Alan Caldwell :: Granny ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am right now eating chitlins for breakfast, and I once hooked a tractor to a dead mule and drug it away from the barn and into…
Category: Essays / Memoirs
George Bandy :: Take What You Want ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived all of my life south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I come from Bandy, which is located in southwest Virginia. I was six when my family…
Drew Coons :: Becoming a Man ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I entered this world in Florence, Alabama in 1950. My family dates from the Carolinas in the early 1700s. Family lore has my predecessors fighting the British…
James Ryer :: Commentary on the State of Western Democracy – A Visually Sensory Essay ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have almost exclusively lived in the South. The earlier part of that time was still the Old South: segregation, before the Civi Rights legislation of 1960…
R. Barkley :: Joanna Eden Carmel ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My family moved from NC to TX when I was 1 year old and back to NC when I was 10. Most of my life has been…
Erika Hoffman :: Home Fries Riff ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I attended Duke University aka University of New Jersey, the state where I was born and bred. I married a Georgian fellow I met there and lived…
Candice Kelsey :: Relationship Smarts ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: About nine months ago, I left Los Angeles for Augusta, GA. My back yard pushes up against the Savannah River, and I awake most mornings to the…
Adrienne Pilon :: Roots
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I live pretty far south of the Mason-Dixon line, in central North Carolina. Though I’m a transplant, I make a mean batch of chow-chow and a sublime…
C.E. O’Banion :: Fire Ants
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised in East Texas, I’ve lived in the bogs of southern culture my entire life. From a town with a Baptist church so big it…
Anthony Picardi :: infection ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement I moved to a small farm on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in 2004. Last year, we finalized a conservation easement on our entire 64-acre farm so it would…
Alexandra Melnick: Blade Running in the South
(Reprint from 2017 October Issue of the Dead Mule, seems very relevant today) In 1990, at a public lecture series on art in Los Angeles, three out of five leading…
Jonathan Odell: The Language of Home
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
John Dorroh: Memoir: May 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in LaRochelle, France, to parents who were serving in the US Army. My dad was from Alabama, and my mom was from Columbus, Mississippi,…
Mitzi Dorton: Essay: May 2022
My Southern Legitimacy Statement: We’ll stop right up here in just a little bit and get us a biscuit. All Things Watermelon I am a southerner, but I have to…
Nwenna Kai: Essay: May 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: By way of Africa, my people come from rice fields, tobacco, moonshine, and North Carolina oppressive sweat and heat. One of my great great grandmothers I am…
Jessica Bates: Memoir: March 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My people hail from Tennessee, and I grew up in my grandpa’s kitchen, with a shotgun in the corner and a bowl of reused flour where he…