Southern Legitimacy Statement: As proclaimed in the foreword of my coming-of-age novel “Saint Andrews’ Parish”: “I count it a blessing of the first magnitude: Being born in Charleston, South Carolina, and growing up in that part of it known as Saint Andrew’s Parish. ‘The Parish,’ as many referred to it,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Now, I’m not about to claim New Orleans as distinctly southern, and certainly not New Smyrna Beach or Key West. And I’m sceptical of all variants of y’all on the page. But look at how I spell sceptical…. Three Bus Having brought the coffee to his lips,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was raised in Georgia and came of age in Bama. Summer’s are for fishin’, fryin’ okra, and makin’ tomato sandwiches. Come winter, I’m cussin’ the cold with a glass of bourbon. My wife makes damn fine apple butter jelly, which I hand out to just about…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: One day while riding my motorcycle, I came upon a sign that read “site of the Mason-Dixon Line”. I looked at it for a while, then crossed to the other side, then back again, then sorta straddled it, then started my bike again. Edward Michael Supranowicz has…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I spent a large chunk of my life in Birmingham, Alabama, working as a freelance writer for various companies, institutions, and magazines. Most of the time I was the only non-Southerner in the group, which can be fine or not so fine. Southerners can be cruel but…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My Momma made me a sack out of a pair of my Daddy’s old blue jeans when I was six-year-old. What on earth for you might be asking. So I could pick cotton. If that ain’t legit enough you can kiss my… Hit and Run First cold…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I attended East Carolina U., Virginia Tech., and NC State U. I married a southern gentleman and have lived in North Carolina for over forty-three years. Once I could pronounce “y’all” as a one syllable word and eat grits, I considered myself a true southern. Wilted “Sharp…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Whelp, I’ve definitely thought about the South before, and I get offended when greens aren’t cooked right, so I’m probably the most legitimately Southern person you’ve ever heard of. Apocalypse Now Until the Streetlights Come On James crawled along a dry patch of shade behind the large…

*Southern Legitimacy Statement: To you folks, I’m not sure I’m legitimate. Read on… Ben Gilbert is founder of TheBlueSpace Guides Co-operative and a consultant to Child Space Foundation, Nepal. He lives in the United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. * so he’s legitimate, right Mules?…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I don’t know if any of my people were legitimate, but they were most certainly poor dirt farmers in the Carolinas back into the 1600’s. My folks consider sweet potato a vegetable, and salads wiggle like a hula girl’s hips. Is that a decent enough pedigree to…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I spent half of my childhood living in an out-of-place dome house in a forest in Arkansas. My dad grew weed in the backyard and told me it was “smelly okra.” Shelf Clouds “Why would she make me go that way?” he asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a native Mississippian, born in Hattiesburg, and raised just across the river in Petal, Mississippi. Most of my life, I was a professional illustrator and graphic designer. About two years ago, I moved to South Carolina, and I am now pursuing my MFA in Creative…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up and have lived in Missouri (Mizzourah), Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia; my family lives in Alabama (WAR EAGLE!) and Tennessee; the Lake of the Ozarks in Arkansas is our Redneck Riviera. In my story, creek is pronounced “crick.” Creek On The…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: “No good Southern fiction is complete without a Dead Mule.” Karen is South of somewhere, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Pyrotechnics Leon whips the top of the lighter back and forth like a battle-ready Kalthoff repeater. The rhythmic clicking builds to a percussive fury as Jory approaches. Dust…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Southern since ’63 with no plans to change. What a Jezebel Looks Like If I never say nothing else in my life that’s true, they’s one thing I can say for sure and be satisfied about it: Men is dogs and always have been dogs and always…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Galveston, TX, and raised in Houston after my family evacuated following Hurricane Carla. I am educated at the University of Texas, Texas State University, and Texas Tech. That’s a whole bunch of southern bona fides. But here’s more. I grew and still enjoy…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: We were a prototypical southern nuclear family. My Papaw came up in the Great Smokey Mountains, near Farner Tennessee and Cherokee North Carolina. When he was nine, he lost track of the time one summer evening, squirrel hunting up on the mountain, and he avoided a sound…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My hometown straddles the bleeding northern edge of the South. The Mason-Dixon line runs directly through it; on the map, that line is a rut carved jagged in the earth. Step to one side, you’re in the North. Step to the other, you’re in the South. Directly…

I have no clue what information is pertinent, so without further ado: K. J. Kovacs – Southern Legitimacy Statement : I had a bona fide sign from the King. Make that signs, plural. I’m tempted not to tell you about the signs, because maybe you don’t deserve to know. I…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Mark Mulholland is not from the South and has never been there. In fact Mark isn’t from the USA at all, or indeed Canada or the UK or even Australia or anywhere snazzy like that. Mark, through no fault of his own, was born and raised in…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Married to a woman from Ocilla, GA, who dated a lobbyist for the Tennessee Medical Association, who collected fascinating (and actual) causes of death, hence the title. Went to Bed Fine, Woke Up Dead SHE’D GONE TO bed in the Johnson City Stopover – that much was…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and grew up in the pines and blackwater creeks of central Louisiana. In the Army I had the privilege to spend some time in Tennessee and Kentucky, but the only bluegrass band I ever got to see was in a desert in Egypt…

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I moved to a small farm on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in 2004 on which I put a conservation easement. The community of woods, pond, fields and salt marsh will be forever protected from the ravages of development and industrialized chicken farming flooding in from the north….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I hail from the Deep South–Hattiesburg, Mississippi. While I now live overseas in Bangkok, Thailand, I make sure to incorporate Southern living on a daily basis. I cook biscuits often, read to my daughter in my best Southern accent, and encourage my colleagues to say “y’all.” It’s…