Lee Anne Sontheimer Murphy :: Asleep in the Arms of Jesus ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My ancestors wore Confederate gray and stood with Lee at Appomattox. My husband’s folks hailed from Louisiana and I learned to make gumbo and chicken maque choux and boudin from a Cajun lady named Miss Odile. My...
James Huneycutt :: Drug Policy Memo ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The author is an ex-offender who runs a successful plumbing company in Virginia. He scribbles on the backs of invoices, estimates and parts lists. These scraps accumulate on the dashboard of his plumbing van until he can...
Erin Savage :: When a Tea Party Is Not a Tea Party: An Unwanted Invite ::
Southern legitimacy statement: My parents dragged me away from the home I loved in Louisville, to put down roots in the frigid Midwest. My time residing in Louisville, the home of my earliest memories, was well spent though. When I...
Albert Dixon :: Storms of My Youth ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the South, I live in the South: Athens, Georgia. I’ve tried to leave, a few times, but I always come back. Nowhere else feels like home. Storms of My Youth There was a...
Mike Wilson :: Choice ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. My father grew up in Strawberry Holler, Wayne County, Kentucky. My mother’s father was a coal miner in Eastern Kentucky. Neither of them were much on church, but going was part...
Tracie Adams :: I Guess We’ll Never Know ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: When I let my dogs out in the morning, I’m rewarded with a picturesque view of rolling hills, pastures dotted with horses and a tiny mule. The goats bleat at me incessantly and I don’t mind. On...
Brandon Yu :: Blessings in Disguise ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Some people think Florida doesn’t count as the South, but I beg to differ. The heat, Spanish moss, and help-yourself attitude of everyone here in Tampa– many of whom hail from Alabama or Georgia– have made this...
Anna Davis-Abel :: Southern Sweet Tea ::
Southern legitimacy statement– The South is inextricable from me as my bones. I was born in Mississippi to two families that traced their lineages to poor antebellum share croppers and then grew up in Alabama. I left the south for...
Eric Olsen :: Life, Legacy, Fractured Spines, and the Power of Now ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a grits, sweet tea, and collards enthusiast. I have a recipe for each that I make myself regularly. *ya’ll need to read this essay.. Life, Legacy, Fractured Spines, and the Power of Now April 13,...
Barry Gordon Thompson-Cook :: It Was On a Bayou ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Barry Gordon Thompson-Cook was born in Louisiana and is buried there. In between, he lived in Dallas, Omaha before moving back to Louisiana. He left his beloved Opelousas to marry a Yankee, to the horror of his...
Jen Aceto :: I Found Ease in Oklahoma ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Despite being born and raised on the coast, I felt most at home among the art deco buildings of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve participated in a number of debates about whether Oklahoma is in the South or...
Hampton D Harmon :: The Cast of the Murdaugh Saga ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from the “salt water south” near Myrtle Beach, where we make taffy from ocean water and moss creates shadows on moonlit walks with friends and lovers. I spent my summers barefoot both in the yard...
Marsha Owens :: As Though We Had Choices ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Richmond, VA, I’ve made it my forever home. My paternal grandpa was a waterman on the Chesapeake Bay, and to this day, I’m a seafood snob. I married an ex-Amishman to whom all things Southern...
Poetry
Essays
