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 46, Issue 1, April 2012

The Digital Issue David A. Davis is Assistant Professor of English and Southern Studies at Mercer University and Editor of the SSSL Newsletter. Place was the recurring theme at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature biennial conference in Nashville. Being in...

Volume 45, Issue 2, November 2011

The Anniversary Issue David A. Davis, the SSSL newsletter editor, is Assistant Professor of English and Southern Studies at Mercer University. The year marks the 43rd anniversary of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature’s founding. We tend not to mark such...

Volume 42, Issue 2, June 2009

From the Editor: This is quite some issue – thank-you so much to all of you who have contributed, especially to Jon Smith, who has written a fascinating account of his experiences in teaching southern studies out of the South, and across the border, in Canada. I read...

Volume 42, Issue 1, November 2008

From the Editor: First of all, surely I need to acknowledge the extraordinary events in the US this past week. As a colleague suggested to me the other day, Obama’s election perhaps signals the real beginning of the 21st century. We are certainly caught up in the...

Volume 41, Issue 2, May 2008

From the Editor: What a jam-packed issue this one is, perhaps the upshot of what I believe was a really exciting SSSL convention in Williamsburg earlier this month. Susan Donaldson and her assistants deserve a huge thanks for not only ensuring the convention took...

Volume 41, Issue 1, November 2007

From the Editor: I am thrilled with my new role as Editor of the SSSL Newsletter. Thanks to Bob Brinkmeyer, Susan Donaldson, Ryan McDonald (College of William and Mary) and Cassandra M. Edwards (University of Arkansas) for making the transition such an easy one. Let...

Volume 40, Issue 2, May 2007

From the Editor: With this issue, I am stepping down from the editorship of the newsletter and passing the position along to someone else. I’ve enjoyed being editor over the past several years, though really it has been the associate editors–graduate students here at...

Volume 40, Issue 1, December 2006

From the Editor: Greetings once again from the Ozarks where winter has come with a vengeance, making the long hot summer seem pretty inviting. As the world continues to unravel in disarray, I’m reminded of lines from Auden: “Uncertain and afraid / As the clever hopes...

Volume 39, Issue 2, May 2006

A Message from the SSSL President It will be hard for me to follow Bill Andrews as president of the SSSL. Bill did much to set our house in order. Our funds are safely invested, our bib- liography is back in full operation, our last general meeting in Chapel Hill...

Volume 39, Issue 1, December 2005

From the Editor: It’s not feeling too Southern today here in the Ozarks. Tonight’s forecast is clear with a low of 1 degree. Hmm. The hot, sultry South seems far away, and I’m reminded of the year I taught in Finland at the University of Helsinki. Finnish students...

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.