Category: Essays

Essays

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. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter. You find that...
Essays

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 protective white bubble. Midlife, I moved to Minnesota and was...
Essays

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 at the end. Just like I knew I would. The...
Essays

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 the South. William and the Tick Tock Clock For my...
EssaysPoetry

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, where we settled when my dad retired from the military....
Essays

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 add not in all things, just where certain comfort foods...
Essays

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 told was a 12 years young slave who was sold...
Essays

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 made catheads from scratch. When the Dead One Fell From...
Essays

Jeremy Tavares: Memoir: March 2022

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Jeremy Tavares is a poet and writer of gritty fiction. He lives with his wife and son in Austin, Texas. Salvation is Scarier than Damnation Religion was scary in Middle Mississippi. It was a thing to be...
Essays

Peggy Rothbaum: Memoir: Feb 2022

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have lived in the South for 4 generations. I went to college and lived in Chapel Hill for 5 years. This was considered “north”. I did come North and have been here now for decades. I...
Essays

Marsha Owens: Memoir: Feb 2022

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...
Essays

Nathan Webb: Memoir: Feb 2022

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Having moved out of the South for the first time in my life, The Dead Mule has been instrumental in alleviating homesickness. It’s been a great reminder of why I consider the South home. As far as...