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. Those shaped me as much as anything else.”— Emma Ensley

Ensley reads from her stories “Babyland” and “The Computer Room,” offering glimpses into Cabbage Patch “births,” Sims pregnancies, and the surreal, tender ways childhood imagination collides with digital spaces as we grow into adulthood. The discussion digs into how the book balances humor with heartbreak, the design instincts that shaped her prose, and the role of religion, nostalgia, and constraint in short story craft.

What we cover in this conversation

* Why Ensley set her stories in the hybrid space of Georgia and the early internet

* Using the Wayback Machine to research message boards, Seventh Heaven fanfiction, and 2000s pop culture

* The challenge (and joy) of structuring short stories like contained plays or designs

* How religion, mission trips, and youth group culture surface in subtle but powerful ways

* The role of nurture and unreal “births” across the collection

* What she misses most about growing up online, from LimeWire misfires to Napster paranoia

* Creating the Computer Room audio zine with musician Lorg, mixing Sims sound effects, dial-up tones, and Ensley’s narration

Ensley also talks about the darker side of internet culture in stories like “You’re Such an Inspiration” and “Cave Girl,” which trace the beginnings of influencer culture, online body image, and retreat from digital life.

Fall at Loblolly Press

* The Computer Room by Emma Ensley — debuted Sept 4, reviewed in Hood of Bone Review. Dispatch from Launch Party in Zona Motel:

And this thoughtful essay on Emma’s audiozine for The Computer Room:

* Proud Roads by Kelly Riedesel — poems on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, out Sept 27

* A Field Guide to North American Trees by Garrett Ashley (with Good Printed Things) — chapbook out Oct 7; full-length Habitats coming April 2026

💌 Support the podcast and Loblolly Press at loblollypress.substack.com. Paid subscribers get early access to books, discounts, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Episode Credits

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack & Matt Sawyer

👥 Guest: Emma Ensley

🎧 Produced by: Loblolly Press

🎶 Music: Summersteen by Tony Sopiano

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) before taking on a life of its own as this debut chapbook. Each poem adopts the form of a field guide entry — from leaves and bark to cones and range — but shifts unexpectedly into memoir, weaving trees together with moments from Ashley’s childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.

What we cover in this conversation:

* Why poetry can feel more vulnerable than prose — and why Ashley leans into that discomfort

* How Habitats grew out of years of writing between fiction projects, and the creative arc that gave it shape

* The origins of Field Guide as a “palate cleanser” that became its own fully realized book

* The craft challenge of structuring poems around “habitat” and “range” as hinge points

* How teaching, community, and even AI are shaping the writing and publishing landscape

Ashley also reads “Loblolly Pine,” a poem from the chapbook, and talks about the joy and difficulty of writing poems that hold both ecological detail and personal memory.

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📚 Fall at Loblolly Press:

* The Computer Room by Emma Ensley (stories) debuted September 4, and has already been reviewed in Hood of Bone Review. Read it here.

* Proud Roads by Kelly Riedesel (poems on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene) available for pre-order now. Release on September 27, 2025).

* A Field Guide to North American Trees by Garrett Ashley (poetry chapbook in partnership with Good Printed Things) out October 7, 2025 —pre-order now from Good Printed Things.

Plus: we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of If Lost by Clint Bowman with a fall tour —Clint is out on the road now. Follow along: @clintbowman on Instagram.

💌 Support the podcast and Loblolly Press at loblollypress.substack.com. Paid subscribers hear episodes like this first and get early access to books, discounts, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Episode Credits

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack & Lib Ramos👥 Guests: Garrett Ashley🎧 Produced by: Loblolly Press🎶 Music: Summersteen by Tony Sopiano

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 and logistical challenges of running a press, how collaboration between small publishers can push us to do better work, and the story behind our first joint project: A Field Guide to North American Trees by Garrett Ashley, a poetry chapbook that serves as a companion to his forthcoming full-length collection Habitats.

We also explore what makes a chapbook special, the ripple effect of beautiful small things, and how poetry rooted in place opens us up to new ways of seeing and feeling. Whether you’re a writer, a reader, or someone dreaming of starting your own press, this one’s for you.

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📚 September and October are big months for Loblolly Press!We’ve got three new titles in the world:

* The Computer Room by Emma Ensley (short stories, Asheville-based debut)

* Proud Roads by Kelly Riedesel (poems on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Helene)

* A Field Guide to North American Trees by Garrett Ashley (poetry chapbook in partnership with Good Printed Things)

Plus: It’s the one-year anniversary of If Lost by Clint Bowman, and we’re kicking off a fall tour to celebrate. Stay tuned for upcoming event announcements.

💌 Support the podcast and Loblolly Press at loblollypress.substack.com. Paid subscribers hear episodes like this first and get early access to books, discounts, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Episode Credits:

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack

👥 Guest: Lib Ramos

🎧 Produced by: Loblolly Press

🎶 Music: Summersteen by Tony Sopiano

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 dry county shaped his sense of taboo and rebellion, and how religion and myth structure the emotional worlds of his characters. We talk Larry Brown and Brad Watson, rural trauma, class anxiety, and the generational patterns we pass down—intentionally or not.

He also reads from “Fraternal Twins,” a standout story from Bodock that blends dark humor, biblical allusion, and moral reckoning in a scene both devastating and unforgettable.

At the heart of this conversation is a quiet argument: that the South isn’t just a region—it’s a microcosm. And to understand its contradictions is to begin to understand something deeper about American identity.

–––

Bodock is out now from Hub City Press. We also included Bodock on our Southern Summer Reads List for 2025.

💌 Support the podcast and Loblolly Press at loblollypress.substack.com.

Episode Credits:

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack

📖 Guest: Robert Busby

🎧 Produced by: Loblolly Press

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Rooftop Sunsets by Alexey Anisimov via Tune Tank

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 speaks candidly about how being a poet is part historian and archivist—one who listens deeply to what has come before and preserves it in language with an eye forward to the future. Poets are, what she calls, “uncanny people.”

We talk about the challenges of writing poetry and about nature as a Black poet in the South, and how certain landscapes, especially trees, hold both beauty and historical weight. Inspired in part by Glenis’s essay, What Hangs on Trees from Orion Magazine, this conversation explores the tension between belonging and harm, and how Glenis navigates the world as someone who “flies with words.”

She shares how systemic oppression imprints on the body, why she started the first slam poetry group in Greenville, SC, and what it means to build roads of access for others—especially for those who have long been othered. We also honor the lineage of Black women thinkers and writers Glenis walks beside: Lucille Clifton, bell hooks, Crystal Wilkinson, Jacki Shelton Green, and Nikki Finney among them.

This episode ends with Glenis’s stunning reading of a poem from Over Yonder called “What to Do in Water” - a poetic recounting of when three black teenagers drowned in one of the state’s segregated state parks in 1954.

Pre-Order Over Yonder Now (Good Printed Things, July 2025)

Glenis Redmond’s Previous Work

The Song of Everything

What My Hand Say

The Listening Skin

The Three Harriets and Others

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 emotional clarity and vulnerability. We talk about the role of language in reclaiming one’s story, the emotional work of therapy, and what it means to keep going when the story gets hard.

The episode begins with Stacey reading a letter she wrote to her therapist about a meme they discussed in session—an entry point that opens the door to a layered, moving conversation.

Content Warning:This episode contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse. If you or someone you know needs support, please reach out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the links below.

Support and resources:

* RAINN

* Zero Abuse Project

Resources & Links:Dispatches from the Couch is available here: Bookshop

Learn more about Loblolly Press’s second anniversary: loblollypress.com/pages/rooted

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates, essays, and behind-the-scenes content: loblollypress.substack.com

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, Cheryl shows how poetry can emerge from what we inherit and what we’re still trying to name.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

* Cheryl read “Landscape of the Spangle Mind,” “Landscape with Fog,” “Band of Tambourines,” “Closer to the Ground,” and “God Is Plenty” from Distant Relations.

* How Cheryl’s mother shaped her voice, values, and creative life

* What it means to return home—and write from that distance

* The landscapes and people of rural North Carolina as poetic source material

* How music, especially Coltrane, informs the rhythm and structure of her work

* The long journey to publishing Distant Relations at age 61

* Why Oliver the horse shows up again and again in her poems

* Teaching, mentorship, and how students impact her writing practice

* The politics of staying rooted in the South—and writing through it

* The role of silence, fragmentation, and jazz-like movement in her poetic form

🔗 Links & Resources:

📚 Distant Relations by Cheryl Whitehead

🐻 Beasts of Chase — new chapbook from Andrew Mack

📦 The Poet Trio Bundle — 3 books for $42 (save $8) + free shipping on orders $25+

📰 Subscribe on Substack: loblollypress.substack.com. Get a free ebook download of Weekend Revival when you subscribe.

📸 Follow us on Instagram: @loblolly_press

🎧 Loblolly Press: In Conversation is a monthly podcast spotlighting writers from the American South—especially queer, BIPOC, and rural voices. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, download, and leave a review to help more people discover the voices of Loblolly Press.

Episode Credits:

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack

📖 Guest: Cheryl Whitehead

🎧 Produced by: Loblolly Press

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Rooftop Sunsets by Alexey Anisimov via Tune Tank

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 shelves) for emerging voices across the South:

* City Lights Bookstore (Sylva, NC) – A cornerstone of Appalachian literature with a big heart and a deep bench of Southern authors.

* Union Ave Books (Knoxville, TN) – A bright light in downtown Knoxville with a community-first approach to books and events.

* Bagatelle Books (Asheville, NC) – The best poetry section in town, tucked next to a garden shop and always full of surprises.

* Sassafras on Sutton (Black Mountain, NC) – Thoughtfully curated, beautifully arranged, and always ready to support local presses.

* Highland Books (Brevard, NC) – A beloved community shop with a long-standing love for regional writing and independent voices.

* Firestorm Books (Asheville, NC) – Worker-owned, radically welcoming, and consistently ahead of the curve in the books they champion.

* Bonus: Downtown Books & News (Asheville, NC) – Where you can find all of our titles on the shelves—right where they belong.

If you're able, consider skipping the algorithm this week and buying your next read from a place that truly believes in the power of story to connect us. These stores are more than just points of sale—they’re part of the reason Loblolly exists at all.

🎙️ Clint Bowman Reads James Tate

We’re still thinking about Clint’s recent episode on Loblolly In Conversation. This month, we’re sharing a bonus clip: Clint reads “The Promotion” by James Tate—a gem of a poem.→ Listen above, here on Substack or where you get your podcasts!

Clint’s audiobook of If Lost was recorded locally at The Talking Book Studios, and it’s out now:🎧 Get the audiobook📚 Paperback📱 Ebook

📦 Loblolly Poets to Read Right Now

💚 Distant Relations by Cheryl WhiteheadWe’d love to get 20 more copies of this gorgeous debut into the world this month. It’s lyrical, sharp, and filled with tension and grace. Free shipping if enter the green heart emoji 💚 at checkout.→ Order now

🐻 Beasts of Chase by Andrew MackThis chapbook explores black bear hunting in Appalachia with intimacy and bite. Personal, political, and grounded in the wild.→ Pick up your copy

Thanks for being part of our community.

Whether you’re listening to a poet read in your headphones or browsing your local indie bookstore, we hope you find something that stays with you.

— Andrew

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 Clint’s home, surrounded by overflowing bookshelves, Sharpies, sticky notes, and the comforting chaos of a working writer’s space. Our conversation meanders, as conversations between friends often do. We talk about dogs (Penny and Hugo are officially besties), about our partners (shout out to Garrison and B), and about what it means to write as a local, not just about a place.

We dig into what it means to be acknowledged by your peers, to build a literary community from the ground up, and how Loblolly Press fits into that wider effort. Clint reflects on the path to publishing his first full-length collection, If Lost, what surprised him along the way, and what ultimately didn’t make it into the final manuscript. He shares generously about how poetry moved from the margins to the center of his life—and how he's working to make room for others to do the same.

Clint Bowman📍 Instagram: @clint_bowman

Clint Bowman is a native of Davidson County, North Carolina. His debut chapbook, Pretty Sh!t, was published in May 2023 by Bottlecap Press. He’s the co-founder and facilitator of the Dark City Poets Society (DCPS), a thriving poetry community in Black Mountain, NC, where he currently lives with his family. When he’s not writing or organizing readings, Clint works as a recreation coordinator, leading hikes, cleanups, and other outdoor adventures in Western North Carolina.

📖 Purchase Pretty Sh!t

If Lost

Bowman’s debut full-length collection, If Lost, is a raw, lyrical map of place and displacement. Inspired by the mountains, forests, and lives of the South, these poems explore a region where resilience and ruin often walk hand in hand. Think invasive species and abandoned churches, truckers in empty lots and deer beside the highway. If Lost is perfect for fans of Sharon Olds, Ada Limón, Ross Gay, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and bell hooks.

📖 Purchase If Lost

Upcoming Events

📅 April 11, 2025 – 7:00pm – The Dark City SpeaksBlack Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 West State Street, Black Mountain, NCAn evening of poetry featuring Glenis Redmond, Lee Stockdale, and Mildred Barya, plus students and poets from the Dark City Poets Society.

📅 April 12, 2025 – 3:00pm – Loblolly Press Poetry ReadingCity Lights Bookstore, 3 E Jackson St, Sylva, NCReadings from Cheryl Whitehead, Clint Bowman, Andrew Mack, and Garrett Ashley. Free and open to the public.

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack📖

Guest: Clint Bowman🎧

Produced by: Loblolly Press🎶

Intro/Outro Music: Rooftop Sunsets by Alexey Anisimov via Tune Tank

Beasts of Chase - New Chapbook from Andrew Mack

Distant Relations - New Poetry from Cheryl Whitehead

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts—don’t forget to like, subscribe, download, and leave a review to help others discover the voices of Loblolly Press.

📚 Follow us on Instagram: @loblolly_press

📰 Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack for updates on new episodes, book releases, and more.

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 might otherwise slip away, how it provides a lens for understanding the world, and how it offers an antidote to loneliness. Candice shares her journey into poetry, the ways teaching continues to shape her writing, and the role of creativity in navigating grief, change, and belonging.

We also talk about Jackie and Shadow, two bald eagles nesting in Big Bear Valley, whose live feed has been a quiet presence in our days—a reminder of the patience and persistence required in both poetry and life.

Candice’s Work

📚 Postcards from the Masthead, boats against the current – Read More📚 The Poet Dreams of Driving a Ding-a-Ling Ice Cream Truck & Other Means of Escape (Pine Row Press) – Read More📖 Forthcoming: Another Place Altogether (Kelsay Books, December 2025) – Read More

🎨 Cover art for her chapbook was created by Matt Kish – Explore His Work

Connect with Candice

💻 Website: candicemkelseypoet.com📍 Instagram: @Feed_Me_Poetry

Up Next on the Podcast

Next month, I’ll be talking with Cheryl Whitehead about her debut collection of poems, Distant Relations, which comes out April 3, 2025 from Loblolly Press.

📖 Preorder Now – loblollypress.com/products/distant-relations

🎤 Hosted by: Andrew Mack📖 Guest: Candice M. Kelsey🎧 Produced by: Loblolly Press

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts—don’t forget to like, subscribe, download, and leave a review to help others discover the voices of Loblolly Press.

📚 Follow us on Instagram: @loblolly_press📰 Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack for updates on new episodes, book releases, and more.