September/October Issue

Here’s how the digital flipbook issue works: Click the headline to get to the issue. In the issue window, the double-chevron icon at lower right brings up a reader window with a toolbar so you can zoom in and out, download a PDF, etc.

A few tips: The toolbar’s box icon fills your whole screen with a flipbook in spreads, which is easier to read on some screens. You can navigate back to the Table of Contents by clicking the link at the bottom of any page. There’s also a gallery button that will let you scroll through page thumbnails.

If the flipbook doesn’t act right on your device or browser, we also have every article and story available as individual posts in the sidebar. (That also helps people find content in web searches, use it for promotional stuff, etc.)

Well, I don’t know what possessed me to think that in just the past several weeks I could buy a house, sell a condo, pack and prep, move and settle into a new (to me) house in a new (to me) town, coordinate painting and other fixes on said house, work the daytime design gig, complete two freelance projects to help pay two overlapping mortgages, plant a fall garden, read and review a book, and pull together a magazine issue. But now here I am, finally though belatedly wrapping all that up. (Also: new P.O. box coming soon!)

For a hot minute it was tempting to just skip the September/October issue and put out November/December actin’ like nothin’ happened. But we’d already gathered some cool spooky stuff for this issue and some holiday stuff for the next one. So my penance shall be to put out this belated issue, then turn right around and crunch to get the November/December issue out in time for Thanksgiving. Then we’ll be back on track in January.

At least this issue is still in time for Halloween, so we have some spooky books to recommend, including a new cookbook of recipes from gravestones.

We’re also very proud that our own Teddy Jones has a new, wonderful (not spooky) book out: A Family of Good Women, which Cully Perlman reviews. The same publisher, Stoney Creek Publishing, also has an excerpt from one of their other new releases: Runners, by Phil Oakley.

We’re also proud to boost the signal for Robert Busby’s new book, Bodock: Stories. We were blessed to run the titular story “Bodock” back in our September 2024 issue.

In an odd coincidence, Neil Reisner sent us his personal essay about losing his childhood home in the Palisades Fire, then right as we were about to upload, the authorities arrested the man suspected of setting the initial fire.

In another helpful bit of serendipity, Curt Walters’s award-winning painting of the Grand Canyon, Thunderous Resound: Plateau Point, landed in my inbox just as I was scrambling for an art piece and a decent cover.

Diana Finlay Hendricks takes us on a deep dive into reporter/author Jan Reid’s long, accomplished career and his seminal Austin music scene book, The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock. Incidentally, this month Texas State University has named Diana one of their Distinguished Alumni of 2025.

Rounding out the issue is the sadly sweet (or sweetly sad) tale of “Pen and Celestia” from John Dufresne, and the poems “The Hard Hours” from Peter Mladinic and “Overheard in a Miami CVS Parking Lot” from Denise Duhamel. And a whole mess o’ book and music recs.

As always, the biggest challenge we face every issue is pulling enough content together in time. So we are open for submissions. We have also partnered with Stack’s submission service, which is free for authors.

Our submissions guidelines are posted in more detail on the website. We also welcome reviews and recommendations for Southern and Southwestern books, music, arts, and food.
Real South/West is still a reader-supported publication. We’ve got a web developer helping us spiff up the site. He’s also working out a metered paywall for premium content later. The reviews and recommendations will always be free, as well as some back issues. In the meantime, we’re putting up the ol’ PayPal tip bucket to help defray expenses.

Thanks again, y’all. Enjoy the issue, and we’ll be back in November with holiday stuff!