Padgett Powell, author of The Interrogative Mood, writes to us from Florida about William Gay:
From The Tennessean:“Gay wrote authentic, not putative, put-up horror. Honestly felt, correctly put dark shit, not cornpone in a dark wrapper. Okra, not corn syrup.”
And from Oxford American:“It’s going to be one of those old stories of the artist whose true impact is discovered once they are gone,” said Randy Mackin, a friend of Mr. Gay’s who often invited the author to speak to his classes on contemporary Southern literature at Middle Tennessee State University.
“He picked up where Faulkner left off. He’s filling that gap left by Larry Brown. For me, at least, he was the voice of American Southern fiction, and no one did it any better.”