The William R. Ferris Reader: An Omnibus E-book

Congratulations to Southern Cultures on its 20th year!

UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South founded Southern Cultures in 1993, and UNC Press has published the peer-reviewed quarterly for the Center since 1996. The only publication on the South dedicated to reaching academic and lay readers, Southern Cultures features essays, interviews, fiction, photography, poetry, and more.

We celebrate Southern Cultures’ 20th anniversary with a special omnibus ebook, The William R. Ferris Reader. Collected here for the first time are all 20 of Bill Ferris’s essays and interviews as they have appeared in the journal’s pages between 1995 and 2013, as well as an introduction to the collection by Ferris.

From folk humor to moon pies to Faulkner, Welty, Walker, and so much more, we are delighted to share this special collection of a favored friend, mentor, and colleague.

From the introduction:

As Southern Cultures celebrates its twentieth year, I proudly celebrate that they have published twenty of my articles. Those articles foreshadowed and helped me develop my two most recent books, Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues and The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists, both published by UNC Press, where Southern Cultures and my work have found a happy home.

On a personal level, I have shared many wonderful conversations with editors Ayse Erginer, Dave Shaw, and Emily Wallace as they prepared each issue of Southern Cultures. I love to read the impressive outline of future issues on the whiteboard on their wall. That outline reflects their deep knowledge of the American South, and readers impatiently await their special issues on music, food, and photography. Standing in their modest office reminds me of the view from the helm of the Delta Queen when it plied the waters of the Mississippi River though the limitless expanse of water and land. Readers of Southern Cultures experience a similar thrill each time they open an issue and read its engaging, and always thought-provoking, essays about the American South.

This tidy file of Ferris’s great work is downloadable via Amazon, Apple, and Kobo for just $9.99.