Chris Epenshade :: Roadkill ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement, I am proud to have had seven pieces published by the Dead Mule School. I was raised in North Carolina, and I went to college and grad school in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. When I lived...
Darcy Lee :: Peach and Proud ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in South Georgia, where our “snow” grows from the ground, and the only thing sweeter than the tea is the hospitality of folks. Only two words needed to sum up my first eighteen years...
Narya Deckard :: “Thinking About Kentucky and the Wolfpen Poems,” “The River Yearning,” and “Cicadas” ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Appalachia, just south of the Mason Dixon, That invisible line the weight of a dead mule. Ramps, trillium, and mayapples Showed me where I ended And West Virginia began. Appalachia, a few hundred miles south Of that...
Holly Thompson :: The Heeler’s Lyric; The Facts of the Legal Matter ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My submissions are sent to you with a promise of Southern Legitimacy, as I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (birthplace of the atomic bomb) and continue to capture and pen down just a few of the...
Jane Sasser :: Why She Poisoned Him; Ode to Barn Clothes; Bargains ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I attended high school in a small community in North Carolina where our track team consisted of six members, and my friend and I had to convince the coach to let us girls on the team. We...
Savannah S. Miller. :: In Tennessee, Part II ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in a little town in southern Virginia whose claim to fame was an extremely popping Dairy Queen and a gas station with fried chicken that could put any KFC to shame. I spent four...
Richard George :: Poetry ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I attended Tulane University and lived and worked in New Orleans upon completion of my studies. From an apartment by the Fairgrounds, in the middle 1990s, I published the avant-garde literary magazine, Mystery Itch. Mentally, I never...
Sage Yamashita :: Three Poems ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My dad worked for the State Department and I spent most of my life growing up living south of the equator including Ecuador, Peru, and South Africa. There are places and people there whose names and initials...
Jane Blanchard :: Undertaking ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Native to Virginia and long-resident in Georgia, I’m as Southern as Southern can be. (Let’s not talk about the seven-year stretch in New Jersey.) A prominent Mid-Western poet once told me during a workshop, “I could listen...
Rosalie Hendon :: Poetry ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Though my parents met in their home state of Ohio, they settled in Tallahassee, Florida to start their family. I was born in Tallahassee and lived there till I was 18. I then studied at the University...
Al Russell :: Poetry ::
A former Carolina Girl, I am now a Carolina Person. I went Up North for Poetry School but decided it was too cold and it wasn’t enough culture there and also GOD living expenses were too high and my Mama...
Carter Welch :: delta works ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My father’s grandparents moved to Greenville, South Carolina when he was young. He visited them and noticed their accents changing. My mother grew up so far south in Michigan she could walk to the Indiana border. I...
Kirby Wright :: Verse Written During a Movie ::
*I live in Southern California, which is a rival region to the Bay area up north. I followed the EASY RIDER route through the south as a teen and tested the width of Texas before battling impossible fog in Mobile....
Michael Ball :: Admonition ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Michael Ball scrambled from daily and weekly papers through business and technical pubs. Born in OK and raised in rural WV, he became more citified in Manhattan and Boston. As one of the Hyde Park Poets, he...
E. R. Lutken :: Bonnie Blue ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Mississippi, raised in Texas on a diet of church, the fiction of Walter Scott, and fishing. Spent a lot of time in other parts since, but now live in Louisiana, and still go fishing. Bonnie...
Scott Piner :: Coloring / Mighty Mississippi ::
SOUTHERN LEGITIMACY STATEMENT: I grew up crossing the Mississippi River each weekend to go four-wheeling, fishing, and running around barefoot. From Quincy, Illinois, to Maywood, Missouri, my dad and I would return to his country roots. I’d watch dad and...
J. O. Winberry :: Birdhouse ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am perhaps somewhat controversially Southern in that I was born and raised, and currently reside, in Southern California. We are the nail in the boot, the thorn in the side, the worm in the tequila of...
Vincent Worsley :: The Dogs Are Out ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, in the suburb belly of hill country. My neighborhood is prowled by feral cats and the occasional stray dog— those dogs are the core of this poem, “The...
Lindsey McIntosh :: Tragedy of Mrs. McQueen :: When Rivers Run Red ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Southern Appalachia is home. The mountains have consistently entered their service as the building blocks of what it means to be alive. Within its peaks and valleys, I was raised by fearless women–their strength and light guided...
Thomas Macfie :: Edge-of-Water ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Sewanee, TN, on the campus of the University of the South, an appellation instigating much debate, angst, and consternation, as well as ecstatic generational joy for some, and excruciating generational pain...
Heather Loudermilk :: Three Poems ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I come from West Virginia folks who moved around after World War II and eventually settled in Bassett, Virginia. I’m a mix of Appalachian and Southern, with an accent that skips quick instead of drawling slowly through...
Melanie McGehee :: Remember Me :: Three Poems ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Have you heard me talk? No. In that case, I’ve spent all of my 53 years in the rebellious state of South Carolina. I love cornbread and pot liquor. I question wearing white after Labor Day. I...
Almyr L. Bump :: Quiet Splendor; Other Clay; A Harsh Reminder ::
I am a native of Dobson, North Carolina, so yes, I am in fact south of somewhere! I am an infantry officer working as a regional response planner for NORTHCOM Homeland Region I. Quiet Splendor Landmarks and milestones speakto us...
Lisa Kosow :: Jerry Lee Lewis Pushes a Piano into the Ocean :: Three Poems ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the Blue Ridge mountains in southwestern Virginia, and those mountains are still imprinted on my soul—I find it necessary to visit and hike there every year. My father raised me on bluegrass music,...
David Kirby :: My Hometown ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I spent the first twenty-four years of my life in the South, so when I started looking for jobs, I decided I’d live anywhere but. I ended up with five job offers, all in Southern cities. I remember...
Poetry
Essays
