Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am one of the 54 grandchildren of Mila and Esther and our enormous family’s Christmas Eve tradition was having bottle rocket wars against each other across a field of corn while our parents (all 22 of them) prepped the massive amounts of fried chicken, field peas,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in the frosty Minnesota where the winters are long and harsh, and the sight of green grass is a memory to be cherished. That doesn’t mean that I’m as cold as the weather, though, and after visiting the south on numerous occasions, I feel I’ve picked…

My Southern legitimacy lies in being a native and lifelong citizen of a City that was once largest in the South and called its Queen City, la Nouvelle Orleans in l’Isle d’Orleans in SE Louisiana (the place whose bankers’ ten dollar francophonic dollars it’s said gave rise to the name”Dixie”)….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Last year when Fairfax High school had a legitimate threat from a potential school shooter, the idea for this story began. When our local Jewish Community Center was horrifically vandalized, my thoughts turned to how faith and politics were represented in my Southern community. An Article of…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The story was inspired by a woman who lost everyone she loves and lives alone with her memories in a Southern mansion. L’appel du Vide The new moon has cast darkness over my home. A home sealed with squeals, laughter and cries for mom. I’ve lived here…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is a complex kaleidoscope of contradictions that historically coexisted through compartmentalizing when ideal clashed with real. Brutality and gentility, discrimination and democracy, hospitality and race/class hostility, and more odd couples, lived and live in our kaleidoscope, which at each twist shifts the aspect created by…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: This is a fake news story of how Nags Head, North Carolina lost its apostrophe. How Nags Head Lost its Apostrophe “Take it and be damned!” . . . Thomas J. Harkaway Perhaps the first and most important thing to say about Nags Head is that virtually…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I read that you folks originated in Pamlico. I used to work for the Sun Journal in New Bern. That was back in the days when daily newspapers were healthy. This story is one of a 100 that focuses on the city of Greensburg and Dinwoodie County,…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My Grampa Navy was from Copper Hill, Tennessee, a place that still sounds like “Copper Heel, Tin ah see” when I type the words even though it’s been decades since he spoke about the acid and the Burra Burra mine. When I was about 9, living near…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from the deep south of the Deep South, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I lived in the Glory Land for 30 years until I decided to spread my Southerness abroad, and now I live in Bangkok, Thailand, promoting Southern speech (especially “y’all”) to coworkers and students alike. The…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: “Southern since ’63 with no plans to go anywhere else!” Mr. Aldon When my father died, Aldon Keane attended his wake in soiled jeans and a stained tee-shirt, his face a mask of tears. He hurtled into the sanctuary as though trying to forestall an emergency, to…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Having recently purchased an old farmhouse in rural Georgia allows for all kinds of inspiration. Some wonderful and some horrific. This story is one such instance. Good Fences Phone calls that come early in the morning are never good news. “Your daughter is in jail.” “Your bees…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: We moved from West Virginia to South Carolina in 1952. The other kids were surprised I wore shoes and I was equally surprised that they did not. My step-father moved us to Aiken when he took a job at the Savannah River Plant, which was nicknamed “the…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a Southerner born and raised on a tobacco farm in Eastern North Carolina. The farm sits on a hill with a small creek running around its base. The slopes are wooded, so only about half of the acreage is cleared, but tobacco was a labor-intensive…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas home of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks and what was once one of the prettiest little Southern squares you might ever see. I was gone a long time and missed the square when it fell on hard times and nearly got…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Along with Rosey Grier I was born in Tyler deep in the piney woods. Soon after that blessed event my mother rode the train to L.A. with her baby, but I returned to Texas every summer through adolescence. Eventually I traded LaLaLand for the Deep South where…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Only in the South can you walk into the woods and be surrounded by something so familiar yet so different from everything you’ve ever known. It is like seeing a life-long friend and forgetting their name: there’s the tenderness that you remember in the back of your…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is a complicated thing for me. It’s where I was born — North Carolina, to be exact. It’s where I couldn’t wait to leave. It’s where I’ve always been. This region has beautiful places and people. But it also continues to be haunted by demons…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Richard grew up in the north, moved to Tennessee in 1992.  Later moved to the Charleston suburb of Summerville, SC where he enjoys sweet tea and grits (rhymes with “as good as it gets”).   Grave Speak “Gee Paw, mommy thinks you are getting too old to…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: If you don’t believe I’m legitimately Southern by now, Val, you ain’t right in the haidbone. Rusty Roses Mama used to say that she never had to lecture me much because I knew right from wrong. She told me that when I was about ten in the…

I am a happy Southern transplant and have lived in the beautiful state of Tennessee for six years now. I adore this place and have absolutely no plans to leave. The plates on my car and frequent use of the word “y’all” both confirm that I am firmly planted. Strike…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My family never hid our crazy folks; they generally sat on the front porch and enjoyed the breeze just like the family who weren’t crazy. Come to think of it, we all had some crazy mixed in amongst our sanity. My mother cooked red-eye gravy every time…

Southern Legitimacy Statement : I grew up running barefoot through the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains chasing crappie by day and visiting with family on the front porch as lightning bugs lit up the night sky. I ran off with the U.S. Air Force and ended up with a law degree…

Wow! What an amazing bunch of talent we have here in Dead Mule Territory. Had over 85 entries in the Flash Fiction Competition. The fierce competition is over and we have a winner! We will publish the Winner and Five Honorable Mentions in the June 2019 Dead Mule School of…