
Jim Hinson :: Tomato Sandwich Fantasies in Mid-November ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up kicking the 2 inches of pink dust that is formed when the characteristic red clay of the Carolina Piedmont is subjected to a long summer’s baking. Until I was eighteen, I lived in the...

Donna Harlan :: Everybody Has a Snowman Story ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the foothills of East Tennessee, and honestly wasn’t always proud of it, knowing that others thought we didn’t wear shoes (never mind that I enjoyed being barefoot and still do). In college I...

Kelsey Erica Tran :: The True Meaning of Culture ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Growing up in Maryland, I got to experience summer bbqs and grilling burgers during the Fourth of July. Urban barbecue was a local chain that reminds me of my childhood. After taking swimming lessons during the summer,...

Ted Harrison :: This Year a Kayak ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am born and bred in the South and I have been fortunate to have some of my scribbling published in this journal. In the past I have written of my attempts to pick cotton on my...

Kyla Houbolt :: Where We Went ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Once, near the coast of NC, (where I was born and raised) I watched a man wheel the entire carcass of a frozen dead pig into the front door of the Piggly Wiggly. I guess it was...

David Grubb :: The Rodent Queen of Half Dome ::
Southern Bona Fide I’m still a bonafide southern fried hunting and fishing machine. I’ve gotten up before dawn and bagged an 8’ gator, went right up to dusk to put an arrow in the heart of a tusky razorback, and...

Nora Super :: Brains vs. Beauty ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, I moved to Washington, DC, right out of college to try to change the world. When I left New Orleans, I rejected the party culture: full of festivals, jazz music,...

Harry Neil :: We Discover Cottage Cheese ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in a very rural part of North Carolina’s Cape Fear Basin. My grade school was part of Penderlea, “America’s first farm city,” a depression-era homesteading project that ultimately failed. I went on to the...

R. L. Frazier :: Timmy ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in a part of Oklahoma known as Little Dixie. I don’t consider Oklahoma to be in the Deep South any more than you do, but I believe most Oklahomans to be Southerners – the...

Matthew Bearden :: A Trip Through God’s Country ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Palestine, Texas. I carry it with me. I may be a pro-choice, non-southern baptist, resident of Wisconsin, but I am still a Texan! I’ll be thankin’ of all y’all when I...

Ashley Elizabeth Hewitt :: Woodsia Lane ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Jackson, Mississippi, I attended Millsaps College and more recently completed my MFA in Creative Writing at the Mississippi University for Women. I have lived in New Orleans for twenty years but built a log cabin...

Rory Squires :: A Love Letter to Humanity ::
SLS: My mother’s extended family originated in West Virginia, so half of the family has accents. While I live in Pennsylvania, I can still point out and label the southern states, and I adore the Waffle House. *Ya’ll need to...

Kayla Branstetter :: Changing Directions ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: On your website, you stated “Let the bitter past be studied–not re-lived.” “Changing Directions” mirrors that southern attitude because Tony allowed me to interview her about her bitter past for others to study in hopes they will...