Learn more about the landscape of independent publishing in the South, including presses and magazines based in the area, local book fairs and festivals, and regional awards, as well as books set in or about the area.
In keeping with the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, CLMP defines the South as including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Books Set in the South
Fiction
Bodock by Robert Busby (Hub City Press | June 3, 2025)
This debut short fiction collection follows the aftermath of the 1994 Mid-South Ice Storm in the fictitious town of Bodock in Claygardner County, Mississippi. (Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9798885740517)
After We Drowned by Jill Yonit Goldberg (Anvil Press | December 27, 2024)
This “tragic coming of age story,” set in rural Louisiana, follows fifteen-year-old Jesse’s life after his father is injured when a Gulf of Mexico oil rig explodes. (Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9781772142273)
Junah at the End of the World by Dan Leach (Hub City Press | June 17, 2025)
In this novel set in the months preceding Y2K, “Junah’s eccentric teacher tasks each of her students to make a time capsule in a shoe box to document their experiences in South Carolina at the end of the world.” (Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9798885740494)
Antenora by Dori Lumpkin (Creature Publishing | October 1, 2024)
In this horror debut set in Alabama, “religious dogmatism sniffs out two girls whose innocent affections threaten an entire town and way of life.” (Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781951971182)
You, From Below by Em J Parsley (Split/Lip Press | February 4, 2025)
This “speculative, introspective, fable-like” novella “burrows into the ecological, economic, and emotional state of Central Appalachia.” (Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9781952897429)
Transmission by J. E. Sumerau (Texas Review Press/The University Press of SHSU | May 31, 2023)
In this novel set in Florida, “Millie Morrison returns to her hometown to make sense of the experiences and relationships that have shaped her life.” (Distributed by Texas A&M University Press. ISBN: 9781680033168)
Poetry
Level Watch by Mary Ardery (June Road Press | September 23, 2025)
Set in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, this poetry collection is based on Ardery’s experience as a wilderness guide for women in a substance-abuse treatment program.
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9798987432860)
Taking to Water by Jennifer Conlon (Autumn House Press | October 16, 2023)
In this debut poetry collection, Conlon, who is from North Carolina, “wrestles with and envisions a life beyond their traumatic childhood as a genderqueer child in a small Southern Bible Belt town.” (Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781637680766)
How My Father Became a Boat by John Miller (Fernwood Press | August 19, 2025)
Set in the Gulf South, this collection “begins in the last days of the speaker’s father before fanning out like the teeming deltas of its poems.” (Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781594981692)
Over Yonder by Glenis Redmond (Good Printed Things | August 5, 2025)
The poems in this collection exploring South Carolina’s state parks “invite the reader to step into nature and discover the profound healing connection between our outer landscapes and our inner worlds.” (Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781734584493)
Back to Alabama by Valerie A. Smith (Sundress Publications | May 7, 2024)
This poetry collection explores “the complexities of Black American identity, family, cultural heritage, womanhood, and religious faith.” (Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781951979645)
Mid/South Sonnets (Belle Point Press | August 29, 2023)
Edited by C.T. Salazar and Casie Dodd, this anthology brings together sixty-six poets with ties throughout the American South who “offer a wide range of landscapes and perspectives that speak to the region’s eclectic nature.” (Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781960215048)
The Essential C. D. Wright by C. D. Wright (Copper Canyon Press | May 13, 2025)
Across her oeuvre, Wright, who was raised in the Ozarks in Arkansas, “writes about broad regions of the American South while innovating on numerous idioms of Southern literary tradition.” (Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781556597190)
Nonfiction
Charlottesville: An American Story by Deborah Baker (Graywolf Press | June 3, 2025)
In Charlottesville, Baker “shows how a city more associated with Thomas Jefferson than civil unrest became a flashpoint in a continuing struggle over our nation’s founding myths.” (Distributed by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN: 9781644453414)
The Pagoda: A Lesbian Community by the Sea by Rose Norman (Sinister Wisdom | January 16, 2024)
This book tells the story of a small lesbian-feminist community founded in 1977 in St. Augustine, Florida. (Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781944981631)
World Without End: Essays on Apocalypse and After by Martha Park (Hub City Press | May 6, 2025)
This collection of illustrated essays following Park’s move to Memphis, Tennessee, “explores the intersections of faith, motherhood, and the climate crisis across the South.” (Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9798885740487)
All the Lands We Inherit by Darby Price (Black Lawrence Press | June 17, 2025)
This memoir is “a searing, heartbreaking, and formally inventive debut… based on the author’s upbringing in Louisiana.” (Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781625571601)
South to South: Writing South Asia in the American South (Texas Review Press/The University Press of SHSU | April 21, 2023)
The stories and essays in this anthology, edited by Khem K. Aryal, “compose a mosaic of South Asian lived experiences in the American South.” (Distributed by Texas A&M University Press. ISBN: 9781680032963)
Independent Publishers Based in the South
Alabama
Red Rook Press
Arkansas
Belle Point Press
Et Alia Press
Florida
Purple Ink Press
Autofocus Books
Burrow Press
Sinister Wisdom (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
University of Tampa Press
Georgia
Quarter Press
Unbound Edition Press
Wising Up Press
Kentucky
Appalachia Book Company
Broadstone Books
Sarabande Books (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Finishing Line Press
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions
Louisiana
Diálogos / Lavender Ink
North Carolina
Birds, LLC
Bull City Press
C&R Press
Golias Books
Iron Oak Editions
Laertes Press
Serving House Books & Broken Tribe Press
Orison Books
Prolific Pulse Press
Regal House Publishing
River River Books
Wake Forest University Press
Charlotte Lit Press
Lookout Books (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Variant Literature
South Carolina
Good Printed Things
Hub City Press (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
WayWord Books
Tennessee
Fauxmoir
Sundress Publications
Zone 3 Press
Virginia
Best New Poets (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Modern Artist Press
Relegation Books
Gival Press
Print Literary Magazines Based in the South
Alabama
Black Warrior Review
NELLE
Southern Humanities Review
Arkansas
Oxford American
The Arkansas International
Florida
Echo Teen Art & Lit Mag
Hurricane Review
Io Literary Journal
Islandia Journal
Southeast Review
Subtropics
Swamp Ape Review
Sinister Wisdom (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Tampa Review
Georgia
Atlanta Review
Five Points
Georgia Review
REVEL (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Kentucky
BarBar
The Louisville Review
Louisiana
Burningword Literary Journal
Southern Review
The McNeese Review
THEMA
Mississippi
Libre
Poetry South
Ponder Review
North Carolina
Cave Wall
County Lines
Ecotone
Greensboro Review
North Carolina Literary Review
Raleigh Review
SISTORIES
The Fool’s World Magazine
The Sun Magazine
West Trade Review
South Carolina
Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine
South Carolina Review
Tennessee
Belmont Story Review
Grist A Journal of the Literary Arts
Novus Literary Journal
The Pinch Journal
The Porch/Swing
Zone 3
Virginia
Artemis Journal
Gargoyle Magazine
Iris Literature and Arts Magazine
Phoebe
Quibble Lit
Radon Journal
Virginia Quarterly Review
Fairs and Festivals in the South
Bookmarks Festival of Books
Winston-Salem, NC
2025: September 25-28
Charleston Literary Festival
Charleston, SC
2025: November 7-16
Decatur Book Festival
Decatur/Atlanta, GA
2025: October 3-4
Kentucky Book Festival
Lexington, KY
2025: November 1
Louisiana Book Festival
Baton Rouge, LA
2025: November 1
Louisville Book Festival
Louisville, KY
2025: October 11
The Miami Book Fair International
Miami, FL
2025: November 16-23
Mississippi Book Festival
Jackson, MS
2025: September 13
New Orleans Poetry Festival
New Orleans, LA
2026: April 16-19
NWA Book Fest
Bentonville, AR
2025: September 27-28
Punch Bucket Literary Festival
Asheville, NC
2025: September 19-20
Savannah Book Festival
Savannah, GA
2026: February 5-8
Six Bridges Book Festival
Little Rock, AR
2025: September 28–October 5
Southern Festival of Books
Nashville, TN
2025: October 18-19
Sunshine State Book Festival
Gainesville, FL
2026: January 23-24
Virginia Festival of the Book
Charlottesville, VA
2026: March 20-22
Regional Awards
Florida Book Awards
The Florida Book Awards, given in eleven categories, celebrate books by full-time Florida residents.
Georgia Author of the Year Awards
The Georgia Author of the Year Awards, presented by the Georgia Writers Association, acknowledges authors who currently live or have lived in the state of Georgia and who published a book or chapbook in the previous calendar year.
Louisiana Literary Award
The Louisiana Literary Award, presented by the Louisiana Library Association, is given every year to the author of an outstanding book about Louisiana.
Mississippi Authors Awards
The Mississippi Authors Awards recognize Mississippi authors in the categories of adult fiction, adult nonfiction, and youth fiction or nonfiction.
North Carolina Book Awards
The North Carolina Book Awards, administered by the North Carolina Literary Review for the North Carolina Literary & Historical Association, recognize the best book by a North Carolina writer in four categories.
Southern Book Prize
The Southern Book Prize, presented by the Southern Independent Booksellers’ Alliance, celebrates books set in the South or by Southern authors.
Tennessee Book Award
The Tennessee Book Award, presented by Humanities Tennessee, recognizes excellence in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by Tennessee residents.
Virginia Literary Awards
The Virginia Literary Awards, presented by the Library of Virginia, are given to Virginia authors in the categories of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and to nonfiction authors for works about a Virginia subject.
Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing
The Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing are given annually in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for work engaging with the South and published in the previous year.
