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 education in anatomy, albeit not a very welcome one. I was not skilled in marbles. That was my sister’s domain….

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 radio tries to make riding tractors sound fun. I have two tattoos. One of them is a pig inside the…

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, included The Originals, who also dispatched some of my other relatives at the Blue Ridge frontier; Ancient Planters, which sounds…

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, where we settled when my dad retired from the military. Columbus — if you didn’t already know it — was…

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 a tea, I was surprised at it being unsweet. I know now that I will forever belong to the land…

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. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter. You find that in searching for the truth that nothing is intrinsically black…

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 the South. When Someone Opens a Door (Be Prepared to Walk Through) That step All I had to do was…

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.  Helen served as poetry editor for the Dead Mule for such a long time, I don’t remember when she wasn’t…

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. My two-year-old son enjoys making angel biscuits with his great-grandmother, and I do, too. Fossil Black Warrior River It is…

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 regular-town sized. My dad grew up in the military and then became a preacher, so we’ve wandered around a lot…

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 a prayerOf my own:A meditation on the sounds ofDaybreak:The cawing of crows,Rain falling,A hammer,A broom’s sweeping inThe street,A saw,The babbling…

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 Pamlico River. I teach at East Carolina University. I’ve written about Southern writers through most of my career, but have…

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 the same time, therefore I am NOT related to EVERY Griffin in North Carolina. Just most of them. Gannetts Brisk…

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 the Jefferson Davis monument. My grandpa used to say “you can’t beat a dead mule and expect him to pull…

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 the reddest red clay of Georgia. We didn’t brag about it, though. Did the red clay of Georgia ever catch…

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, which is actually traditionally considered to be “The South,” and, after trying hushpuppies and sweet tea, I can say I…

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 my midwestern roots to savor Blue Ridge mountain hikes and white-water rafting somewhere under thick foggy mornings and red clay…

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 a part of realizing that goal. I grew up in Matthews, North Carolina, spending most of my time acting in…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Paul Jones was born in Hickory, NC. He did started his growing up in Charlotte, then spent four years at NC State. Having been at NC State allowed him to teach for 40 years at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Of a Marriage My…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: We don’t say ‘I’m from the South’ here. I usually don’t have to say where I’m from. People know our Texas from the way we talk, slow. The way we walk, with a purpose. The way we act, hospitable. The way we dress, not to please you….

Southern Legitimacy Statement: With the exception of four years in Starkville, Mississippi and short stretch in Lexington, Kentucky, I have lived my life in Memphis, Tennessee, which is actually more Arkansan and Mississippian than Tennesseean. It’s a city of light, sound, oak trees, and give and take. We’ve Been Places…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Perhaps some would say that as a transplanted Yankee, I could only write a Southern Illegitimacy Statement, but I lived in the South between the age of 8 and the age of 23. I got my hands smelly playing in the polluted Timber Branch near my home…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The simple fact of being a South Carolinian is enough to qualify me as southern, but i feel my inner southerner is a result of being a Barnet woman. A Barnet woman will rip a person to shreds with a wink and a smile. Barnet women are…

Southern Legitimacy Statement: …taught for five years at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, the oldest college west of the Appalachians where the Deep South used to send their favorite sons. In the years he devoted to writing his award-winning novel about the civil rights movement in Mississippi, The Children Bob…