Often an editor’s idea of contemporary southern literature is rooted too deeply in setting and mood. The dozen stories collected in Mojo Rising: Contemporary Writers by Joseph B. Atkins offer a vibrant counterpoint. These eight men and four women take risks with voice, setting, point of view and genre and the payoffs for the reader are enjoyable and edifying. In “Beg Borrow Steal,” Maurice Carlos Ruffin expertly creates space for the reader to become the protagonist, who spends his time searching for some way other than his feet to move from one place to another. While Sheree Renee Thomas’s charming “Aunt Dissy’s Policy Dream Book” explores the difficult truth that you don’t get what you want because you want it—even with the help of palm readers and dreams. Margaret Skinner transforms our antiquated idea of kin into a nuanced understanding of the American Dream and in doing so, revitalizes two clichés. This collection proves that the link between southern writers is not regional storytelling, but fearless storytelling.

– Courtney Miller Santo, English Department, University of Memphis, Director of River City Writers Series