Southern Legitimacy Statement: This is a story about New York Yankee children listening to their Southern parents’ same old argument about their burial sites in the South. As you say, the South has all answers to all arguments… The Burial “I want you girls to dig up your father.” My mother’s…

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 be precise) and having my raising in the Volunteer State of Tennessee. I have been educated here and have worked here…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in wildly wonderful state of West Virginia and have appreciated being uniquely southern my entire life. From music to food West Virginia is rich with Southern culture. The Books I Never Read 1 I loved lying at the opposite end of my bed when my…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Panola County, Mississippi, (where SEC affiliations are handed out as birthrights) to parents from towns named Tocowa and Blackjack. They decided to split the difference and raise me in a town called Pope (population 242) where putting pennies on the railroad tracks, catching…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived in Arkansas over 15 years, so I’m feeling Southern. The Family Mantra My father bawled one night, wailed just like the pansy he said my brother was when he cried. He didn’t punch holes in the wall, throw chairs through the windows, or kick our bodies…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Wendy Reed is an Emmy-winning writer and public tv producer, who teaches in the Honors College at the University of Alabama. Her books include Accidental Memoir: How I Killed Someone and Other stories and All Out of Faith and Circling Faith. True Condition is based on an historical…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: “Almost half of my life has been spent in the South. I’ve lived in Boston, Paris, and a few other places as well. I call Austin, TX home now.” Cutie Patootie I fell in love with him the moment he said he could ride a unicycle backwards and…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived in Virginia for the past seven, going on eight years. My blood and kin are northern, but my pace is a good bit more southerly. *This was originally published in April 2017 and is republished today, Aug. 16, 2017 since the internets gobbled up the April…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from Orangeburg, SC and once fell off the open tailgate of a pickup truck because I was standing up when my uncle took off. We were looking for my cousin Mary Ann’s pet cow, Lady Byrd, that had run off. The Gift “But I don’t…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Alrighty, then. Native North Carolinian, former bartender / caterer / chef, middle child of a small-town veterinarian and a home economist extraordinaire. Know the heady joy of running behind the mosquito-spray truck on a sticky summer night, and that there are some mosquitoes that could down shots of…

And here’s my Southern Legitimacy Statement:  Luisa was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Roll Tide! On her Mother’s side her family has been in Alabama since before Alabama became a state. Her Mother was actually living in Mexico City when she was expecting, but she made sure she returned to Alabama…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Southern Ohio, where driving forty five minutes one way puts you in West Virginia and thirty five minutes the other way puts you in Kentucky. I was raised by good, god fearing Kentucky folk who…

Southern Legitimacy Statement : Upon graduation from college in 1984, I sweated my way through basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. After earning the title of U.S. Marine, I was permanently stationed at Marine Corps Air Station – Beaufort, South Carolina. That four-year stint was an education in itself….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from Bristol, Virginia, a city that borders Tennessee and is “A good place to live” (so says a sign on the border). I lived on a 10-acre farm for most of my life, and now I go to college in Bluefield, Virginia (another split southern city)….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Though Claire Fullerton resides in Southern California, she considers herself a Southern writer. Having been reared in Memphis, she’ll be the first to tell you that you can take the girl out of the South, but never the South from the soul. Visiting Como, Mississippi I recently travelled…

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. The Thing About Dancers in Buenos Aires… Sitting in a café downtown Buenos Aires, the late-summer air…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: First… her name is Bobbi Lynn. I mean, really. Bobbi Lynn was born and raised in The Carolinas. She grew up in a small town where her school principal often commented publicly on how well those Neely kids did in school considering their parents worked in textiles….

The Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in San Antonio, TX but now live in VT. “You can take the Texan out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas out of the Texan.” The Invisibles Are Back It’s June. The invisibles are back and they have made our garden verdant. The Forget Me Nots are…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement is as follows: I’m a proud Arkansan even with it hurts to be, and I’ve found hill people and southern charm around the world. Biscuits aren’t always fluffy, but you know when you’ve eaten one. To add to that statement, and in defense of the subject of…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Earnest and I were bird hunting around the back cornfield near the property line a the dairy we were hunting, when Joe, Earnest’s pointer spooked up a bunch of buzzards. Didn’t know the significance then but this was to be my encounter with a dead mule. How the…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Southern Ohio, where driving forty five minutes one way puts you in West Virginia and thirty five minutes the other way puts you in Kentucky. I was raised by good, god fearing Kentucky folk who…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a proud Southerner from Memphis, Tennessee, who now lives in Southern California, which makes me all the more Southern, for I am now a Southern ambassador. As a bona fide representative of the South, I am intent upon preserving her lyrical language, her hospitable manners, and…

My Southern Statement is as follows:  Luisa Kay Reyes was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Roll Tide! Her mother wanted to be sure she was born in the South, so even though she was living in Mexico while she was expecting, she wanted to be sure her children could rightfully claim…

Southern Legitimacy Statement (a story in its own right) I was born Paul Andrew Fogle in Norfolk VA and grew up in Virginia Beach, and as far back as I know all but 2 threads of my family in the U.S. are from either Virginia or Mississippi: my paternal great…