The Southern Summer Book Club: August https://ift.tt/nR5tp8D
I was reading Salvation South when I first came across the work of Spencer K.M. Brown. This was back in January of 2025, and the story was “I’m Bound to Leave This Dark Behind.” Immediately, I was hooked. Brown’s story featured my favorite kind of writing. It was poetic and atmospheric, and it covered father-son relationships, our responsibility to the land, love, legacy, and even faith. I looked up the author to see if “I’m Bound to Leave This Dark Behind” belonged to a collection yet. It didn’t, but it does now. I’m happy to report that the collection, titled Slow Fire and out from Loblolly Press, is spectacular.
It’s fitting that the aforementioned story is the one that opens the book. It is an absolute standout, and it also sets the tone for what is to come throughout the upcoming pages. In this story, a small-town boxer named Eli must decide how to move on – and, really, if he can move on. The woman he desires is with someone else. His father is dying. The land he knows, complete with a cherry orchard, seems to be in trouble too. It’s infected with black knot, and “black knot is a death sentence for the orchard.” Life is difficult for Eli, but he keeps on keeping on. And there is a kind of beauty in this.
The prose, too, is gorgeous. Brown gives us this description: “I walk down into the heart of the orchard with a machete and start clearing paths through the tall grass… Cicadas roar in soft patterns and perfect timing. Wind cuts through the trees and the landscape oscillates in rhythm, rising now, now falling. Everything golden and quiet. The machete blade cuts through the grass sending crickets and katydids flying.” Vivid and alive images occur again and again in Slow Fires.
“There Will Come Hard Snows” is another standout. In it, snow falls, the heat is out, money is tight, brothers fuss (and love), and a sick, loyal dog is missing. It’s a tender gem. “Green Valley Motel on Paterson Street” shares a spirit with it, as a mother and her son struggle and love. Both are heart wrenching and lovely.
“The End of Something” stands as another highlight that is near the end of the collection. It is full-on contemporary Southern Gothic. As the story opens, we find Reverend Junis Lund being pecked by crows as he is nailed to a cross “in the middle of town.” He’s made declarations of the upcoming apocalypse to his congregation and his community, and now he waits. Fans of Flannery O’Connor will likely devour this perfectly-paced story of the complexities of faith.
While there is much to admire in Slow Fire, what stands out the most is the tonal balance Brown maintains from the first story until the last. Yes, there is such heaviness from pain and struggle. And there is a lot of pain and struggle. But, true to life, there is also such immense beauty and light. Love and hope are usually not too far away from these very real characters and their very real worlds.
In a blurb for Slow Fire, the great Ron Rash cites the book as “one of the best story collections I’ve read in a long while.” I agree, Ron Rash. I. Agree.
I’m thrilled to select Slow Fire as our August read for “The Southern Summer Book Club” here at Southern Review of Books. The stories in this collection are so beautifully Southern and speak to the many complexities of the South. It’s an ideal kind of read to discuss.
I’ll be in conversation with Spencer K.M. Brown later this month, as part of our programming. If you have a question you would like to have asked during the session, please check out our social media pages to learn how to submit it, or you can always email editors@southernreviewofbooks.com!
Slow Fire By Spencer K.M. Brown Loblolly Press August 6, 2026
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