Nora Brown just got out of school.  When she finally began to be really discovered as a singer and artist, her YouTube videos were beginning to become popular and she was only 12.  Her daddy Benton Brown set up this interview, and they were kind enough to schedule it in….

well, by now you’ve all noticed it. At the end of each publication there’s a little box with “Author: MacEwan” in it. That’s a photo of Robert. Oh my. This is a WordPress theme anomaly and we’re working hard to remove it. Obviously Robert didn’t write everything published on the…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: A quarter-century ago, I rode my motorcycle south and bought a pickup truck. It and I are now covered in rust. Imperfect I wandered Manhattan’s East Side that night with my nerdy left-back classmate Aaron Rabitcheff, wishing I had female companionship instead — someone who would squint…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have published in North Carolina, baby-sat three grandchildren there, and trained with the EKSU’s 278th Infantry Regiment (activated for the Korean conflict) at Fort Devens, MA and was one of the two Northerners on the undefeated post football team. Red High Heels at the River Odd…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri and now live (very, very) close to Atlanta. With the exception of college, I have spent my entire life in the South. Mimi Mimi I met Mimi when I was almost 14.  I fell for her instantly.  Her eyes were…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the south; the south of Nicosia, Cyprus. Intercommunal conflict has marked my birth place as the last divided capital in the world. Growing up, I was not permitted to cross to the other side of my city. Since the opening of the border…

Southern Literacy Statement: I was born in Ohio, but I got to Texas as fast as I could. Texas is like the rest of the South, but better. Now I know that people who say Texans talk about Texas too much don’t know anything about Texas. The Life and Death…

Southern Legitmacy Statement: I live where I grew up, (across the road) from the 1820 farm house where I grew up, make biscuits from scratch (most of the time) and cook collard greens with fat back. Seventy-five MPH Yes, I know what is happening but do not believe it– that…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am one of the 54 grandchildren of Mila and Esther and our enormous family’s Christmas Eve tradition was having bottle rocket wars against each other across a field of corn while our parents (all 22 of them) prepped the massive amounts of fried chicken, field peas,…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement follows: My mother had me in a Baptist hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, and my father almost missed my birth because he was watching the Andy Griffith Show. I was raised in a house that had a creek in the backyard and a picture of Elvis on…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am not born and bred but I have lived in the South–and if being an authentic individual is what the South is about–then I am Southern. Also, my son was born about as deep down as you can get and still be in America. Down Here…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Jeff is a musician, educator, and author from Huntsville, AL. He enjoys time alone to think and pursue creative projects, but not as much as he enjoys a good cup of coffee with his wife, Amy. The Writer’s Poem I don’t want to work tonight I’d rather…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in the frosty Minnesota where the winters are long and harsh, and the sight of green grass is a memory to be cherished. That doesn’t mean that I’m as cold as the weather, though, and after visiting the south on numerous occasions, I feel I’ve picked…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the southwestern corner of Virginia and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I currently reside in Wilmington, North Carolina. My father’s businesses were always headquartered in southwest Virginia. A Brief Memoir of an East Coast Entrepreneur: How Past Endeavors Inform Future Business Dreams My father,…

My Southern legitimacy lies in being a native and lifelong citizen of a City that was once largest in the South and called its Queen City, la Nouvelle Orleans in l’Isle d’Orleans in SE Louisiana (the place whose bankers’ ten dollar francophonic dollars it’s said gave rise to the name”Dixie”)….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: John Dorroh’s Irish ancestors reached the shores of South Carolina a few hundred years ago, and began migrating to the west and south. County Antrim is well-represented by the Dorroh lineage. After traveling the world as an army brat, Dorroh spent most of his life in Columbus,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Last year when Fairfax High school had a legitimate threat from a potential school shooter, the idea for this story began. When our local Jewish Community Center was horrifically vandalized, my thoughts turned to how faith and politics were represented in my Southern community. An Article of…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The story was inspired by a woman who lost everyone she loves and lives alone with her memories in a Southern mansion. L’appel du Vide The new moon has cast darkness over my home. A home sealed with squeals, laughter and cries for mom. I’ve lived here…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is a complex kaleidoscope of contradictions that historically coexisted through compartmentalizing when ideal clashed with real. Brutality and gentility, discrimination and democracy, hospitality and race/class hostility, and more odd couples, lived and live in our kaleidoscope, which at each twist shifts the aspect created by…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I fear that my complete listing of southern legitimacy would crash the cosmos & petunias so I shall HENCEFORTHWITH condense – I was born a coal miner’s son in the coal hollers of southwestern Virginia & as a child my family like many poor Appalachians migrated to…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I live in South Scottsdale, which is south of Old Town Scottsdale, so it’s not the city you think of when you think of Scottsdale, AZ. I’m from a place called St. Joseph, Missouri, which is south of the plains but north of the Ozarks. My grandfather…

We’re publishing 20 essays, memoirs, short stories, poetry collections … got it going on in August. Pay attention to our Southern Legitimacy Statements each month. They sure do make the Dead Mule sing. We’ve got some swell ones in August. Welcome to the Mule. Enjoy your visit. We’re so very…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in southwest Florida where crocodiles living in the golf course lake routinely consumed small dogs whole. Cultural Debts I hadn’t thought of Jimmy Buffett for twenty years when, in the span of a week, he showed up three times: first in a news…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: This is a fake news story of how Nags Head, North Carolina lost its apostrophe. How Nags Head Lost its Apostrophe “Take it and be damned!” . . . Thomas J. Harkaway Perhaps the first and most important thing to say about Nags Head is that virtually…