Southern Legitimacy Statement:  Born in Maine but raised in Water Valley, Mississippi, the deep south is the only place I’ll ever understand, and I still don’t know the first thing about it. “Stairways” I take the elevator to the funeral instead of the stairs, which is pretty unusual for me….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Charlotte NC during WWII, lived on a failing farm in Iredell County NC, and was taken back to Charlotte. Currently, I operate an organic farm in Chatham County NC and write a weekly column for the Durham Farmers’ Market Wednesday Newsletter entitled “Missives from…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: From the 7th grade through college, I lived in the North Carolina Piedmont. I worked for 12 years in Atlanta, and eight years in Greensboro, NC. I respond positively to a cold Cheerwine and a side of hush puppies. One Man Casting: Fishing For Blues Blues run in schools.  When…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Like Missouri, a state considered both midwestern and southern, much of my work revolves around my clashing identities. Having lived in Alaska, Michigan, and Ohio, moving to Missouri to pursue an MFA in creative nonfiction afforded me space and distance to see these collisions more clearly. Here,…

Thoughts on Beauty, Bologna, and Lewis Grizzard Anyone who knows me understands there are very few books or articles I haven’t read.  Amongst all the scholarly and literary reading I have done, I’ll even admit to enjoying the occasional trashy novel or magazine—who doesn’t?  I mean, I am the proud…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I lived in New Orleans for several years when I was a kid, on the campus of Tulane. I went to the R.M. Lusher School. My address was 51A Macalester Place. I loved it there. Now I live in Woodstock NY. I write memoir most of the time….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: “I was born in Memphis for the sole reason that it had the hospital closest to Earle, Arkansas. My daddy was informed of my birth via telegram, as he had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during WWII. As soon as she was able, Mother took me home…

Tricia Boooker’s: “The Place of Peace and Crickets: how adoption, heartache, and love built a family”   is brutal, honest, loving and a masterpiece of a memoir. Booker goes in deep, where most of us would never dare to go, she bares her soul. Adopting three children after the agonizing…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Aside from spending my growing up years in Mississippi, with the crooked letter crooked letter eye crooked letter crooked letter humpback humpback eye spelling taught me in first grade, I’ve been living in South Carolina my whole adult life. At 62, my psychiatrist says I’m the most…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My name is Jay Edge and I’ve been drawing & writing ever since I remember. The one thing I remember doing before drawing and telling stories was roaming the woods behind my grandparent’s home. I’d sew a sheath for my rusty machete, head out the back door…

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  As a boy in Bessemer, Alabama, I lived for Mondays for they were new comic book days. I’d head to the Stop and Shop on 4th Avenue in hopes that a new Batman, Detective, Justice League, or World’s Finest would be on the three-sided, rotating comic rack….

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 have to be carefully explained. He doesn’t hold chairs for…

Southern Legacy Statement: Being raised in the South means you have a certain perspective on things.  (Oh, I’m sure people from other parts of the country feel the same way, but stick with me here.)  I have visited Washington—the state and the District—nice places to be sure, but I am not…

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  My name is Jay Edge and I’ve been drawing & writing ever since I remember. The thing I remember most as a kid in the NC piedmont was roaming the woods behind my grandparent’s home. I’d sew a sheath for my rusty machete and head out the…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in the South she loves writing about misfits, screw ups, outlaws and people who generally don’t fit into nicely labeled boxes. The Way You Come to the Writing Life You think it’s all about write the words, write the words. But it’s really about get your mom…

In 1990, at a public lecture series on art in Los Angeles, three out of five leading urban planners agreed that they hoped someday L.A. would look like the film Blade Runner (1982. Beginning discussions in this essay refer to the original film and not the current Blade Runner 2049…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in several parts of the South. For starters, I was born in Big D, and then my family moved to the panhandle of Texas, where there are more oil pumps and canyons than trees. Spent Friday nights eating Frito pies at the football field, and…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: (In Faulknerian style) I was born in LA (Lower Alabama) rural Escambia County, Alabama (near the state line) right above Escambia County, Florida, (who spends its whole life trying to be Escambia County, Alabama), and raised in a rambling old near bout never painted, decomposing house built by…

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  I believe that in a previous life I was from the Deep South. Not just south of the Mason-Dixon line, but as far south as you can go before wading into the Gulf. The voices in my head have accents, soft and slow. I’m comfortable in heat and…

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  I was born and raised in a small town in Tennessee named Jefferson City. A daughter of a self-proclaimed “Tennessee Hillbilly,” I can shoot a gun and ride a horse, all while eating cornbread soaked in milk. Sleeping I was 18 when I saw someone receive CPR for…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in a decaying town in the Mississippi Delta as an attorney’s son with riverboat captain uncles who treasure few worldly pleasures more than whiskey and a good story. Taranaki Surf Camp “Would ya’ll like to smoke a joint? I’ve got a little weed if any…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a sixth generation Texan and proud of it. I am not proud of the current set of Texas’ elected representatives. I believe anyone who does not believe that grits are a gourmet food choice has a major character flaw. White Tee Shirts I didn’t know…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont from the seventh grade through college. I was fully immersed in classic Southern pursuits including hunting just about everything, fishing, trapping muskrats, frog-gigging, arrowhead collecting, and high-speed, dirt-road driving. Chasing the Wrong Scent In my neighborhood, most evenings found…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri, whose Southern statehood led to the civil war, regardless of whether or not modern Missourians consider themselves Southerners. Missouri and I are the middle children of our respective families: often overlooked but still legitimate. I was also lucky enough to be…