Category: Fiction

CL Bledsoe is the Assistant Editor of the Dead Mule. This essay is part of his ongoing series of memoirs — published bi-monthly here on the Mule. Rice Fields Timmy wanted to see this girl. He had some peach schnapps and...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and due to the divorce of my parents, went back and forth between there and Benton County, Mississippi which, at the time, was the 36th poorest county in the United States. Graduated...

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  Stephen Harris is from Cayce, SC and currently lives in Raleigh, NC. He eats a biscuit for breakfast every Friday because he used to eat a biscuit for breakfast everyday. He just ate a Cheerwine donut and...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: To start with, I can’t find your so-called “Southern Legitimacy Statement” on this website, so you can just kiss my old southern ass if you don’t think I am southern enough for you. My forbearer James Castellow was...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Writer and veteran. Born in Africa, currently live in Washington State. Oh, it doesn’t really end there, but that should be good for now. Since some people tend to ask: yes I served in the US Army. I...

The sky was so high and so blue we got dizzy staring up at it. Contrails criss-crossed like giant, white, pick-up sticks. Stumbling out into the sun after so many hours of nothing but being fat-assed on the sofa, eyes...

Once we needed Christmas lights for a 4th of July party, so I went out to the shed, which was getting a little rough after Katrina and Wilma, and there was a possum sleeping on the Christmas lights, and I...

  My SLS: Native New Orleanian. Lover of family, jazz, grits, gumbo, Mardi Gras, porches, and Pimm’s Cup.  Besides living in New Orleans, I have a son, a dog, and a cat, and have taught English at Southeastern Louisiana University...

Southern Legitimacy Statement (redux): ’m a fifth generation East Tennessean. I’ve cleared fields, dug post holes, chopped wood, and hauled hay. Had a beagle named Clyde that wadn’t worth a damn. As a teen I worked at the local AM country...

The Strange Case of David Lang I was named for my great-grandfather, David Lang. David has long been a source of speculation and fascination owing to his disappearance near Gallatin, Tennessee, on September 23, 1880. He supposedly vanished into thin...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m so Southern that it’s literally the only thing I know how to write about. I was born and raised in the mill town of Kannapolis, North Carolina to a family with accents so thick you could...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m a fifth generation East Tennessean. I’ve cleared fields, dug post holes, chopped wood, and hauled hay. Had a beagle named Clyde that wadn’t worth a damn. As a teen I worked at the local AM country...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Texan turned South Carolinian, I’ve been tailgating more than I’ve been kissed–but I get all the sugar I need from my sweet tea.