BIO

Niles Reddick’s newest collection Reading the Coffee Grounds and Other Stories was released in August 2018 and has been nominated for the Story Prize, an IPPY, and a PEN-Malamud. His collection Road Kill Art and Other Oddities was a finalist for an Eppie award, his novel Lead Me Home was a national finalist for a ForeWord Award, a finalist in the Georgia Author of the Year award, and a nominee for an IPPY award. His novel Drifting too far from the Shore was nominated for a Foreword Award, a Pen-Faulkner award, and a Pulitzer. His work has appeared in seventeen collections and has been featured in over 300 literary magazines and  journals in over 21 countries. He works for the University of Memphis-Lambuth in Jackson, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife Michelle, two children, Audrey and Nicholas.

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PRAISE

Nominated for Pushcart Prize for “Rotarian on Vacation” published by Big City Lit, nominated for Best Microfiction for “Did Their Best” by The Boston Literary Magazine, and nominated for Best Microfiction for “Keeping Time” by The Citron Review.

Nominee, National Book Award, Reading the Coffee Grounds and Other Stories, 2018

Nominee, The Story Prize, Reading the Coffee Grounds and Other Stories, 2018

        Honorable Mention, New England Book Festival, Road Kill Art and Other Oddities, 2017

Nominee, Pulitzer Prize, Drifting too far from the Shore, 2016

Nominee, PEN-Faulkner award, Drifting too far from the Shore, 2016

Nominee, INDIEFAB award from ForeWord Reviews in fiction, Drifting too far from the Shore, 2016

Nominee, Pushcart Prize for “The Pool”, 2016

Nominee, Best of the Net for “Worm Grunting”, 2015

National Finalist, INDIEFAB award from ForeWord Reviews in fiction, Lead Me Home, 2010.

Nominee, IPPY Award (Independent Publisher Book Awards), Lead Me Home, 2010.

Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year award, first novel category, for Lead Me Home, 2010.

Finalist, EPPIE Award, 2008, for Road Kill Art and Other Oddities.

 

REVIEWS

Reading the Coffee Grounds and Other Stories

Review by Amanda Pugh in Tuck Magazine in Canada

Tuck Magazine, Canada

Review by Rose Smith in Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight in Massachusetts

Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight, Massachusetts

Review by Susan Cushman in Southern Literary Review

Southern Literary Review

Interview and Review by Jesse Rawlins in Story and Grit

Story and Grit

Review by Iris N. Schwartz on Amazon

Amazon

 

Drifting too far from the Shore

Review by Kelly Kusumoto, Sr. Editor

  Cicatrix Publishing, New York.

Review by Pulitzer nominee Janice Daugharty

Southern Literary Review

Review by James Cherry

The Provo Canyon Review

Review by Susan Cushman

Pen and Palette

Review by Anita Lock

San Francisco Review

Review by Sand Pilarski

The Piker Press

Review by Sandra Warfield

Midwest Book Review

Road Kill Art and Other Oddities

There is a feeling throughout these stories that they are somewhat autobiographical. Even Bailey White’s remarkable stories, which are often heard on National Public Radio, have some humorous, often exaggerated renderings of people in her own life.

Reddick’s skill, however, is less the storyteller of Bailey White and more the essayist of Sam Pickering. Now, put those two southern writers in a room together and watch the hyperbole fly!

Janie Franz, author of Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid!, among others

 Niles Reddick gets my vote as the funniest, most peculiar man alive. He’s a bargain-hunting nut and very fine storyteller. I’m so glad he’s finally put his stories down on paper for others to read.

Janice Daugharty, Georgia author of several novels including her most recent, Just Doll. Daugharty is writer in residence at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

 A fast and funny read. Very funny. I laughed out loud more times than I can count. The voice here is quirky, manic, and absolutely original. With one foot in the rural past and another in the strip mall world of the New South, Reddick is exploring new territory here. Read this book. There is nothing else out there remotely like it.

Inman Majors, author of several novels. He is the author of Wonderdog and more recently Love’s Winning Plays. Majors teaches creative writing at James Madison University in Virginia.

Lead Me Home

When life gets exponentially more confusing, all you can depend on is faith to help you through. Lead Me Home is a novel from Niles Reddick as he tells the story of Max Peacock as he faces politics at work, politics at church, his first child, family problems, criminal investigations, and so much more. Lead Me Home is an intriguing and entertaining novel that many readers will relate to with their own hectic lives.

Midwest Review

Max Peacock is in a conundrum; he’s soundly stuck in Nashville, caught somewhere between his Southern past and his hazy future. But, in Niles Reddick’s new novel, Lead Me Home, Max’s quandary is the reader’s delight.

 Southern Reader

Max Peacock is a fictional character, but Dr. Niles Reddick understands him well.

In Reddick’s novel, Lead Me Home, Max and his high school sweetheart, Jaden, left their South Georgia hometown for the big city of Nashville, Tenn.

They have been away for many years and miss their families and rural roots. A family funeral and changes in the couple’s lives lead narrator Max to weigh a move back home.

 Valdosta Times

An absolutely lovely story. I really enjoyed it. Max has come “home” for his Aunt Catfish’s funeral and falls under the spell of the old hometown, it’s people, and his memories.

This book is chock full of “Southern-isms” and wonderful memories of life in the rural Southland of my youth. The people in his life all have the most interesting tales to tell themselves and their stories are just as interesting as the main story.

 Dew on the Kudzu

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