The Southern Accent Reading List provides an opportunity to delve into our contemporary understanding of the South through the lens of literature. Acknowledging that the idea of the South is built upon a combination of realities, myths, and memories, there is a great argument to be made for the role of fiction in shaping how we envision the South. This list of twentieth- and twenty-first-century works of fiction, including novels, short stories, and poems, is not meant to be a definitive compilation of the greatest works of southern literature. Rather it is a gathering of favorite texts whose vivid imagery has allowed readers from around the world access into the world of the South, from its red clay roads, porches, and kitchens to its complex family dynamics and generations-long legacies. The list is arranged chronologically, with particular weight given to texts from the most recent decades, and, when applicable, provides the location in the South where the story chiefly unfolds.
We wish to thank our colleagues for their recommendations and guidance in building this reading list. They include William Fagaly, the Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art; Ashley Farmer and Ryan Ridge of Louisville; Megan Bogard Gettelfinger, MA graduate of the University of Louisville; Emily Wallace, Deputy Editor and Communications Director, Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Kathy World, Duke University Stores. -Miranda Lash
Additional Resources
Duke University Libraries offer books, videos, journal articles, encyclopedias, primary source material and e-books on most of the artists in Southern Accent. See the Southern Accent Library Guide for a list of resources and tips for further researching the artists and various subjects in the exhibition.
1929-1980
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)—Fictional Mississippi
Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel (1929)—Fictional Altamont, Catawba (Asheville, North Carolina)
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)—Fictional Mississippi
Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road (1932)—Georgia
William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936)—Fictional Mississippi
Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (1936)—Georgia
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)—Florida
Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)—Georgia
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses (1942)—Fictional Mississippi
Richard Wright, Black Boy (1945)—Chicago, Illinois; Mississippi
Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (1946)—Southern United States
Eudora Welty, Delta Wedding (1946)—Mississippi
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)—New Orleans, Louisiana
Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948)—Mississippi
Elizabeth Spencer, Fire in the Morning (1948)—Mississippi
William Styron, Lie Down in Darkness (1951)—Virginia
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)—Fictional South and New York
Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952)—Tennessee
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1953)—Southern United States
James Agee, A Death in the Family (1955)—Knoxville, Tennessee
Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)—Mississippi Delta
Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory (1956)—Mississippi
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)—Alabama
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer (1961)—New Orleans, Louisiana
Reynolds Price, A Long and Happy Life (1962)—North Carolina
Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth (1967)—Kentucky
William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)—Virginia
Charles Portis, True Grit (1968)—Arkansas
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)—Arkansas
James Dickey, Deliverance (1970)—Georgia
Barry Hannah, Geronimo Rex (1972)—Louisiana
Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter (1972)—New Orleans, Louisiana; Mississippi
Cormac McCarthy, Child of God (1973)—Tennessee
Harry Crews, A Feast of Snakes (1976)—Georgia
Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (1976)—New Orleans, Louisiana
Barry Hannah, Ray (1980)—Alabama
John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)—New Orleans,
Louisiana
Anne Tyler, Morgan’s Passing (1980)—Baltimore, Maryland
1982–2000
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)—Georgia
Mary Hood, How Far She Went (1984)—Southern United States
Jill McCorkle, The Cheer Leader (1984)—North Carolina
Padgett Powell, Edisto (1984)—South Carolina
Andrew Hudgins, Saints and Strangers (1985)—Southern United States
Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country (1985)—Kentucky
Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides (1986)—New York; South Carolina
Winston Groom, Forrest Gump (1986)—Alabama
Reynolds Price, Kate Vaiden (1986)—Southern United States
ABOVE: Kerry James Marshall, Black Goddess of the Silver Screen, 1991. Acrylic and collage on canvas; 27 x 27 inches (68.58 x 68.58 cm). Collection of Alison and Alan Schwartz. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York. © Kerry James Marshall.
1982–2000 continued
Shannon Ravenel: Launched New Stories from the South (1986) and edited every volume until 2006
Fannie Flagg, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café (1987)—Alabama
Kaye Gibbons, Ellen Foster (1987)—Southern United States
Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)—Kentucky; Ohio
Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons (1988)—Maryland; Pennsylvania
Allan Gurganus, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1989)—
North Carolina
Allan Gurganus, White People (1991)—Southern United States
Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina (1992)—South Carolina
Randall Kenan, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead (1992)—Fictional Tims Creek, Southern United States
Ernest Gaines, A Lesson before Dying (1993)—Fictional Bayonne, Louisiana
John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994)—Savannah, Georgia
David Bottoms, Easter Weekend (1995)—Macon, Georgia
Melanie Sumner, Polite Society (1995)—Senegal; Tennessee
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain (1996)—North Carolina
Dorothy Allison, Cavedweller (1998)—Georgia
Tim Gautreaux, The Next Step in the Dance (1998)—Louisiana
Daniel Wallace, Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions (1998)—Alabama
Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full (1998)—Atlanta, Georgia; Northern California
William Gay, The Long Home (1999)—Tennessee
William Gay, Provinces of Night (2000)—Tennessee
2001–present
Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees (2001)—South Carolina
Alice Randall, The Wind Done Gone (2001)—Georgia
Edward P. Jones, The Known World (2003)—Virginia
Tayari Jones, Leaving Atlanta (2003)—Atlanta, Georgia
Lee Smith, The Last Girls (2003)—Mississippi River
Wendell Berry, That Distant Land: The Collected Stories (2004)—Kentucky
Tim Gautreaux, The Clearing (2004)—Louisiana
Claudia Emerson, Late Wife (2005)—collection of poetry; Southern United States
Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (2005)—Texas
William Gay, Twilight (2006)—Tennessee
Natasha Trethewey, Native Guard (2006)—collection of poetry; Louisiana
Ron Rash, Serena (2008)—North Carolina
Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (2009)—New Orleans, Louisiana
Tim Gautreaux, The Missing (2009)—Louisiana
Kathryn Stockett, The Help (2009)—Jackson, Mississippi
Maurice Manning, The Common Man (2010)—Kentucky
Tayari Jones, Silver Sparrow (2011)—Atlanta, Georgia
Karen Russell, Swamplandia! (2011)—Florida
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones (2011)—Mississippi
Dave Smith, Hawks on Wires: Poems, 2005–2010 (2011)—collection of poetry; Southern United States
Wilton Barnhardt, Lookaway, Lookaway (2013)—North Carolina
Kiese Laymon, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013)—Mississippi
Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things (2015)—Kentucky
