The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature No good Southern writing is complete without a dead mule. Established 1996.

Category: Poetry

Jefferson Fortner :: A Honky-Tonk Epiphany; My Grandfather’s Garden; Wine, Women, and Song ::

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a lifelong resident of North Carolina, as were my parents, and my grandparents, and great-grandparents, reaching back to well before the American Revolution. It must be admitted, however, that there were a few immigrants from...

Poetry

Biff Rushton :: Where 42 Crosses The Sabine : George Daniel ::

Southern Legitimacy Statement: In early 1835 my fourth great grandfather, John Nolan and his brother James, fled the Tithe War in Ireland and arrived upon the fringes of revolution in Texas. A little over a year later, Texas had become...

Poetry

Jessica Sampley :: The Cowcumber Poem; South Florida: the lover driving alone sees Indian River fruit; and At the Mill Creek Dam, Carbon Hill, Alabama—the Night Jay Almost Died ::

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I open my mouth and the South comes out. I grew up listening to my mawmaw’s stories and trying to come to terms with the beauty, complexities, and dualities of growing up in rural Alabama, and I...

Poetry

William Heath :: Preacher Knox; Jail, No Bail; Tales from Liberty ::

Southern Literature: For five years I taught American literature and creative writing at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, the favorite school of the antebellum aristocracy in the South; I am the author of an award-winning novel about the civil rights...

Poetry

Richard Collins :: Cement Buddha and The Past Is Not Past ::

Southern Legitimacy Statement My first two wives (it didn’t work out; it didn’t work out) were from Southern California, where I grew up, but the third (the charm) is from Louisiana. Her Cajun father – who spoke no English until...

Poetry

Marsha Owens :: Boarded Up ::

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Richmond, VA, I’ve made it my forever home. My paternal grandpa was a waterman on the Chesapeake Bay, and to this day, I’m a seafood snob. I married an ex-Amishman to whom all things Southern...

Poetry

Thomas Orr :: The Snake : Genesis : Virginia Tiger Moth ::

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve spent most of my life halfway between the concrete North and green South of Virginia: wandering about the woods, swimming in dark lakes, catfishing, and drinking whiskey over card tables to Son House and Lightnin’ Hopkins....