PHILIP SHIRLEY'S tories, Oh Don't You Cry For Me, was released April 1, 2008, from Jefferson Press.  Shirley's award-winning work includes fiction, poetry, speech and feature writing. His writing has been anthologized in Stories from the Blue Moon Café IV and appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals. Born in Alabama, he lives near Madison, Mississippi, on the Barnett Reservoir with his wife, the painter Virginia Shirley. He enjoys most weekends writing and fishing on Dauphin Island, Alabama as he completes a second novel manuscript. He is CEO of GodwinGroup, the South’s oldest ad agency, and is a frequent speaker nationally and internationally. His next book, scheduled for release by Triumph Books in June 2009, is a co-authored book with David Magee covering the 125 year history and American romance with the Louisville Slugger baseball bat.

POPMATTERS.COM PRAISES SHIRLEY'S WORK

In the June 26, 2008, review of Oh Don't You Cry For Me, reviewer Abby Margulies says the book contains "...consistently great stories..." To read the entire review, click here.

BOOK HITS NUMBER ONE ON "LOCAL BESTSELLERS IN BIRMINGHAM" LISTING FOR WEEK OF APRIL 20

by Birmingham News features staff

Sunday April 20, 2008, 1:56 AM

Little Professor Book Center
1. "Oh, Don't You Cry For Me" by Philip Shirley
2. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch
3. "Common Birds of Birmingham" by Jim Wilson
4. "The Appeal" by John Grisham
5. "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive" by Alexander McCall
Smith

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT Oh Don't You Cry For Me:

“Philip Shirley takes classic Southern themes and settings – a turkey hunt, a honky-tonk, a lonely road to the middle of nowhere – and turns them into something uniquely his own.  His people feel like real people.  This collection of tightly written, closely observed stories marks a memorable debut in the world of fiction. ” 

                                                                            Mark Childress

                                                    Author of One Mississippi and Crazy in Alabama

“Shirley has the uncanny ability to create powerful characters that are complicated enough to be interesting, yet simple enough to be believable. At a time when the populrity of the short story is less than notable, Shirley has soldiered on with a pool of stories that are both striking individually and cohesive as a group." 

                                                                            PopMatters.com

                                                                                      Reviewed by Abby Margulies

"As editor of the anthology, Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe, sometimes a story lands on the desk that is exceptional, and the work of an unpublished writer. Not often. But, when it happens, as it did with Philip Shirley and his story called "The Turkey Hunt," included in this collection, you get really jazzed when the writer is just getting going, when he keeps on writing enough to fill up a book with tales that can hold their own, even stand out, in the proud tradition of Southern storytelling."
                                                                                                            Sonny Brewer

                                                                       Author of The Poet of Tolstoy Park, and                                                                                             Cormac, The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing  

"His characters may not want us to cry for them, but they demand our
understanding, something Shirley even at his darkest makes not only easy but immensely enjoyable."                                                                                                                                                                                              First Draft

                                                                       Reviewed by Kirk Curnutt

                                                             Author of Breathing Out the Ghost