Category: Essays

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Get used to the fact that when you move to South Carolina you will hear these every day: “Yes Sir, Yes Ma’am,” and “what church do you go to?” When you walk into a restaurant or fast...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My momma and papa, both teachers, brought me into this world in a small town in the ancient land of Bessarabia, and they always wanted me to be a…teacher! So, I became one, which got me in...

Southern legitimacy statement T. Jeremy Smith grew up on a dairy and tobacco farm in South Central Kentucky. After spending much of his childhood running from his older brother, Jeremy spent 20 years as an adult running from the degenerative...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m a southern girl who was born and raised in Texas. I worked in the oil patch as a landman wearing stylish skirts and cute shoes, enduring my gendered job title with a demure smile and feminine...

My Southern Legitimacy Statement follows: I was born and raised in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. I am a product of the soup bean lovin’, Bible thumpin’, hardworking people who labor in tobacco fields praying for a good breeze to...

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: Called to the Blue Ridge Mountains via the music of the Allman Brothers Band first and then later by both the Fleet Foxes and the Band of Horses, I finally got the message ten years ago...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Salisbury, NC, I moved quite a bit as a child. We lived in several places throughout my home state before relocating to Jacksonville, FL while I was in the fifth grade. After thirty years I...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Knoxville, TN. and lived in Tennessee and Virginia while growing up. However, we moved North to Chicago a few years later. Dirt Clods Dirt clods were rock and clay projectiles molded together and...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Stone Mountain, Georgia and live in Savannah, Georgia. I went to school in South Carolina and Alabama. When I joined the Army they stationed me at Fort Benning, Georgia. The south won’t let...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My family migrated from the red clay hills of Northeastern Mississippi to the mountains of North Carolina, up around Asheville, when I was three. Buncombe County. Origin of the word “buncombe,” later “bunkum,” later “bunk.” Meaning nonsense,...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: This piece will resonate the most with New Orleanians/ southeastern Louisianans, but I hope the bigger picture will resonate with all, regardless of geography. Nectar Cream It was August when I first learned that your favorite Hansen’s...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I live in Southern California and have recently spent time traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. These short essays come out of two recent trips. Five Micro-Essays Natural Concern I’ve never loved the red alders of Willapa...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My name is John Dailey. I was born and raised along the Virginia / West Virginia border and lived on both sides. The Marine Corps took me away for a number of years, but I now reside...