A Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South: Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola

From high-rise casinos to sleepy fishing villages, from sandy beaches to swamps and sprawling oaks, explore where writers lived and wrote and visit the places that inspired them. This travel guide highlights more than fifty towns along the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida coasts popular with over a hundred writers, poets, and playwrights, including Pulitzer Prize winners, a U.S. Poet Laureate, and bestselling authors. The picturesque driving tour from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Apalachicola, Florida, spans approximately 350 miles following the coastal highways south of the interstates. The book provides descriptions of legends and lore, the history of towns, fascinating details on authors and their works, and driving directions to literary landmarks, homes, and museums. Additional information includes a road trip playlist and twenty sidebars with topics ranging from city walks and festivals to nature preserves and island excursions. Readers can take a few days and travel the entire route or enjoy a short jaunt. Seven days’ worth of day trips, including ones for poetry lovers and children, recommend what to see, eat and read on the adventure. This guide for book lovers and tourists also includes photographs and lively descriptions for armchair travelers, plus a detailed index and additional sources.