Rachel M. Hanson's The End of Tennessee selected as a Best Southern Books pick by the Southern Review of Books

November 11, 2024 | by uscpress

The Southern Review of Books featured The End of Tennessee by Rachel M. Hanson as one of its Best Southern Books of August 2024. Published by Queens University of Charlotte’s MFA program, The Southern Review of Books explores contemporary literature from diverse voices in the American South and beyond.

"Not a year before I ran away from home at seventeen, I stepped out of the house at dusk, still able to see shrub oaks thinned out for winter, fame flower, too, and dun clay so wet the smell of it seemed settled in my skin." So begins Rachel M. Hanson's debut memoir about growing up impoverished, uneducated, and surrounded by violence. In lyrical, fragmented prose, she lays bare the impossible choice between self-preservation and her love for five younger siblings for whom she had become a second mother. As the years pass, Hanson struggles with guilt for leaving her siblings as she slowly realizes she could not save them. The End of Tennessee is a testament to a sister's love, resilience, and determination, a book for anyone who has left one life to create another.

Rachel M. Hanson's writing has appeared in literary journals, including Creative Nonfiction, The Iowa Review, and Joyland Magazine. She is assistant professor of English at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

View the full Best Southern Books of August 2024 list.