Southern Folklore

Winner of the RUSA Award for Best Horror When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods in this chilling novel that reads like The Blair Witch Project meets The Andy Griffith...

In a plague-stricken medieval convent, a nun works on a forbidden mystic manuscript. In rural South Carolina, an alligator named Dragon becomes a beloved pet for a precocious, tough-talking twelve-year-old. During a long, muggy July, an adolescent girl finds unexpected power as her family obsesses over the horror film The Exorcist. On the outskirts of a Southern college town, a young woman resists the tyranny of a shape-shifting older professor as she develops her own sorceress skills.

Author Shane Simmons explores tales of bravery, lore, and bizarre customs within the East Tennessee region. The mountains of East Tennessee are chock full of unique folklore passed down through generations. Locals spin age-old yarns of legends like Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Dragging Canoe...

People have always been afraid of the dead. Since the dawn of humanity, people have both cared for those who are deceased yet also tried to keep them away. There are a myriad of legends and beliefs about the dead coming back, and one of the more persistent ones is of the vampire.

In this unique collection, Literary Witches co-creator Katy Horan unearths the true and fictional stories behind twenty traditional murder ballads, exploring the beauty and horror of the art form through stories, lyrics, and original interpretations. The audiobook includes covers of various folk...

Roberts writes stories from a wide variety of locations: "Night of the Hunt" in Hendersonville, North Carolina; "Return of the Bell Witch" in Adams, Tennessee; "The Shenandoah Stage" in New Market, Virginia; "Chain Gang Man" in Decatur, Alabama; "Fort Mountain" in Fort Mountain, Georgia; "Laura" in Campbellsville, Kentucky; and "The Coming of the Demon" in Middleway, West Virginia.

From practical spells to swampy tales, this grimoire serves up a heaping helping of Southern magic that's as charming as a front porch on a summer evening. The swamp witch wanders through misty bayous and mysterious wetlands in search of ingredients for their magical work. From Spanish moss to...

A haunting, "exquisitely written" novel that explores the true costs of tradition, gun ownership, masculinity, and Southern mythmaking through the lens of an accidental shooting that reverberates across generations (Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest).​ Rachel Ruskin never intended to...

A northern white couple has relocated to the South to operate a vineyard on a North Carolina plantation. There, they pass their idle hours listening to the stories of one Uncle Julius, who has a deep knowledge of the land. These stories, however, are more than mere entertainments. They all have their time and place, and they offer not only a quiet commentary on the events of the day but also a deeper reckoning with the plantation’s disturbing past.

The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge: A Southern Gothic Tale of Love, Loss, and Eternal Vigil delves deep into one of Florida's most compelling supernatural legends. This meticulously researched exploration traces the tragic story of Elizabeth Jane Bellamy, whose 1837 wedding day accident transformed her into the South's most famous spectral bride.

In a forgotten corner of western Kentucky lies a haunted forest referred to locally as "The Deadening", where vampire cults roam wild and time is immaterial. Our protagonist and his accomplice - the one and only Carver Canute - set out down the Old Spur Line in search of the legendary Kudzu House, where an old couple is purported to have been swallowed whole by a hungry vine.

Living Conjure is a beginner's guide to Conjure written by an authentic Conjure woman with over four decades of working experience. Starr Casas learned Conjure the old-fashioned way: at home, from her relatives and ancestors. She would like to share that knowledge with a new generation of practitioners.

This Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award Winner from beloved author Patricia McKissack offers a “stellar collection” of “ten original stories, all with a foundation in African-American history or culture” (School Library Journal). In that special half-hour of twilight—the...