The Society for the Study of Southern Literature Newsletter

SSSL has discontinued its digital newsletter. We are in the process of transitioning to a new tech committee format that will allow us to communicate with members across various platforms. If you’re interested in serving on this new initiative, please contact President Sherita Johnson. 

Past issues of the newsletter are archived here.

Volume 51, Issue 1 June 2017

Volume 51, Issue 1 June 2017 dirty south issue   James A. Crank is an assistant professor of American literature and culture at the University of Alabama. Author of the forthcoming Understanding Randall Kenan, as well as Understanding Sam Shepard and editor of New...

Volume 50, Issue 2 January 2017

Volume 50, Issue 2 January 2017 Losing Purple America Issue James A. Crank is an assistant professor of American literature and culture at the University of Alabama. Author of Understanding Sam Shepard and editor of New Approaches To Gone With The Wind, he is...

Volume 50, Issue 1 , July 2016

Volume 50, Issue 1 July 2016 Graduate Professionalization Issue: James A. Crank is an assistant professor of American literature and culture at the University of Alabama. Author of Understanding Sam Shepard and editor of New Approaches To Gone With The Wind, he is...

Volume 49, Issue 2, January 2016

Volume 49, Issue 2 January 2016 The South in the North Issue James A. Crank is an assistant professor of American literature and culture at the University of Alabama. Author of Understanding Sam Shepard and editor of New Approaches To Gone With The Wind, he is...

Volume 49, Issue 1, May 2015

Volume 49, Issue 1 May 2015 The Deep South Issue James A. Crank is an Assistant Professor of American literature at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Understanding Sam Shepard (U of South Carolina P, 2012) and editor of the forthcoming New Approaches to...

Volume 48, Issue 2, November 2014

The Contemporary South Issue David A. Davis is Associate Professor of English and Director of Fellowships and Scholarships at Mercer University. With Tara Powell, he co-edited Writing in the Kitchen: Essays on Southern Literature and Foodways. Does the South still...

Volume 48, Issue 1, May 2014

THE POETRY ISSUE David A. Davis is Associate Professor of English at Mercer University and Editor of the SSSL Newsletter. On the morning that I interviewed Kevin Young, the excellent webzine Bitter Southerner published their first selection of poetry. In the heading...

Volume 47, Issue 2, November 2013

The African American Studies Issue David A. Davis, editor of the SSSL Newsletter, is Assistant Professor of English and Southern Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. All too often, the word “southerners” appears in print referring primarily to white...

Volume 47, Issue 1, April 2013

SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE NEWSLETTER 47.1 SPRING 2013 The New Southern Studies Issue David A. Davis is Assistant Professor of English and Southern Studies at Mercer University and Editor of the SSSL Newsletter. The new southern studies emerged while...

Volume 46, Issue 2, November 2012

The Native South Issue David A. Davis is Assistant Professor of English and Southern Studies at Mercer University and Editor of the SSSL Newsletter. My hometown, Macon, Georgia, is site of the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds. This area has been inhabited for at least 11,000...

Volume 56, Issue 1 June 2022

Volume 56, Issue 1June 2022 Note from the Editor Amy King We’ve been planning this issue of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature’s newsletter for some time! Please read below for important updates about the Society’s 2022 conference, rescheduled for June...

Covid-19

Volume 55, Issue 1 August 2021

This issue of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature’s biannual newsletter has two intertwined goals: first, to voice the ethical priorities of the Society’s 2022 conference; and, second, to inform members about conference logistics. Please read updates from SSSL President Gina Caison and Conference Program Coordinator Stephanie Rountree below. 

Volume 54, Issue 2 March 2021

How do we move forward when institutions relentlessly cause harm? While the contributions to this newsletter cannot offer a salve for all intersecting, ongoing harms, they do extend a chance to reimagine our personal and collective actions.

Volume 54, Issue 1 July 2020

These are not issues divorced from what we do in SSSL. As scholars who study the South — both the U.S. and the Global and all the iterations between and beyond — we know all too well the histories of disease, labor, disenfranchisement, policing, and racism are neither in the past (to come perilously close to quoting Faulkner in my first newsletter as President) nor mutually exclusive. Rather, they are mutually constitutive. Studying the literature and other cultural productions of the region requires a deft understanding of how to hold these things, along with many others, in view and make these issues legible for students and the larger public.