Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature

First Books Released

Porchlight is proud to announce the publication of the journal's first two books, both available in print at the website's virtual bookstore. Also visit Porchlight's General Store for tees, mugs, and caps. Thanks for helping us shine a light on familiar and emerging voices

Tribute: Sheldon Lee Compton

Porchlight offers this tribute to the late Sheldon Lee Compton whose story, "Harm May's Vegas Money," reprinted here, appeared in our inaugural edition, August 2025. Shel was one of the first writers we contacted when Porchlight was founded, and one of the first to share his

2026 Winners

The judges are pleased to announce, and include in this edition, the winning entries in the 2026 Porchlight Prize in Poetry: M.E. Gibson won first place with her "Appalachian Trilogy." Second place went to Jake Lawson for "Ornithology." Noel Poston won third for "Ordinary

In This Edition

Volume 1, Edition 12 Porchlight Prize in Poetry Winners: M.E. Gibson, first; Jake Lawson, second; Noel Poston, third. Poetry by Susanna Schantz and Emily Cosper. Short stories by Steve Lambert, Howard Marsee, Damn Jones, Hallie Johnston, and Louis Bourgeois. Novella by Steve Wick, fourth monthly installment.   Volume 1, Edition

Contest Is Open

Porchlight is proud to accept entries in the second annual William Gay Memorial Prize in Short Story which will present at least $300 and a trophy to the first place winner, $150 for second, and $50 for third, along with a featured presentation in Porchlight.* All three will be included

Gift Subscriptions

Share Porchlight with a friend or family member through a monthly or annual subscription at this link. Thank you for supporting our efforts and for helping us shine a light on the work of familiar and emerging Southern voices in poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction.

Porchlight Writer News

BRIAN LONGACRE It's in the Marrow of Our Bones Congratulations to Porchlight contributor BRIAN LONGACRE whose novella, It's in the Marrow of Our Bones, will be released in 2027 by Redhawk Publishers.  EMILY COSPER Witness Before the Fall Porchlight contributor EMILY COSPER's first collection

Interview: Cary Holladay

By WES HUTCHESON, for Porchlight It feels especially meaningful to introduce this conversation with Cary Holladay, whose work first came to me not casually but canonically—assigned during my MFA candidacy at Warren Wilson College. Those stories, encountered in the serious light of study, altered the way I understand prose:

Craft: Language into Language Demographics by Zyen Smoot

Zyen Mingo-Smoot is an African-American and Afro-Indigenous poet from Varnado, Louisiana. Her primary themes are tackled through the contemporary southern gothic where she gathers the 20th century genre to examine modern-day socialization, landscape, and culture of the Deep South.   Craft: Language into Language Demographics Language into

Interview: Michael Farris Smith

Michael Farris Smith is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, Book Riot, and numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month

Interview: David Joy

Interviewed by WES HUTCHESON for Porchlight   I first met David Joy at the Tremont Writers’ Conference, where his honesty about writing—and about life in general—stood out right away. He spoke about craft with a kind of grounded wisdom that made everyone in the room sit up and listen.

Talk Pretty: A Craft Essay

One of the biggest pitfalls for writers is dialogue. Dialogue should be a busy tool in fiction. The legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard famously said his most important rule for writing was that if it sounded like writing, he rewrote it. Leonard, who is considered one of the greatest writers

Southern Bookstores Byway

Bookstores tell their own stories—especially the independents that pepper the Southern landscape and become special, almost revered safe havens for lovers of the written word. Can you imagine a world without them? In a time when some of the greatest literary works are under attack, being pulled from library

Southern Bookstores Byway: Landmark Booksellers

Maybe it’s become a familiar story—book lovers open a bookstore—but Landmark Booksellers in Franklin is an exceptional difference, and their name suggests why. With twenty years of experience behind them now, Carol and Joel Tomlin have built another landmark in Middle Tennessee, a place that serves as

Author Spotlight & Interview with George Singleton

Porchlight is pleased to feature George Singleton in our Author Spotlight segment, and to publish a new story of his, “Why I Quit Caring,” for subscribers. We asked George if he would take time to answer a few questions about himself and his craft, and his response was a quick

Attitude

We all need to create John Gardner’s vivid and continuous dream. We need characters that have their own voice and walk their own way and drink their own drinks. We need setting and scene and plot and tension and all those other things you’ll find in any book

The Power of Sensory Detail in Literary Fiction

At the heart of great literary fiction lies the ability to immerse a reader fully—transporting them beyond the page and into a world that feels lived-in, tactile, and true. This magic often stems from one of the most overlooked tools in a writer’s kit: sensory detail. The

Author Spotlight

David Joy At Porchlight, we’re thrilled to shine our porch light on David Joy, a masterful voice in contemporary Southern and Appalachian fiction whose work grips the heart and doesn’t let go. Roots in the Mountain South A 12th-generation North Carolinian, Joy grew up along the Catawba

Featured

Welcome to Porchlight

Shining a Light on Emerging Southern Voices When we first began thinking about an online literary journal—when it was just an unrealized whim—we couldn’t have imagined the welcome and support so many writers have offered through encouragement and shared submissions. After settling on our name, which just