Loblolly Press: In Conversation

Loblolly Press: In Conversation Nathan Spainhour Reads the Signs The South Carolina BBQ Project — the perfect summer book Andrew sits down with Nathan Spainhour, designer and author of The South Carolina BBQ Project: Signs, Symbols, & Stories from the Pit , and Lib Ramos, founder of its publisher, Good Printed Things. We drop straight into the hardest part of the story — Maurice's Piggie Park, the...

Loblolly Press In Conversation: Willie Carver Jr. In this episode, we’re joined by Willie Carver Jr. for a conversation about writing and teaching in a time when it feels like everything is on fire. We talk about joy, not as a performance or a slogan, but as something you protect day to day. Willie shares how he steps out of guilt, how he shifts toward love and concern for other people, and how wr...

In this episode of Loblolly Press: In Conversation , guest host Matt Sawyer sits down with Emma Ensley, author of The Computer Room (Loblolly Press, September 4, 2025). Recorded live at City Lights Bookstore, this conversation traces how Ensley’s work captures what it meant to grow up both online and in small-town Georgia. “I think a lot about the two places I grew up — the South, and the internet...

In this episode of Loblolly Press In Conversation , Andrew Mack is joined by Garrett Ashley , author of A Field Guide to North American Trees (Good Printed Things x Loblolly Press, October 7, 2025), and Lib Ramos , founder of Good Printed Things. We talk about how Field Guide began as the center section of Ashley’s full-length manuscript Habitats (forthcoming from Loblolly Press in April 2026) bef...

In this episode of Loblolly Press In Conversation, we sit down with Lib Ramos , founder of Good Printed Things , an indie press based in Greenville, South Carolina. This episode dives into what it means to build something meaningful from scratch—how chapbooks, collaboration, and Southern design sensibilities can create space for voices that deserve permanence in print. We talk about the creative a...

In this episode, we sit down with Robert Busby, author of Bodock , his debut short story collection from Hub City Press. Set in a fictionalized version of his Mississippi hometown, Bodock explores the sharp edges of Southern identity—grappling with masculinity, family, faith, and the quiet violence of becoming. Busby talks with us about what it means to be a “Southern writer,” how growing up in a...

In this special episode of Loblolly Press: In Conversation , Greenville, South Carolina poet laureate Glenis Redmond joins us to reflect on family, chronic illness, and the spiritual labor of carrying memory across generations, against the backdrop of her upcoming release, Over Yonder: A Poet’s Exploration of South Carolina’s State Parks, Pt II from Good Printed Things in Greenville, SC. Glenis sp...

In this episode, Andrew Mack sits down with Dr. Stacey Hettes, a professor of biology and neuroscience at Wofford College and the author of Dispatches from the Couch: A Neuroscientist and Her Therapist Conspire to Reboot Her Brain (Apprentice House Press). Stacey’s memoir explores the long and deeply personal process of healing from childhood sexual abuse, blending scientific insight with emotiona...

In this episode of Loblolly Press: In Conversation , we sit down with poet Cheryl Whitehead to talk about her debut collection, Distant Relations , published April 3rd, 2025 by us, Loblolly Press. We don’t begin with poetry—and that’s intentional. This conversation moves through family, memory, rural life, and the language that holds it all. From a horse named Oliver to tin buckets and wind, Chery...

This Saturday, April 26, is Independent Bookstore Day , and while a certain mega-retailer is throwing a big sale 🙄, we’re celebrating something more meaningful: the indie bookstores that make space for our writers and help Southern literature thrive. 📍 Six Southern Bookstores We Adore Here are a few of our favorite shops—places that have welcomed us, supported our titles, and created stages (and...

Welcome to Loblolly Press: In Conversation , our monthly podcast where we bring you engaging interviews with our writers as they delve into their creative process, share their inspirations, and explore the southern influences that shape their work. In this episode, I sit down with Clint Bowman, poet and co-founder of the Dark City Poets Society in Black Mountain, NC. We recorded this episode in Cl...

Welcome to Loblolly Press: In Conversation , where we explore the voices shaping contemporary Southern literature. In this episode, I sit down with Candice M. Kelsey, a poet, educator, and activist whose work captures the fleeting nature of time, the power of language, and the deep need for connection. We talk about the ways poetry functions in both personal and public spaces—how it preserves what...

Welcome to Loblolly Press: In Conversation , a podcast exploring the voices shaping contemporary Southern literature. In this episode, I sit down with poet Earl J. Wilcox to discuss his debut collection, The Surfacing of Joy , and the role it played in launching Loblolly Press. Recorded on Christmas Eve in Earl’s Rock Hill, South Carolina apartment, our conversation also moves through the heart of...

🎙️ Loblolly Press: In Conversation 🎙️Welcome to Loblolly Press: In Conversation , a podcast that explores the lives and work of Southern writers and the creative processes that shape Southern storytelling. In this trailer, host Andrew Mack introduces the heart of the series: authentic, in-depth interviews with Loblolly writers and others from across the South. Andrew reflects on the significance o...