about PETE
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Pete Candler is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Commonweal, The Bitter Southerner, The Christian Century, The Chicago Tribune, Southern Cultures, The Washington Post, and others. A graduate of Wake Forest University (B.A.) and The University of Cambridge (M.Phil., Ph.D.), a student and former professor of theology, Pete writes about memory, forgetfulness, and the legacy of white supremacy in the American South. He is the author of a photography collection, The Road to Unforgetting: Detours in the American South 1997 - 2022 (Horse & Buggy Press, 2022), and A Deeper South: The Beauty, Mystery, and Sorrow of the Southern Road (University of South Carolina Press, 2024). Pete lives in Asheville with his wife, Meredith, and their four boys.
PRESS
“Pete Candler's newest book dives deep into the meanderings of a road-trip” on City Lights with Lois Reitzes, WABE Atlanta (15 July 2024)
“The Lens of Reflection” on The Overlook with Matt Peiken, WCQS Asheville (31 May 2024)
“Pete Candler delves into the untold history of the South, and of his own family" on SouthBound with Tommy Tomlinson, WFAE Charlotte (24 April 2024)
“The Gravitas of the South: A Conversation with Pete Candler” (with Tom Zoellner) Los Angeles Review of Books (28 April 2023)
“Dr. Pete Candler Lectures in Earnhardt Speaker Series” Pfeiffer News (28 April 2023)
“The Reckoning In Pictures: Local Photographer Releases The Road To Unforgetting” Asheville Made (November 2022)
“Intersections of Memory and Amnesia In ‘A Deeper South’” on Scenic Roots, WUTC Chattanooga (10 August 2021)
“Flying Carpet Theatre’s Latest Podcast Explores The Power Of Family History” with Adam Koplan on City Lights with Lois Reitzes, WABE Atlanta (29 June 2020).
“Framing the South” by Angie Toole Thompson, TOWN Magazine (28 January 2020).
OTHER WRITINGS
Almost Home, Los Angeles Review of Books (3 December 2020).
It Was A Place of Infamy, Southern Cultures (24 September 2020).
Confederate Delusions, in The Christian Century (1 January 2020).
Monuments to Lies, on Flannery O’Connor v. the Lost Cause, for The Christian Century (15 May 2019)
A Deeper South, Los Angeles Review of Books (10 March 2019)
The Two Jameses, The Bitter Southerner (14 June 2018)
Lynched but not Forgotten, on the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, for The Christian Century (4 June 2018)
The Unforgotten: On Michael W. Twitty’s The Cooking Gene, for The Millions (14 March 2018)
I wish I had the courage to ask my dad about his service in Vietnam, for Veterans’ Day 2017, for The Washington Post (10 November 2017)
How an ancient African saint helped me make sense of 9/11, on teaching St. Augustine’s City of God on the morning of September 11, 2001, for The Washington Post (11 September 2017)
The Punishment Pass, on the use of the Confederate flag in Quebec and Vermont–and Charlottesville, for The Bitter Southerner (17 August 2017)
I’d Like to Thank the Staff for Inviting Myself to Open Mic, for the Brevity Magazine blog (10 July 2017)
Tangled Up in Bob, on the uniquely American voice of Bob Dylan, for Commonweal (2 June 2017)
Hi! You are About to be Rejected from our Quarterly, on a strange pre-rejection notice for the Brevity Magazineblog (5 April 2017)
How a Nation Lost its Mind, a review essay on Nicholas O’Shaughnessy’s Selling Hitler for Los Angeles Review of Books (November 2016)
The Tree of Life and the Lamb of God, on Terrence Malick for The Other Journal (July 2011)
Johnny of the Cross, a eulogy for Johnny Cash for First Things (December 2003)