Jessica Weyer Bentley: Poem: July 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: As with all volunteer vegetation, I was transferred South as a seedling in the wind as my mother decided to give a southern man a chance the…
Category: Poetry
Kent Reichert: Poem: July 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Los Angeles, CA and Belews Creek, NC can be found around the 35th parallel. Both are referred to as “southern” even though they exist at opposite ends…
Carol Parris Krauss: Poem: July 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born from two western NC mountain folk and have kissed the clouds crossing Grandfather Mountain Bridge. As a Clemson graduate, like my father before me,…
Jerry Hogan: Poetry: July 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m from Fayetteville, in Northwest Arkansas. Geographically, we’re just barely in the South and are sometimes listed as being in the Southwest – that’s a joke. I…
B. Lynn Zika: Poetry: June 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: As a child I took comfort in our town square statue. He faced the direction of the state college where my father taught English. To his right…
Byron Hoot: Poetry: June 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised in West Virginia now living in The Wilds of Pennsylvania. Once born in Appalachia, you never live any place else in your heart. Returning…
B. Lynne Zika: Poetry: May 2022
Southern legitimacy statement: Chub Petersen’s mama didn’t teach him the necessity of summer underthings when he sat in shorts playing marbles on my front sidewalk. Consequently I received an early…
S. Preston Duncan: Poetry: May 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve spent my life in Virginia, where I’ve worked barbecue pits and the cattle farm that supplied them. I have no idea why the twangpop on the…
Marjorie Gowdy: Poetry: May 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement Or, I’ll Carry Myself Back Reared on buttered biscuits and fresh corn yet eschewing pinto beans, I am of the South. My people, as we call them,…
John Dorroh: Memoir: May 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in LaRochelle, France, to parents who were serving in the US Army. My dad was from Alabama, and my mom was from Columbus, Mississippi,…
Victoria R. A. Nicholls: Poetry: April 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My whole life I never knew that my go-to drink was an area specific thing~ I found out when I went to Arkansas and when I asked for…
James Ryer: Poetry: April 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is comprised of mesmerizing layers of contradiction: What people believe is true or not true. Who you choose to believe. And, what is actually true.…
Andy Betz: Poetry: April 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri and now live (very, very) close to Atlanta. With the exception of college, I have spent my entire life in…
Helen Losse: A Flower More Enduring
Helen Losse communicates joy and love through her poetry. She lets us into her soul. She reveals her spiritual underpinning and creates verses that sing and shine in their glory. …
Joshua Dugat: Poetry: March 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Austin, Texas, attended college in Virginia and have lived and worked in New Orleans and Tuscaloosa for the 12 years since.…
Katherine Wiles: Poetry: March 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My mother is the kind of Southern that’s related to half the phone book. Her family lived on a cattle farm outside Murfreesboro back when it was…
Lee Daniels: Poetry: March 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Lee received his MFA from the School of Letters, University of the South, Sewanee, TN. Morning Meditation A bell is ringingFor someone’s first puja.And meanwhile IAm making…
Margaret Bauer: Poetry: March 2022
Southern legitimacy statement: I am originally from south Louisiana, where I grew up on the Bayou Teche. I now call eastern North Carolina home, where I live part-time on the…
Bill Griffin: Poetry: Feb 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My greatlygreatgrandfather Thomas Griffin moved from Virginia after the Revolution and settled in Union County NC in the 1780’s. Evidently a few other Griffins came south around…
Grey Held: Poetry: Jan 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the capital of the Confederacy, a stone’s throw from the James River. My dad grew up on Monument Avenue, a stone’s throw from…
James King: Poetry: Jan 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised one block south of the southern shore of Lake Erie, not far from the Cuyahoga River, which back then was redder than…
Ava B. Emmerson: Poetry: Dec 2021
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Philadelphia (Southeastern Pennsylvania), which is south of the rest of Pennsylvania. For the last few years I’ve lived in North Carolina,…
Christina Baumis: Poetry : Nov 2021
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Not a native but I have settled in both Carolinas longer than an eye on a tater. Appreciating over a duo of decades away from kin and…
Rose Jenny: Poetry: Nov 2021
Southern Legitimacy Statement: As a trans woman, I am happy to see you all seeking to create opportunities for a diverse array of southern voices and would love to be…