
Theresa Jones :: Hundred Dollar Shoes ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised Roll Tide. I learned to cook with three spices: salt, pepper, and bacon fat. I was a young adult before I ever heard of barbecued beef. Barbecue sauce was white. In the...

Christopher S. Bell :: Stream ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My South is steam rising up from the lake water and a wealth of abandoned antiquieties sitting on shelves, thier paint slowly fading from the heat. It’s an empty space that flakes like skin and haunts from...

David Newdorf :: Amor vincit omnia ::
I was born, raised, educated, married, raised kids, and divorced south of the Mason Dixon line — just a few thousand miles away on the the West Coast. At other times, I’ve lived in South Florida, partied in NOLA, been...

Lucas Zuehl :: Emily ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I used to live in Texas, and it was the only place in the US where people would come up and talk to me without selling me something. Emily A low banging pulses throughout her head. At...

Leo Coffey :: Gutted ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in a small community in Western North Carolina. I come from a long line of trade workers, musicians, and storytellers. The South is my home. Gutted The glow of the moon overhead...

Susan Pepper Robbins :: Fred Speaks at Last ::
My Southern Legitimacy Statement is this: I have lived in rural Virginia for 75 years and seen the public schools integrated, the white flight schools close and some Confederate Statues come down. I love the good parts of the South:...

P. A. Knight :: La-Z-Boy ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Richmond, Virginia and still live there. My momma was from Franklin County and grew up on bootleg money. My daddy’s from Johnson City, Tennessee. When it’s warm I try to jump in the...

Kenneth M. Kapp :: Bragging Rights ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve been in the south. Got shot at running rural streets in Raleigh, NC; ran free on the levees in New Orleans. Love Faulkner. Parents & in-laws retired in Florida. Almost died from fire ants in Tarpon...

June Sylvester Saraceno :: Charming Bed and Breakfast in English Countryside ::
I was born and raised in rural North Carolina. I left the South in my mid-twenties, but the South never left me. Now on the other side of the country–out West–when I talk about home, I’m usually talking about eastern...

Edward Michael Supranowicz :: A Hundred years From Now ::
Legit: I actually like grits and okra and somewhat understand the everyday despair in Faulkner. A Hundred years From Now There had been 10 pandemics since the first. There also had been two World Wars, 6 race wars, and 3...

Darla Hitchcock :: I Was Either the Chaperone or the Comic Relief ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up Southern. Southern California, that is, though my cousins moved to North Carolina (still south!) when we were young teens. So, I’ve spent a significant amount of time in the sticky south. I’m definitely in...

Dwight Hinson :: You Don’t Meet Many Poets Down at the Slaughterhouse Anymore ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve heard it both ways. I was born at the Boyce Clinic in Hohenwald Tennessee, or at my grandparents’ house in Napier in Lewis County, a defunct ore mining community deserving of a metal sign. They are...

Dan Russell :: Red Sky Morning ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I used to race against chickens in the backyard after my Papaw lopped their heads off. I also once inadvertently bought a goat at the sale barn. Red Sky Morning I didn’t sleep well. All night long,...