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A collection of 29 posts

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Excerpt from "Hit the Road" by Wes Blake

Wes Blake is the author of Pineville Trace—winner of the Etchings Press Novella Prize, featured on Deep South Magazine's Reading List, finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel, Feathered Quill Book Award for Debut Author, National Indie Excellence Award for Cover Design—from

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Poetry by T.K. Lee

T.K. Lee is the author of two acclaimed collections of poetry (To Square a Circle and Scapegoat) T.K. Lee is the author of two acclaimed collections of poetry (To Square a Circle and Scapegoat) and award-winning dramas (Paper Thin, Loose Hog, and On How To Accommodate Marlo’s

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Poetry by Linda Parsons

Linda Parsons is the Poet Laureate of Knoxville, Tennessee. She is also the poetry editor for Madville Publishing and the copy editor for Chapter 16, the literary website of Humanities Tennessee. She is published in such journals as The Georgia Review, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review, Terrain, The

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"I Can't Feel at Home Anymore" by Laura E. Clemons

“Sir J. Robert Bradley was among the most popular American musicians the majority of us have never heard of. Born in Memphis in 1920, Robert went on to tour six continents during nearly 70 years as soloist and music director of the predominantly African American National Baptist Convention USA. He

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"The Parable of the Sheep and Goats" by Ken Teutsch

Ken Teutsch is a writer, performer, and filmmaker living in central Arkansas. His stories have appeared in anthologies and in such diverse publications as Mystery Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and Cowboy Jamboree. He also records music in the guise of perennially failed country music “star,” Rudy Terwilliger.   The Parable of

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"The Bag-Um-Up" by Kaytlin Thornton

Kaytlin Thornton is a graduate student in English at the University of South Alabama, where she is a poetry editor for Oracle Fine Arts Review. She has written articles for several of the university's student publications and her creative work has been featured in Aura Literary Arts Review

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"Through the Hills" by Jon Ross Anderson

Jon Ross Anderson was born in Timbo, Arkansas in a small community nestled in the Ozark Mountains, not far from the Missouri line. He's a student at Arkansas Tech University, pursuing a degree in literary studies, with the intention of continuing to write and study literature indefinitely. On

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Poetry by Georgann Eubanks

Georgann Eubanks is known for her guidebooks that invite readers to explore the literary, cultural, culinary, and ecological heritage of the South. The poems, “Women’s Work” and “Excursion,” are from her first volume of poetry, Rural Astronomy. These poems shift between childhood memories and her contemporary observations of the

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Poetry by Denton Loving

Denton Loving’s third collection of poems is Feller, published by Mercer University Press. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf. His fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The Kenyon Review, Iron Horse Literary Review and Ecotone.   Life

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Excerpt from "Don't Go Unless You Mean It" by Nathan Gower

Nathan Gower is the author of the novel The Act of Disappearing (Mira Books / HarperCollins) as well as many short-form works published in literary journals and magazines such as the Bellevue Literary Review, Had, Louisville Review, Baltimore Review, Valparaiso Fiction Review, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in fiction writing

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Excerpts from "Let Me Burn in Peace" by Peter Farris

Editor’s Note: Peter Farris is a new name in Southern fiction and in the South, though he has been very successful internationally, especially in France. Porchlight is pleased to introduce his work to a new, American audience and to be the first journal to publish him in English. Peter

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"Cruel Radiance" by Mark Powell, excerpted from Grievous Angels

Mark Powell is the author of six novels, including Small Treasons (Gallery/Simon and Schuster 2017)--a SIBA Okra Pick, and a Southern Living Best Book of the Year--and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Breadloaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences, and twice from the

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"The Plan Room" by Eli Cranor

Nationally-bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author Eli Cranor played quarterback at every level: peewee to professional. These days, he serves as Writer in Residence at Arkansas Tech, where he also lends his expertise to the university's football team, an experience he mined while drafting Mississippi Blue 42.   The Plan Room

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"Old Man Howl" by Taylor Brown

Taylor Brown is the author of In the Season of Blood and Gold (Press 53, 2014), Fallen Land (St. Martin's Press, 2016), The River of Kings (2017), Gods of Howl Mountain (2018), Pride of Eden (2020), Wingwalkers (2022), Rednecks (2024), and Wolvers (2026). You can find his work

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"Why I Quit Caring" by George Singleton

George Singleton has published ten collections of stories, two novels, a book of writing advice, and a collection of essays. Over 250 of his stories have appeared in magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Playboy, the Georgia Review, the Southern Review, the Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere, his non-fiction

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"The Ride" by Robert Morgan

Robert Morgan is the author of fifteen books of poetry, most recently Terroir and Dark Energy. He has also published nine volumes of fiction, including Gap Creek, a New York Times bestseller. A sequel to Gap Creek, The Road From Gap Creek, was published in 2013. A new novel, Chasing

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Poetry by Malcolm Glass

Poems by Malcolm Glass have been published in many journals, including Poetry (Chicago), Nimrod, The Sewanee Review, High Plains Literary Review, The Laurel Review, and Prairie Schooner. He is a retired professor of creative writing and former editor for Zone 3 and Cumberland Poetry Review. Glass has published seven books

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Poetry by Rosemary Royston

Rosemary Royston is an artist, poet and the author of Second Sight (2021, Kelsay Press) and Splitting the Soil (Finishing Line Press, 2014). She resides in the northeast Georgia mountains with her family. Her writing has been published in journals such as POEM, Split Rock Review, Southern Poetry Review, Poetry

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Poetry by Lynnell Edwards

Lynnell Edwards is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently The Bearable Slant of Light (Red Hen Press, 2024). She serves as Associate Programs Director for the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing where she lectures and mentors in poetry, and serves as Book Reviews Editor for the School&

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Poetry by Clinton Waters

Clinton W. Waters is a poet and fiction author born and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They have a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing from Western Kentucky University. Their work has been featured in Untelling Magazine as well as Still: The Journal.  Bouquet  Just set them down anywhere.

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Poetry by Jesse Graves

Jesse Graves is the author of five poetry collections, including Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine: Tenth Anniversary Expanded Edition, Basin Ghosts, Specter Mountain, Merciful Days, and the forthcoming A Little Light in the Grave. Mercer University Press published my collection of essays, Said-Songs: Essays on Poetry and Place. My work

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"Two Dresses" by Jennifer Kates

Jennifer Wachtel Kates was born and raised in middle Tennessee. She earned her B.A. in Creative Writing from Rhodes College, her M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers, and her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Georgia State University. She has

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Poetry by David Tucker

Local Heroes (releasing 2026), winner of the Terry J. Cox Poetry Award is David Tucker’s third collection of poems. His first book, Late for Work, won the Bakeless Poetry Prize, selected by Philip Levine, and was published by Houghton Mifflin. He also won a national chapbook contest held by

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"The Cottage" by Ron Rash

Ron Rash is the author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to the critically acclaimed novels The Caretaker, The Risen, Above the Waterfall, The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; five collections of poems;

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"Harm May's Vegas Money" by Sheldon Lee Compton

Sheldon Lee Compton is the author of twelve books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His novel, Oblivion Angels, is currently nominated for the Chaffin Award for Fiction, and the Independent Fiction Alliance named his novel, Alice, a best book of the year. His work has also been published in Best