Southern Living Launches Audio Series

This fall, Southern Living will release the first in a series of audio tapes containing essays about the South read by their Southern authors. Among the notable writers featured will be Fannie Flagg, Mark Childress, and Celestine Sibley.

Titled "In Southern Words," the tapes will include essays drawn from Southern Living's popular "Southern Journal" column. Regularly found on the last page, the column each month features a personal nonfiction essay about any and all things Southern. Over the years, the essays have ranged from reminiscences about family members and cherished traditions to contemporary reflections on the ever-changing ways of the modern South. Authors have included such established names as Pat Conroy, Reynolds Price, and Anne Rivers Siddons, along with many first-time and up-and-coming writers.

Joellyn Beckham, creative director at Southern Progress Corporation, which publishes Southern Living, initiated the audio project.She hopes that recording these essays will allow the magazine to reach a new audience that may not yet be familiar with Southern Li ving or its "Southern Journal." "Using the actual voices of the authors gives these works another dimension," says Beckham. "It's like Southern storytelling, and we have a great oral tradition in the South."

"In Southern Words" will be available on newsstands and in bookstores throughout the South starting in October. The cost of each tape is $9.95. For additional information, call 800-884-3935.

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