ABC-CLIO's Encyclopedia of Southern Literature surveys the region's major authors, works, movements, genres, and themes as a method of illustrating its contributions to American and world literature. The alphabetically arranged entries contain biographical and literary history along with bibliographic citations, critical commentary, and cross-references. Major works such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gone with the Wind, and Black Boy appear in separate entries.

There are also extended essays on women in Southern literature, Robert E. Lee, humor, protest literature, the Mississippi River, the frontier tradition, the colonial and Civil War periods, theater, and regional writers. Emphasis is given to women writers, diarists, young adult literature, African-American writers, and recent bestsellers. A list of home states indicates the authors from each Southern state as well as the many writers born outside the region, including Fanny Kemble, Alex Haley, Ralph Ellison, Jackie Torrence, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Other study aids include a list of major works and their publication dates, a chronology of cinematic versions of major titles, and a listing of primary sources. Student researchers, genealogists, folklorists, librarians and general readers will appreciate this compelling, definitive reference work on the American South's contribution to the American and world literature.