Frankie Franco :: Finding and Fulfilling Our Purpose Right Where We Are ::
My Southern Legitimacy Statement is that my Grandpa on one side was born in Oklahoma before it was a state and my Grandma on the other side was born in…
Category: Essays / Memoirs
Dan Russell :: Red Sky Morning ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I used to race against chickens in the backyard after my Papaw lopped their heads off. I also once inadvertently bought a goat at the sale barn.…
Jessica Pisano :: Hometown Lies ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, have lived in Asheville, North Carolina, for over thirty years, and feel most at home on the Tybee Island beach. Hometown…
Marlene DeVere :: My Airline Interview ::
southern legitimacy statement: It’s not just the music or long summers, but the slow and easy breezes and sweet teas that makes Southern exposure life-fulfilling. Schooled in Southern Illinois, thrived…
Rebecca Band :: Making Light of a Thing ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Driving south down 17, I know when I’m finally home. The distinctive smell that continues to get stronger. It can be overwhelming, and certainly repulsive to some…
Melissa A. Morgan :: Fine Folks ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was raised south of the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi River. I was raised on yes, ma’am and no, sir. I was raised on…
Basil McQuade :: Telling Stories/Immaculate Sadness ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m southern in the stepson way. I glean from trips and family and stories– and I understand the pieces, if not the whole picture. I know just…
Florence Nash :: Vidalias ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in an Eastern North Carolina tobacco town with 6 stoplights and a lot more churches and a whole lot more kin, if…
Karsen Thompson :: The Fracture of My Shadow ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I hope this story touches you guys just like it did with me as I wrote it down in my grandmother’s old rustic house in Georgia’s humid…
Carol Anne Perini :: Ancestral Stars ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My maiden name is Totten. My ancestor, Joseph Gilbert Totten was the Chief Civil Engineer who built the Civil War-era Fort Totten as part of the Defenses…
Jolie Day :: Summer Walk 2008 ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: from a college town as a bona fide townie, I grew up in Carrboro, North Carolina, and if you know, you know it’s different from Chapel Hill.…
Marsha Hawkins :: I Could Make That For You ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My twang bounces off the walls anywhere above the gnat line of Georgia and especially in Richmond, Virginia, where I have settled for the past 14 years,…
Amanda Pugh :: A Wild Life Refuge ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am as Southern as grits, biscuits, and gravy, having the double blessing of being brought into this world in the great state of Georgia (Atlanta to…
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…
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…