Seven books that complicate stories about the South

Grace Gaynor is a writer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is a Feminist Press apprentice, an editorial intern at Electric Literature, and a reader for Bicoastal Review. She studied English and GWS at Hollins University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Tech.

At Electric Lit Gaynor tagged seven "books, each of which adds a new texture, layer, and contradiction to the story of what the South really is, [that] will resonate with readers who love and live in deeply complex, complicated places." One title on the list:

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Men We Reaped is Ward’s memoir about how and why five Black men in her life died in just four years. It’s a narrative about the way the lives of Black American Southerners are thoroughly tainted by the systemic deaths of Black men. The book offers a powerful perspective on the dilemma of loving a place while being irreparably hurt by it. Ward writes: “I knew there was much to hate about home, the racism and inequality and poverty which is why I left, yet I loved it.”

Read about another title on the list.

Men We Reaped is among Alicia Simba's top ten memoirs and essay collections by Black women, Maggie Laurel Boyd's nine titles that rethink our narratives about health & healing and Matthew Gavin Frank’s eleven books featuring flying things.

--Marshal Zeringue