Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits

Southern Storyteller (featured in The New York Times’ Modern Love) Blends Genres in a Buttery-Sweet Debut

Santa Rosa Beach, FL – Perfect for fans of “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe”, “Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits” (Koehler, October 7, 2025) is a tender and charming debut that delves into small-town politics, a long-buried tragedy, and a mother whose mysterious love-laced baked goods are stirring up gossip and a mess of feelings.

IIt’s 1982 in Bailey Springs, Alabama, where Trudy has kept her head down since high school, when folks blamed her for ruining the life of star quarterback Jimmie Beaumont. Now engaged to a blue-blood politician, Haskel Moody, Trudy’s back in the spotlight—especially after taking a job teaching chemistry to save his campaign for mayor.

As Trudy encounters old high-school ghosts, she also confronts Coach Shug Meechum, whose laid-back charm and infuriating grin incite more than just her frustrations. Meanwhile, Trudy’s mother, Leta Pearl, has been giving some chemistry lessons of her own—slipping her mysterious love-inducing biscuits to the men in town.

In Bailey Springs, football, tradition, and appearances often mean more than the truth. So, when secret recipes are uncovered, and new desires collide with a long-buried tragedy, Trudy must decide if she’ll play by the rules—or risk everything for the life she wants.

“A laugh-out-loud romp with a smidge of Southern magic, “Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits” confirms that true love—like the best biscuits—takes a little heat to rise.”

Advanced Praise for “Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits”

“Arlon Jay Staggs knocks it out of the park with a pitch-perfect southern romp full of charm, laughs, and heart. With characters it’s impossible not to root for, football, and small town drama–plus a dash of magic–this story will enchant you much like Leta Pearl’s biscuits themselves. I devoured every page.”

–Grace Helena Walz, author of Good Hair Days

About the Author

Arlon Jay Staggs is a native of Florence, Alabama, and a Southern storyteller with deep roots, a sharp sense of humor, and a heart for connection. His essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times and December Magazine, and his novel “Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits” is his debut work of fiction. He holds an MFA in fiction from the University of California, Riverside, a JD from the Mississippi College School of Law, and is an adjunct professor at Northwest Florida State College. Arlon and his husband divide their time between Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and San Diego, California. Learn more about him here.

An interview with Arlon Jay Staggs

Arlon Jay Staggs’s debut novel is a heartfelt, often humorous exploration of love, family, and identity set in small-town Alabama in 1982. Drawing on his own upbringing as the gay son of a high school football coach, Staggs weaves a story that is both deeply personal and wildly imaginative, complete with “love biscuits” that may or may not have the power to change hearts.

“How does the gay son of a high school football coach in Alabama make sense of masculinity, tradition, and desire? That’s a question I confronted on a daily basis,” Staggs shares. While the novel isn’t autobiographical, it reflects the weight of identity, secrecy, and the emotional choreography of small-town life.

At the heart of the book is Trudy, inspired by Staggs’s own mother. “She carries my mom’s grit, but she also embodies the Southern women I’ve been shaped by all my life—the ones who hold it all together with a smile and a casserole, but deep down, are absolute tigers.”

For Staggs, the South is fertile ground because it is “always two things at once: brutal and beautiful, joyful and haunted.” He believes the region’s contradictions, its history, and its rituals create a goldmine for fiction—stories that are often both humorous and heartbreaking.

The early ’80s, with its church dresses, handwritten gossip, and hometown pageants, offered a vivid backdrop. It was also the dawn of the AIDS crisis, adding an undercurrent of urgency. And, Staggs notes with a smile, he needed legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant to still be alive for a cameo.

The book shifts between perspectives—Trudy, Leta Pearl, and even a chorus of local gossip—creating a blend of tones that dip into humor, magical realism, and tragedy. The “love biscuits” themselves began as a playful writing prompt: What if your grandmother’s biscuits made men fall in love? “Food isn’t just food in the South—it’s communication. We don’t just hope a casserole or a biscuit will change someone’s heart—we expect it to.”

Despite tackling heavy themes; suicide, domestic abuse, and homophobia, Staggs insists that humor is essential. “In the South, we laugh to keep from crying. Humor is the spoonful of sugar, but it’s also the truth-teller.”

“I hope they laugh, tear up a little, and maybe call their mama,” he says of his readers. More than anything, Staggs wants people to carry tenderness for the complicated, hilarious, and fragile bonds of family—and maybe even believe, just a little, that a biscuit could change everything.

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