing solo journey. Queen of the Clouds: Joan Merriam Smith and Jerrie Mock’s Epic Quest to Become the First Woman to Fly Solo Around the World (Turtle Cove Press 2023) by Taylor C. Phillips sets the record straight.
Southern Literary Review

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

This month Southern Literary Review is focusing on the damage resource extraction causes to the environment and to people and the communities they live in. Two fine environmental novels share the honor of March Book of the Month. The first is Beyond Buffalo by Betsy Reeder. It shines a light on the psychological damage following the Buffalo Creek disaster.
Southern Literary Review

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

It’s easy to understand why Rhonda Browning White’s debut novel, Filling the Big Empty (Redhawk Publications 2024) was shortlisted for the 2022 Neilson Prize. The novel is a tour-de-force, relentlessly examining environmental issues in Appalachia. While never losing focus on a young couple’s relationship, the story drops readers into the horrors of mountaintop removal to extract coal, the clear-cutting of forests, a chemical spill in a river, and opioid addiction.
Southern Literary Review

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Novel Summary:A baby. It’s the one thing Romie Grodin, orphaned at thirteen, wants more than anything else in the world. A real homeplace. It’s what her coal-mining husband Jasper wants—needs—to provide for his family. When the couple’s best friend—their only “family”—is hurt in a mining accident and his wife becomes addicted to drugs, Romie and Jasper must make life-altering decisions that challenge their strengths and threaten their very existence and that of the land they love.
Southern Literary Review

1 month ago | southernlitreview.com | Donna Meredith

Beyond Buffalo by Betsy Reeder takes readers beyond the deaths and physical destruction caused by the Buffalo Creek disaster to explore the long-term psychological impacts on survivors. The Buffalo Creek flood occurred in Logan County, West Virginia, on February 26, 1972, when three coal slurry impoundment dams fail during heavy rainfall, killing 125 and injuring 1,121. Over 4,000 were left homeless. But those are just numbers.