Nicole Yurcaba: White December
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Nicole Yurcaba is a West Virginian bear huntin' poet, backwoods feminist, farm hand, adjunct instructor of English—basically a Jill-of-all-trades-mistress-to-none. Her family on the maternal side hails from Southern West Virginia and Kentucky. She is finely trained in the Southern art of bear huntin' and 'coon-huntin' with hound (RIP--IKE). When not writing poetry or short stories, she enjoys outfishing and outhunting her father and boyfriend in the wild mountains of eastern West Virginia. In the schools where she teaches, she is the only instructor to teach class while wearing cowgirl-cut Wranglers, Laredo cowboy boots, and a Confederate flag belt buckle.
In life, she refuses to buy a map; doing so could ruin everything.
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Jamie Poole: All of me
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born and raised in Saraland, AL. I love biscuits, cheese grits, and okra. All of my words have at least two syllables, and I've been cow tippin. I am legit. :)
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Jim Davis: In a Coffee Shop in the Plaza on Weed Street
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I spent this weekend past in Bethesda, Maryland, burying and celebrating my Grandmother – a Williams/Davis/Hoover who first was Pessou, a branch of the Louisiana swamp grass family come east upon the war of northern aggression. The small clapboard church atop the hill in which she and our family have gone to rest since the 1700s is lined with framed etchings of Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee; acorns from the chapel’s ancient oak are planted across the south, east, mid- and mountain west in her honor. Davises, many, have been schooled at Sewanee (the University of the South), and my Godfather, Bob, went to earn his MD at the U. of Tennessee. Mine come from the southern banks of the Mississippi and the horse pastures of Rattle and Snap, where southern charm, manners, and hospitality have not been lost on the branches of the Davis tree – not too an affinity for vodka-lemonade on a dusky sun porch, finding ways to beat the heat, and life with deep appreciation of our firmly planted roots.
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Tanya Grae: Four Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born in Sumter, South Carolina while Daddy was stationed at Shaw, though I consider Tennessee home. Uprooted and moved cross-country many times during childhood, summers were spent in Smyrna at Mema and Daddy Tom’s, plus sleep overs at Aunt Ada’s (say A-der). I grew up on fried chicken, bbq, bacon, pinto beans, chow-chow, and fried pies. Nene (Mema’s mama) always crumbled her cornbread in a china cup and ate it like cereal. Daddy Tom was Smyrna’s judge for years, and everyone knows everyone, so don’t go airing your drawers out. Manners are so important, how you speak to others, and offer concern and respect, that you can spot a Yankee right away. I was raised on yes, sir, and no, ma’am, and that’s just how it is. If it wasn’t, well there was surely a switch with my name on it out in the yard. My Cherokee grandmother, Mama Red, was too sweet for that, and she’s the only saint I know. A Southern woman is the strongest spirit, so don’t go kicking her like the dog you hate or a half-dead mule—cause fool, you just won’t.
Denise K. James: Four poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I grew up in Florence, South Carolina and now reside in Charleston. The coast is where I feel most at home, inhaling the scent of the marsh and making post-beach sandwiches with homegrown tomatoes.
William Wright Harris: Four Ekphrastik Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born in Memphis and live in Knoxville; where I attend the University of Tennessee. Some of the more interesting things I have eaten are deer jerky, barbecued alligator, and squirrel-meat omelet.
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Mary Alice MacDonald: Four Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I grew up in central North Carolina, just a few hours away from beaches or mountains. A considerable portion of my childhood summer days were spent in the Ozarks in Arkansas climbing the Mimosa tree in Uncle Berlie's yard and eating biscuits and chocolate gravy for breakfast. I swam in spring-fed creeks, rode horses to church, and slept through (hellfire & brimstone) sermons. Another large portion of my childhood was spent sweating in tent revivals and church meetings in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and generally everywhere south of Ohio and east of Texas. I'm the preacher's daughter. I know where yonder is and how much is in a mess of mustard greens, and Kentucky has provided me with a lifelong allegiance to bourbon and poetry.
Joycelyn Renette: Four Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Knock-kneed and barefoot, eating fresh pecans on Mama D porch; the South was always about surviving; staying above that which can easily bring you down. Walking the same Mason-Dixie line with those still engrossed in America’s fabric; blood, slave stained fabric dripping with racial relevance. From the cattle and horse fields of Texas to the citrus trees of Florida groves, the South was always about surviving; keeping firm faith amongst a storm. Double consciousness becomes the very entity that keeps a collard green, chittlins, cornbread eating child’s mind intact; acknowledging that I am in a world that will never fully accept me for my color is seen first. No matter my age, regardless the decade, the words, “nigger girl!” have still been yelled out of a school bus window at me. Much has changed in the South, yet under the surface much is at a progressive standstill.
Kevin Ridgeway:Three Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I am a California boy, born and bred. The paternal side of my family is wonderfully southern, hailing from scattered places–Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas, especially. My grandfather was a proud southerner, although a drinker and unstable character of ill repute–one you might find in a Carson McCullers novel, perhaps. The most time I’ve actually spent in the South has been in airports–but I could smell its beauty and hear its music having my curbside smokes on those layovers, and I could see the majesty of its landscape from my cabin window. Much of the music I love comes from the South, and much of the literature I love comes from the south. The South is in my blood and it owns a part of my spirit. Most of my dreams take place in the South.
Lizzie Krieg: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
As a child, I lived in Fairfield, Ohio. During the summer, my mom and dad would take me to Cincinnati to get ice cream at Graeter's and we'd hang out on the riverfront. I'd eat my ice cream, always chocolate chip, and look out over the Ohio, and marvel that not only was I looking into another state, but at the subtle distinction that separated the Midwest, where I was, from the South. Even then, at six, I saw something wild about that land over the river, and wondered why Kentucky should seem so much freer than where I was, less than a mile away.
Malinda Fillingim: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I was born and raised in South Carolina, and now I’m living in the Tar-Heel State.
Carol Lynn Grellas: Two Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
My favorite movie is Gone with the Wind. I’ve saved the drapes from every home I’ve ever owned hoping I might salvage a gown or two that even Scarlett would be proud to wear.
Allie Coker-Schwimmer: Caught Between Two Worlds
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I realize that the phrase "Bless Your Heart" is both an insult and a mildly compassionate remark.
Michael Dwayne Smith: Blues for a Day
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
First off, cookin' ... I mean Grandmama's fried chicken, roadside shack boudin sausage made with crawfish, and speaking of crawfish, I mean crawfish étouffée and oyster po-boys and blackened catfish for lunch, with ice cold Turbodog poured all over it-- and don't forget the fried dill pickles, please. Second, blood ... I wasn't born in the South (yes, I admit, southern California), but my family runs through Missouri and Texas, by way of Tennessee. And third, brotherhood ... one of my best friends is from Mississippi, and it's because of him I get to spend time eating, drinking, and photographing in Jackson and Vicksburg and New Orleans. It's just something that walks with you all your days, whether you like it or not, whether you want to feel blues or bluegrass or Irish or cajun in your blood, or no. I'm hungry.
Joanna S. Lee: incongruent
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
Of closer bloodline to Robert E. than to Bruce, I grew up learning battle names: Manassas, not Bull Run; Sharpsburg, not Antietam. And though I was raised nigh the border (Winchester—three battles of its own), I call Richmond, and the banks of the James River, home.
Poetry
Essays
