Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature

The editors are proud to announce the 2026 Porchlight Prize in Poetry which will present a minimum of $300 and a trophy to the first place winner, $150 to second place, and $50 to third, along with a featured presentation on the Porchlight website and publication in the planned 2026

JESSE GRAVES Poetry & Interview Salvation South, in observation of National Poetry Month in April, featured Porchlight contributor JESSE GRAVES in an in-depth interview alongside a selection of his poetry. MICHAEL AMOS CODY Avalon Moon Porchlight is pleased to announce that MICHAEL AMOS CODY's new novel. Avalon

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:

Porchlight is proud to announce that DANIEL REISS is the winner of the inaugural  William Gay Memorial Prize for his short story, "The Princess Motel." As winner, Daniel will receive $500 and a trophy. His story, and well as the three runner-up entries, will be published in

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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