Saturday, July 18, 2026

Five top literary titles by Southern writers

Suzanne Van Atten is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She tagged five "summer novels more substantive than your typical beach read," including:
How to Date a Fanatic by Aruni Kashyap

Rohit is a professor at Delhi University in modern-day India who lives in a bubble of like-minded queer academics in this new novel by Aruni Kashyap, an associate professor at the University of Georgia and director of the creative writing program. Obsessed by an unrequited love, Rohit seeks solace in relationships with other men. Meanwhile, religious and ethnic unrest mounts, to which Rohit remains oblivious until the growing movement of conservative extremism threatens his insulated world.
Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue