Are you a fan of "Southern" writers? What is their appeal to you personally?

Are you a fan of "Southern" writers? If so, what is their appeal to you personally?

I was introduced to “Southern” writers before I even knew they were a thing. In the eighth grade I picked up a paperback copy of Carson McCullers’ “The Member of the Wedding” while on vacation because my family was getting ready to attend a cousin’s out-of-state wedding. While it didn’t prepare me for my cousin’s wedding it did introduce me to McCullers and I proceded to subsequently read all her novels. Then in college I took a focused English Lit class that concentrated on Hemingway and Faulkner. The professor had written a book about Faulkner and made me fall in love with his work. “Sanctuary”, though not his most popular by any means, was and remains my favorite. I’ve also read Warren. But McCullers is tops. Hard as it is to read and digest these Southern authors, and much as I may complain about darkness and symbolism while reading them, after finishing them I always want more. Never thought of myself as a fan of this genre but I guess I am.

Added ten minutes later:

Oops. Totally forgot to mention Harper Lee. There are likely others but overall I would have to say that the appeal of Southern authors to me is the very thing I complain about while reading them - they explore the very darkness within us all that as a cockeyed optimist I tend to try to downplay.

I fell in love in college with the writing of Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty. I think the South is unique---for good and bad.

I am a fan of Southern writers because I am not from the south and find the culture of that area fascinating to read about.

I am exactly the same as Rosie - born and bred west coast person - I am fascinated that our country is so very diverse. I really like to read southern authors. I think they have a more solid sense of family which I love, and then of course there is the civil war and all the history involved with that is a fav of mine.

I love southern writers. The history of the south is interesting and pulls together the reason for a lot of unrest in our country. The southern scenery, food, and family dynamics make for great narrative.

Southern writers are some of my favorites. I love the culture of the south and the personality of the characters. There is also so much history in the south to be learned. Historical fiction placed in the south is a favorite of mine.

Southern fiction is a brand/breed of its own kind. I became hooked early on with writers like McCullers, O'Conner, and Welty before moving on to Faulkner. Then came more modern writers such a Harper Lee, of course, and Pat Conroy, and today's Taylor Brown, and don't forget Ron Rash to name a few. Southern literature all seems to have a bit of gothic in it some way - the setting - big old multi-generational mansions with as many stories in them as people who have inhabited them - or tone - often dark and full of irony - and the use of a writing style which sometimes includes magical realism are real draws of this genre. There are a number of contemporary young women southern writers who have pulled me in, also. Sarah Addison Allen and Joshilyn Jackson are just two of many. So much fun to read!

I have always been drawn to Sourhern writers because I am a southerner.
Our country has always been and continues to be diverse, and I do understand the south even though I am still constantly amazed by it.

I have not read many Southern writer other than Pat Conroy, Harper Lee and now Greg Isles. I am glad to have recommendations from the other people who have posted.
The history of the South is a fascinating one, filled with so much bigotry, war and also love.

Yes, I am a fan of Southern writers for many of the same reasons previously mentioned. I would like to mention a contemporary Southern writer whose writing I think many Book Browse readers would enjoy--Sonny Brewer. This author paints pictures with words. Two novels I particularly enjoy are THE POET OF TOLSTOY PARK and A SOUND LIKE THUNDER.

I too am a Southerner, born and raised, and love Southern writers. There is a certain appeal to the writings of an author like John Grisham who can invoke feelings of home from his wonderfully descriptive tales from the South. Of course, the rich history of the South also plays a big part in novels such as this trilogy by Greg Iles. While parts are difficult to read, is important that we recognize our past and learn from it. I have not read any of Iles’ other novels but I look forward to doing so.

Thanks for the recommendation! I looked up Sonny Brewer and will definitely check out his books!

The best Southern writers tell stories of the good, the bad, and the quirky, set in a part of the country rich in all of those things. Their treatments range from Gothic to straight-out comedy, and their topics range from politics to love and murder -- sometimes all three in the same story. I prefer those who write with punctuation (that lets out most Faulkner) but I don't feel strongly one way or the other about dialect. I'm Southern, so these authors are writing what I know and live with, and giving me constant new insight. Among my favorites among current writers, in addition to Iles, are Lee Smith and Wiley Cash. I also enjoy Clyde Edgerton (The soap opera scene in Walking Across Egypt is one of the funniest I have ever read.), Joshilyn Jackson, Pat Conroy, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery O'Connor, Harper Lee -- I'm sure there are more. There are excellent Southern authors who are not "Southern writers"; the differences lie in the setting, topics, and character treatments they provide.

I guess I don’t distinguish where writers come from, so I’m not a fan of Southern writers per se. I am more interested in what the book is about and who the author is. Having said that, I do distinguish more between non-American writers, because I enjoy reading books about different cultures.

There is something about writers from the south in their ability to evoke a particular feeling about time and place, the smells, heat & humidity, and an undercurrent of faux gentility masking a history of racism, class consciousness, and a longing for the old south, family, history, slowness to life, a particular atmosphere....David Lee Burke with Dave Robicheaux, William Faulkner, Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides, Anne Rivers Siddons, Tennessee Williams, Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes ??. The best southern writers embrace eccentricity, quirky characters, and continued distrust of northerners. My sister moved to NC and her kids were not invited to ‘Cotillion’ because....’they aren’t our people’ ??

I have been a fan for many years. I live in the south and find the people here are just more prone to have drama in their lives.

I love Southern writers and enjoy reading books set in the South. I’m also a historical fiction fan and one of my favorite time periods is during the Civil War.

The last several books I've read have all been "Southern" - this series, An American Marriage, The Twelve Mile Straight, and in a completely different tone, An Altar in the World. The setting is so strong in all but the last one, it feels like a character as well. I enjoy reading all kinds of books, but Southern writers certainly have their own dramatic flair. I took an entire class on Walker Percy & Flannery O'Connor in college, so I think I enjoy that the setting IS a character and there's always something absurd, gothic, or particularly unique.

I have lived in the South for the last 20 years. I have grown to love "Southern" writers. I remember reading Gone With the Wind in high school, and then seeing the movie. It was a culture that I had never experienced at that time, but now living in Georgia I have come to love Flannery O'Connor, Pat Conroy, and of course Harper Lee.

I am most definitely am a fan of Southern writing and books about the South. This comes from two aspects. My mother's grandparents migrated to the Great Plains from Eastern Tennessee after the Civil War. I was basically raised living like a Southerner in the middle of Kansas: the food, the sayings, the respect for family and elders, the appreciation of history, etc. This was reaffirmed when I was about 13 years old and read "Gone With the Wind" for the first time. With that I was totally hooked on the South, Southern writers, and the history of the South from pre-revolutionary times to the present.

Huge fan of Southern writers. Love their story telling ability and while this series isn’t much of a model for that, I love the humor that is often part of the southern writers tool bag even when writing about serious subjects.

Being from the South, I do like to read about the South and to study the history. There is still a lot of hate groups in the South but also you will find these people in the Pacific Northwest and other areas of the US.

I find Southern writers intriguing. I love that the stories are deeply twisted by angst and conscience; there is a heat that forces the characters to pursue solutions to impossible situations, and not always with stellar behavior. I think I feel the dilemma of the underdog more profoundly in Southern literature.

I'm a girl of the south and just understand that kind of literature best. Willie Morris was a wonderful writer from Mississippi and I love Rick Bragg, both homey and funny.

Except for the characters, especially Quentin, I don't get that "southern feeling" that I get from Ron Rash, Wiley Cash and others. Penn is too un-southern from his years in Houston. Isle's writing doesn't take its time like William Faulkner et al. How could it? There is a violent attack of some kind in every chapter!

I’m not sure fan is the right word; however, now that Inlive in the south, I am constantly trying to understand their mindset. It’s difficult...