New from Regal House, The Great Awakening: dark comic vision of a split nation veering off the rails

RALEIGH, N.C. - Aug. 12, 2026 - PRLog -- Regal House Publishing announces its new publication The Great Awakening by Donald Hays, author of two novels and a collection of short stories: The Dixie Association, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, The Hangman's Children an LA Times Critics Choice book, the title story of Dying Light and Other Stories was reprinted in Best New Stories from the South. He also won a Pushcart Prize and his stories have appeared in prestigious literary journals and a variety of anthologies.

About The Great Awakening
America teeters on the edge. As Donald Trump rallies his base for reelection, paranoia surges—Covid spreads, militias rise, and whispers of a stolen election grow louder. In Arkansas, firebrand preacher-turned-Governor Chick Hecklethorne faces a challenge from Colonel Bedford Stuart Jackson, a Civil War–obsessed reactionary running under the People's Party banner with dreams of a "New Confederacy of the West." When wealthy liberal Bingham Proctor Jr. jumps into the race to split the vote, the stage is set for a surreal political showdown. Caught in the chaos is Waymon Reo Wilde, a haunted sniper turned revolutionary, and Jackson's wife—a former sex worker who delivers a child that upends everything.

Praise for The Great Awakening
"I haven't spent a lot of time in Arkansas, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Donald Hays's hilarious new novel—The Great Awakening—is about as much fun as a sane person can have there. Satire doesn't come any better."
—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath trilogy of Fool novels.

"Donald Hays has been a writer I've long revered, and in this new novel, he again shows why he is one of our America's best writers. The Great Awakening is often hilarious but, as with the highest level of satire, there is a deeper impulse, in this case a fierce reckoning with the hustlers and buffoons who profit by pandering to a country's worst impulses.  Brilliant and timely, The Great Awakening is a novel that deserves a wide and appreciative audience."
—Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker

Publication Details
Paperback:   306 pages
ISBN: 9781646037117
US $20.95 / CAN $28.99
Epub/Mobipocket
ISBN: 9781646037124
US $9.99 / CAN $12.99

Available at bookstores, online retailers, and direct at the publisher's storefront (https://regalhousepublishing.com/).

Distribution:
Independent Publishers Group
814 N. Franklin Street
Chicago, IL 60610
P: (800) 888-4741
F: (312) 337-5985
distribution@ipgbook.com

For review copies contact or other inquiries:
Regal House Publishing
806 Oberlin Rd #12094
Raleigh, NC 27605, USA
rhpsales@regalhousepublishing.com
www.regalhousepublishing.com