Reviewing books for NCLR energizes me. I enjoy keeping up with new publications about our state, especially from our state’s many authors, to learn what they teach us about history and our contemporary world. What could be better than indulging oneself in powerful language and terrific stories? Reviewing for NCLR, made easy by clear guidelines, friendly submission processes, and helpful staff, enables me to contribute to the vitality of North Carolina literature. I am glad that I joined the team!
—Rebecca Godwin, Professor Emeritus, Barton College
We are seeking reviewers for the books listed below. Click the button above if you are interested in writing a review for NCLR. And please read our book review guidelines.
Book authors and publishers, if your North Carolina-related book is not on this list (and has not been previously reviewed in NCLR), click the button above to have it added. NOTE: no self-published / vanity press books, please.
Novels
Ballingrud, Nathan, Cathedral of the Drowned (Tor Publishing, 2025)
Bennett, Walter, Sayla is My Name (Regal House Publishing, 2026)
Bockino, David, Over/Under (Pegasus Books, 2025)
Bolick, Gary, River Talk (Solstice Publishing, 2025)
Boss, Scott, Entry Level (Three Ravens Press, 2025)
Brown, Joshua Trent, The Walls Are Closing In On Us (Malarkey Books, 2026)
Brown, Teri M, Daughters of Green Mountain Gap (Atmosphere, 2026)
Buck, Libby, Port Anna (Simon & Schuster, 2025)
Burugapalli, Sri, A Father’s Cry for Meaning (Paper Angel Press)
Church, Meagan, The Mad Wife (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025)
Cline, Denise Smith, The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik (Regal House, 2025)
Cornett, Sheryl, No Secrets in this House (Ray McAllister Books, 2026)
Evans, Virginia, The Correspondent (Penguin Random House, 2025)
Everhart, Donna, Women of a Promiscuous Nature (Kensington Publishing Corp, 2026)
Gaitonde, Vishwas, On Earth as It Is in Heaven (Orison Books, 2025)
Garloch, Karen, Stray Voltage (Regal House Publishing, 2026)
Harvey, Kristy, Summer State of Mind (Gallery Books – Simon & Schuster, 2026)
Hays, Tommy, The Marriage Bed (Blair, 2026)
Joslin, Nell, Measure of Devotion (Regal House Publishing, 2025)
Kara, Layla, Forbidden Sanctuary (Lazuli House, 2026)
Kline, Lisa Williams, The Bristlecone Writers’ Group (Harpeth Road Press, 2026)
Mayo, Michael, The Spies in Jimmy’s Place (Camel Press, 2025)
McCoy, Sarah, Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely? (William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2025)
Moore, Glennie, Echoes of Destiny (Prolific Pulse Press, 2026)
Neal, Dale, Floodmarks (Regal House Publishers, 2026)
Nevruz, Cori, Noxious (5310 Publishing, 2024)
Pelletier, Stacia, The Deliverance of Barker McRae (Mercer UP, 2025)
Perry, Princess Joy L., This Here Is Love (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025)
Phillips, Andrew C., In Jake’s Shoes (Black Rose Writing, 2026)
Poling, Nancy Werking, Leander’s Lies (April Gloaming, 2025)
Polverari, Kammeron, From the Fires Scattered There (Warren Press, 2025)
Raymond, P. M., Things Are as They Should Be and Other Words to Die for (Uncomfortably Dark Horror, 2026)
Rhea, John, Lifer (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Roberts, Terry, In the Fullness of Time (Turner Publishing Company, 2025)
Ross, Robert Scott, Revival (Redhawk Publications, 2026)
Sefrin, Eliot, Port City (Pisgah Press, 2025)
Thurman, Hannah, Mercy Hill (Penguin Random House, 2025)
Wallace, Roberts, Smell the Bright Cold (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2025)
Whetstone, Stephanie, Deep Belly of the Earth (Rabbit House Press, 2026)
Short Stories
Oliver, Diane, Neighbors and Other Stories (Grove Atlantic, 2024)
White, Rhonda Browning, ED, Appalachian Grit Lit: A Short Story Anthology (Redhawk Publications, 2026)
Mystery/Thriller
Bradley, Benjamin, What He Left Behind (CamCat Books, 2025)
Cate, Baumer, The Faithful Dark (Hodderscape/Hachette Mobius, 2026)
Chafin, Jill Amber, Shaken (Vine Leaves Press, 2025)
Cody, Michael Amos, Avalon Moon (Madville Publishing, 2026)
Deaver, Jeffery, Hunting Time (Penguin Random House, 2024)
Kasper, Jason, Lethal Horizon (Severn River Publishing, 2024)
Sirois, A.L., Murder in Mennefer (Regal House Publishing, 2024)
Slocumb, Brendan, Symphony of Secrets (Anchor Books, 2023)
Speculative Fiction
McGill, C.E., Our Hideous Progeny (Transworld/Harper 2023)
Ruocchio, Christopher, Empire of Silence (DAW Books, 2026)
Nonfiction
Berry, Chris Aluka, Affrilachia: Testimonies (UP of Kentucky, 2024)
Crowther, Hal, Bible Belt Blues (Blair, 2025)
Duncan, Julia N., The Flood of Remembrance (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Erhardt, Marianne Jay, Lucky Bodies (Texas Tech University Press, 2025)
Fields, Bill, A Quick Nine Before Dark: A Life in Golf (Tatra Press, 2026)
Gessner, David, The Return of the Osprey, 25th ed. (Cornell UP, 2026)
Harris, Trudier, Bigger: A Literary Life (Yale University Press, 2024)
Hitchcock, Shannon, Of Words and Water: The Story of Wilma Dykeman – Writer, Historian, Environmentalist (Reycraft, 2024)
Holsaert, Faith S., Ma Lineal: A Memoir of Race, Activism, and Queer Family (Wayne State UP, 2024)
McClarney, Rose, Rubble Masonry (LSU Press, 2026)
McKechnie, Shelley, ed., Stronger than the Storm: Hurricane Helene in Western NC (Haw Creek Press, 2025)
McLaughlin, John K., Willingness: A Writer’s Meditations on Crossing the Flood (WTAW Press, 2025)
Offenbacher-Ferris, Gypsie-Ami Reflections of a Woman’s Life (Prolific Pulse Press, 2026)
Peacock, Nancy, Wildwood (Lystra Books, 2026)
Rankin, Richard, Local Signs and Wonders: Essays about Belonging to a Place (Mercer University Press, 2024)
Settle, Martin, This Little Ichnolite of Mine (Legacy Book Press, 2025)
Swain, Buddy, Hatteras Summers: A Childhood on the Outer Banks (Blair, 2026)
Smith, Stephen E., The Year We Danced: a Memoir (Apprentice House, 2024)
Williams, Leslie, Matters for You Alone (Slant Books, 2024)
Woodford, Annie, Peasant (Pulley Press, 2025)
Drama
Ijames, James, Fat Ham (Theatre Communications Group, 2023)
Children’s and YA Literature
Bartlett, Stacey, Free Sings the Sea (Monarch Educational Services, 2024)
Beadle, Michael, Foodtopia (Bookbaby, 2025)
Beatty, Robert, Sylvia Doe and the 100-year Flood (Disney Hyperion, 2024)
Bell, Kamal E. and Akeem Bell, Akeem Keeps Bees! (Storey Publishing, 2025)
Bolan, Sandra, How Stella Blue Finds Her Furever Home (Stella Blue Books, 2025)
Bowles, Melanie Sue, Liberty Biscuit (Trafalgar Square Books, 2026)
Bowles, Melanie Sue, Little Pearl (Trafalgar Square Books, 2025)
Carpenter, Nora Shalaway, Fault Lines (Running Press Kids, 2023)
Dwyer, Kristin, In Time With You (St. Martin’s Publishing Group / Wednesday Books, 2026)
Fraiser, Carolyn, M Is for Mason Jar: A Homesteading Alphabet (Familius Publishing, 2025)
Giles, Chrystal G., Listen to the Girls (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2026)
Harris, Tevis, When Things Pass Away (Bookbaby, 2025)
Hatton, Katelynn, Blue’s March: An Overmountain Men Tale (NC Office of Archives and History, 2025)
Heck, Ellen, Sunflower Seeds (Levine Querido, 2025)
Heyes, Eileen, Bountiful Red Acres (NC Office of Archives and History, 2023)
Hitchcock, Shannon, Wild Mountain Ivy (Lerner Publishing Group/Carolrhoda Books, 26)
Liu, Jennie, The Red Car to Hollywood (Carolrhoda Lab, 2025)
McCorkle, Nancy Schutt, The End of the Sidewalk (Ingram Spark, 2025)
Mudd, Ebony, Just Like Tina: Inspired by the Life of Tina Turner (Penguin Workshop, 2026)
Myers, Maya, Good Morning, Morning! (Holiday House, 2026)
Palmer, Caroline, Camp Prodigy, (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
Petrisin, Laura, Get Real, Lucille! (Monarch Educationational Services, 2025)
Price, Dorothy H., Daddy Daughter Day (Reycraft, 2025)
Rathbone, Sandra, Skelee Boy and the Demon King, Book 2 of the Skelee Boy: A Skelee Boy Book Series (Level Elevate, 2024)
Specht, Amie D., Dancing in the Storm (Penguin Random House, 2024)
Standish, Ali, The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall (Harper Collins, 2023)
Tucker, Talia, Solo Stan (Kokila Books, 2025)
Vacharat, A.A., This Moth Saw Brightness (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2025)
Wheeler, Rebecca W., When Mama Grows With Me (Belle Isle Books, 2024)
Whitley, Jeremy, Navigating with You (Maverick, 2024)
Williams, Katelynn, What Can Brown Girls Do? (Warren Publishing, 2026)
Poetry
Note that we would love it if you find more than one collection that you feel would work well to review together (if you later determine they don’t, you can write 2 separate reviews). Also, we do not review chapbooks.
Bathanti Joseph, Steady Daylight (LSU Press, 2026)
Cariño, Ina, Reverse Requiem (Alice James Books, 2026)
Copeland, Beth, I Ask the Mountain to Heal My Heart (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Crowe, Thomas Rain, Painting from the Palette of Love: The Mystical Poetry of Kabir (Shambhala Publications, 2023)
Cushman, Steve, The Last Time (Unicorn Press, 2023)
Dowdle, Morrow, Hardly (Bottlecap Press, 2024)
Downer, Hilda, Had I a Dove: Appalachian Poets on the Helene Flood (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Erickson, Terri Kirby, The Light That Follows Us Home (Press 53, 2026)
Entler, Kristin, Of Water Never Ceasing (Loblolly Press, 2026)
Ferdon, Joel, The Arsonist’s Son (Louisiana Lit Press, 2024)
Galvin, Brendan, In Plenty’s Woods (LSU Press, 2025)
Gaspeny, Michael, Flight Manual: New and Collected Poems (Unicorn, 2023)
Gate, David, A Rebellion of Care (Convergent Books, 2025)
Gordon, Brett, If It Calls Your Name (Jack Wild Publishing, 2024)
Gow, Robin,Laternfly August (Driftwood Press)
Hettich, Michael, Waking Up Alone (Redhawk Publications, 2026)
Herbert, Arielle, Bottom Feeders (Black Lawrence Press, 2026)
High, Maura, Field as Auditorium (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Houbolt, Kyla, Becoming Altar: New and Selected Poems (Subterranean Press, 2025)
Huband, Ed, The Dix Hill Blues (Main Street Rag, 2026)
Johnson, Matthew, Far From New York State (New York Quarterly Press, 2023)
Johnson, Matthew, Too Short to Box with God (Finishing Line Press, 2024)
Joslin, Patricia Ann No Packing Necessary: Poems for the Solo Journey (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2026)
Kaufman, Debra, Outwalking the Shadow (Redhawk Publications, 2023)
Knauth, Stephen, All Calm Beyond (Four Way Books, 2025)
Knauth, Stephen, Dear Dusk (Cloudbank Books, 2025)
Krieg, Chelsea, Everything is Water (TRP: The University Press, 2026)
Lake, Stan, A Toad in a Glass Jar (Dead Reckoning Collective, 2025)
Mills, Joe, The Holiday Cycle (Press 53, 2025)
Moore, Lenard, A Million Shadows at Noon (Cuttlefish Books, 2023)
Moore, Lenard, LeJuane “El’Ja” Bowens, and Shannon C. Ward, Eds., A Path to Freedom: A North Carolina Anthology in Honor of Military Veterans (Longleaf Press, 2024)
Orgera, Lex, Agatha (Jackleg Press, 2025)
Owens, Scott, Elemental (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Owens, Scott, The Song Is Why We Sing (Redhawk Publications, 2026)
Phillips, Lance, Devil-Fictions (BlazeVOX, 2023)
Poston, David, Letting Go (Fernwood Press, 2026)
Pugatch, Ana, Engrams: Seven Years in Asia (Redhawk Publications, 2023)
Radavich, David, Here’s Plenty (Cervena Barva Press, 2023)
Rice, Johnathan, This is Where I Came In (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2026)
Ricketson, Mary, Tall Flowers and Living Long (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Riedesel, Kelly, Proud Roads (Loblolly Press, 2025)
Robles, Tony, Soups For The Storm: Poems Of Hurricane Helene (Redhawk Publications, 2026)
Rouphail, Maria, This small house, this big sky (Redhawk Publications, 2025)
Shabazz, Phillip, Moonflower (Fernwood Press, 2025)
Sherbondy, Maureen, The Body Remembers (Unsolicited Press, 2025)
Shipman, Cristopher, Mortar (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2025)
Ward, Junious “Jay”, Composition (Button Poetry, 2023)
Way, Maura, Mummery (Press 53, 2023)
West, Robert M., A Clear Eye (Broadstone Books 2026)
Wickless, Bob, Energy and Stillness (The Orchard Street Press, 2025)
Wickless, Bob, The Secret Care the World Takes (Orchard Street Press, 2023)
Whitton, Chelsea Wonder Wheel (LSU Press 2026)
Wolff-Francis, Liza, 48 Hours Down the Shore (Kelsay, 2024)
Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that your book will be selected for review. Even if it is selected by a reviewer, we request a copy from your publisher to be sent for review consideration. Read more about our book reviews here.