Kent Reichert: Requiem: For Those He Left Behind
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Los Angeles, CA and Belews Creek, NC can be found around the 35th parallel. Both are referred to as “southern” even though they exist at opposite ends of the country. Having spent my formative years in LA...
Carol Parris Krauss: Poem
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born from two western NC mountain folk and have kissed the clouds crossing Grandfather Mountain Bridge. As a Clemson graduate, like my father before me, my blood runs orange. I warsh my clothes and sometime...
James Rhine: Essay
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Having grown up in the Bible belt to one day feel it a little too strict around my waistline, I’ve spent the latter part of my waking years learning to unlearn. One day I’ll be South of...
Jerry Hogan: Poetry
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m from Fayetteville, in Northwest Arkansas. Geographically, we’re just barely in the South and are sometimes listed as being in the Southwest – that’s a joke. I was raised with the same stories and myths as everyone...
Daun Daemon: Fiction
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the North Carolina foothills with my mama’s beauty shop outside my bedroom window and a car mechanic’s garage across the street. Both had soda pop machines that dispensed Cheerwine and Sundrop, and I...
James Ryer: Essay
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is comprised of mesmerizing layers of contradiction: What people believe is true or not true. Who you choose to believe. And, what is actually true. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter. You find that...
Kenneth Sutton: Fiction: June 2022
Southern Literacy Statement: My friend Sam told if I’m tellin the truth I can wander around a little but if I’m puttin out a stretcher I better stick to the straight and narrow and repeat it exact. So I’m stickin...
Jonathan Odell: Memoir:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised a white guy in Jim Crow Mississippi. In other words, I missed a hell of lot of what went on around me from my protective white bubble. Midlife, I moved to Minnesota and was...
Roger Howell: Memoir:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Being of Southern rootage, the past crawls all over me, pestering me when I’m trying to get to sleep. Recently, I read Absalom, Absalom! again. Broke down at the end. Just like I knew I would. The...
B. Lynn Zika: Poetry:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: As a child I took comfort in our town square statue. He faced the direction of the state college where my father taught English. To his right the five and dime sheltered magic slates and glass piggy...
Andy Betz: Memoir:
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. William and the Tick Tock Clock For my...
Byron Hoot: Poetry:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised in West Virginia now living in The Wilds of Pennsylvania. Once born in Appalachia, you never live any place else in your heart. Returning I have recycled myself back to where I began, a...
B. Lynne Zika: Poetry:
Southern legitimacy statement: Chub Petersen’s mama didn’t teach him the necessity of summer underthings when he sat in shorts playing marbles on my front sidewalk. Consequently I received an early education in anatomy, albeit not a very welcome one. I...