Category: Fiction

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Ed Laird “Crazy”

Southern Legitimacy Statement For southern highlanders and we who are their descendants, words are revered, but reserved and used with economy. But when the few words we use fail us, music enlarges our emotional vocabularies, and our simple ballads of love and heartbreak speak volumes.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Bobbi A. Chukran “Sadie and the Museum Lady”

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Texas and influenced by eccentric kinfolks who were farmers, artists, graveyard caretakers and sharecroppers. I was raised on fried catfish (caught on trot-lines using blood-bait), fried chicken, collards and turnip greens. I used to help my grandmother gather poke sallet down in the bottoms. At the age of 42, I realized that I was more Southern than Texan. Since then, I haven't forgotten that.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Laura Seaborn “The Turkey’s Beard”

Southern Legitimacy Statement: We moved to Florida when I was sixteen and when we crossed the border into the state, there were bill boards: This is Wallace Country. That was my introduction into a different and intriguing world. I took to the South, learned to love grits, rutabagas, and anything deep fried. My Midwestern born and bred parents never adapted to Southern ways, but I quickly learned to call sweet potatoes, yams, and baked them into pies like any true Southerner.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Caren Rich “The Fruitcake”

Southern Legitimacy Statement I was born and raised in the South. Sweet tea runs through my veins. There are enough lights on my house during the Christmas season to signal planes. I make fruit cake and love the sweet sugary pillows that are divinity. My kids run year round barefoot and the dog doesn't wear a collar. I am southern and proud of it.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Gregg Punger “The Candle Girl”

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised by a true southern woman from Mars Bluff, South Carolina in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where I spent most of my youth making forts and mud slides in the creek behind my house and playing football. Through her stories about her life growing up on a farm and my time spent at my ancestral home, a two story white farm house with columns and a large porch surrounded by woods and acres of fields, I learned to be a southerner.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Steve Gowin “Ringneck”

SLS I am a Yankee... Ok you'd find out sooner or later. But most of my writer friends are Southern writers. My affinities are for Faulkner and O'Connor. Well if that doesn't sink me, I hope you enjoy my story.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Marah Blair “My Grandfather’s House”

Southern Legitimacy Statement I was born in the “sticks” of Central Virginia. Silos across the street, bare feet in the freshly tilled garden patch, and mud fights in the rain. I am a very big fan of sweet tea, biscuits with real salted butter, and good old fashion bon fires. The south is very dear to my heart.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Goings-Ons  in  Pottawatomie County & So Forth & So On by Amy Wilson

"After downing the third Coors, Tommy had to get home to Regina. Tuesday was sex night and he didn’t dare run late. This Tuesday, Regina had promised doggy style and wearing the edible undies. Cherry flavored. Sure, Regina had her problems but she had always remained mostly slender, thank you Jesus, Tommy thought. And she kept the house clutter free of female knick knacks such as glass unicorns and antique dolls. " Read on, yall... Amy Wilson's short story will
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Lee Wright — Tuesday Evening In A Small Southern Town

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Lee Wright was born, raised, and educated in a tiny textile mill town just across the Georgia line from Chattanooga. In spite of that, he managed to learn to translate things like “I knowed that he’d get throwed outta school for drankin’ ‘n’ when he growed up, he wuddn’t gonna ‘mount to nuttin’.” into actual English sentences.
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

The Acceptance Speech by Hope Denney

SLS: I grew up cutting out biscuits on my grandmother’s formica countertop while wearing an apron that belonged to her mother. I am on a first name basis with my relatives that have been dead for over a century and can tell you about every feud that has happened in my home county for the last fifty years.