Category: Blog
April – May 2013: Twenty-Eight Poets featuring Joseph Bathanti NC Poet Laureate 2012-2014 Two Original Poems Written in Celebration of Poetry at the Mule April will meld into May here on the Mule… New Fiction. Fabulous Fiction. Remember: We publish new Fiction and Essays on the Fifteenth…
About mid-way through this Mule’s life, I worked for Popmatters.com as the Books Editor. We had around 70 critics in my department and back in that day, digital previews were not available. I had to arrange for books to be sent to the critic direct from the publisher. It was…
This month’s poetry rises above the pocosin and flies over our heads toward the astral plain. Having North Carolina’s poet laureate, Joseph Bathanti, join us to create an issue unparalleled in lyrical superiority seemed to compliment our seventeen year online history with sufficient grace but then we began to review…
* * The 2013 April (Poetry Month) Issue of the Dead Mule is dedicated to the memory of Elsie R. Jones May 13, 1921 – March 12, 2013 Beloved Mother of Poetry Editor Helen Losse. * Elsie Rosa Jones, born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, was the youngest of eight children…
The Writers’ Workshop is holding its Annual Writers’ Retreat May 16-19 at Folly Beach (near Charleston, SC) – an ideal place to relax, write and review each other’s work. Click to read more about the Workshop’s upcoming events.
Welcome to 2013. Welcome to the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. We love your writing and we look forward to reading your submissions. Not every thing you send us is accepted BUT that does not mean it is unacceptable. Your writing could very well be superb. What happens is,…
Some new stories, a few essays … those wonderful poems. We’re leaving 2012 with a nice warm feeling. The Mule’s looking like it’s in good shape for 2013. We’ve added a really neat little plug-in that stops readers from copying the content and publishing it somewhere else. You’ll notice it…
Over the river and through the woods … The illustrations for the fiction and poetry sections this month come from a drawer full of old Christmas. Many of the senders are gone from this world and most of them are gone from my memory. Without my mom here to…
Photography redux in this issue… Little did we know, back then, that most of these iconic Southern buildings would be long gone by 2012. Hurricanes and floods destroyed every building in the images featured in the poetry section. If damaged by Bertha, the death of the buildings was assured post-Dennis and Floyd.
The Mule formatting difficulties are not coming from your browser. Those odd bits of code are supposed to be quotation marks. Or, in some cases, they could be apostrophes. I suspect many of you already know that but some people do not — so let’s be kind and let those who are not aware of the cause understand what is going on here. Read more in this post…
The Dead Mule has submitted the following poets and their poems [published in the Dead Mule to the 2012] to Sundress Publications: The Best of the Net. Congratulations to all. Cathy Smith Bowers – “A Book a Day” – published April 2012 Norvin Dickerson – “NASCAR Poet” – published October…
We note with sorrow the passing last week [July 22, 2012] of the quintessential dead mule signifier: Jerry Leath Mills of Washington, North Carolina. His passing leaves a hole in the heart of any discussion of southern equine fiction. As noted in his obituary in the Washington Daily News: His…
The Dead Mule is getting too many poems submitted without a Southern Legitimacy Statement. Now we are southern and polite, so we usually return these and point out the error. But we are getting more submissions these days, so please stop wasting our time, or one day we might just…
I know, I know, I promised fiction and essays on the 15th and didn’t deliver. That’s pretty much what everyone expects, isn’t it — me being a day late and a dollar short? Oh well. The wait was worth it, I assure you. Once you read this month’s goodness, you’ll…
Fabulous, isn’t it? We’re not through yet. It’s April Fool’s Day but we’re not kidding about the quality of this month’s poetry… it is as good as it gets! From Tim Peeler to Carter Monroe to Cathy Smith Bowers and then back around to 26 other poets!! I mean it,…
We’d like to thank Jack for his contributions to this Mule. It’s pretty safe to say that without him, our issue would be brutish and gray. Jack is a rare artist, as far as we’re concerned. Anyone who can paint an ass without acting like one is indeed a treasure….
The Dead Mule is proud to announce Curtis Dunlap for his poem “Brickyard Road” and Norvin Dickerson for his poem “NASCAR Poet” as our nominees for Best New Poet 2012. Congratulations and best of luck to both of these fine poets. But wait … it’s not luck, is it? We…
Mansion of Memory, a chapbook of poems by Dead Mule Poetry Editor, Helen Losse, has been released by Rank Stranger Press and is now for sale for $13 including postage. Proceeds from this chapbook go to Bright Futures Joplin Tornado Fund to help with the rebuilding process of Joplin, MO,…