I’m an English teacher and have also worked at a public library, which means people often ask which authors and books I enjoy. I have a penchant for Southern fiction, working-class literature,  and African-American literature. Here’s a short list of some of my favorite works:

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Outer Banks by Anne Rivers Siddons

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

Big Stone Gap by Adriani Trigiani

“The Shipfitter’s Wife” by Dorianne Laux”

“What Do Women Want” by Kim Addonizio

“Scheherazade” by Richard Siken

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

The Color of Water by James McBride

“Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin

“Ruby Tells All” by Miller Williams

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara

The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor

“When We Were Young and Confederate” by Jeremy Collins

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie

“Barn Burning” by William Faulkner

Saving Grace by Lee Smith

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

”The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri

“Nilda” by Junot Diaz

”Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff

“Time and Distance Overcome” by Eula Biss

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Maude by Donna Mabry