The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Ray Sharp – “Ozark Spring Suite” – A Poem

Southern Legitimacy Statement: The son of two Yankee carpetbaggers, I was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, a border town where the residents, Lou-uh-villians, brag about the fact that they don't live in Indiana. In fifth grade, when Jim Rife asked me if I were a Yank or a Reb, I was confused because of my alien parentage, and replied "Well, the North won, so that makes us all Yankees now, right?" Wrong! But now that I live in the land of perpetual snow, I miss the dogwoods and magnolias in springtime, tubing through the Red River Gorge in summer, cross-country meets at Seneca Park in the fall, and UL and UK basketball in the winter (go Cards!). I can tell you exactly where I was when Christian Laettner hit that turn-around buzzer-beater over two Wildcat defenders to lead Duke to the Final Four. And my favorite breakfast is the cheese eggs, raisin toast, grits and black coffee at—where else?---Waffle House.
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Barbara Young – “Rough as a Cob” – A Poem

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and still have my cradle roll certificate from the First Baptist Church. I have chased hens off nests in blackberry rows, and used two-holer--winter and summer. I am, however, left-justified to an extreme and if attacked, apt to become passive-aggressive.
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Maryann Corbett – “Depression Glass: Blue Bowl” – A Poem

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in McLean, Virginia, before there was a Beltway to provide a line of demarcation between Those Government People and Real Virginians. I further qualified myself by going to college at William and Mary, where my classmates had Southern accents and there were actual magnolias trees and crape myrtle bushes on campus. You mustn't hold it against me that I moved to Minnesota for graduate school and ended up staying here, where my thin Southern blood freezes every January.
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Mary Ellen Allen – “The Sweet, Sweet South” – A Poem

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I would be a Southerner even if I was not a Southerner. I was born and raised in Mississippi. Not just Mississippi, but South Mississippi, South South Mississippi. If someone asks me who I am, I say, "I am a Mississippi girl." I moved to Tennessee as a teenager, but we all know Tennessee is not the real South. They try hard, so we have to give them some credit. I have written several poems about the South in my Creative Writing class and these are actually the first poems I have ever written. I hope you like them. Thank you for taking the time to read them. Mary Ellen Allen (Look! I even have a Southern name!)
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

David McLain – “Texas”

Southern Legitimacy Statement: David Lee McLain is the great-great-great-grandnephew of Robert E Lee, the second cousin twice removed of Harper Lee, and a first cousin three times removed of that classiest of all southern gentlemen, Baby-Faced Nelson. He is currently on loan to an institute of higher learning in the Northeast, but is hoping to see the dry plains of Texas very soon.
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Poetry

Robert James Laws, III – “We didn’t know” – A Poem

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a native of North Carolina, a devoted fan of Duke basketball, and a hopeless Cheerwine addict. I'm also a vegan, and the worst part of eschewing animal products is not being able to eat a bowl of grits drowned in at least a stick of butter, and Lexington style barbeque. OK, so I do cheat once in a while, most likely because my Georgia Granny used her finger dipped in sausage gravy as my first- and favorite- pacifier. I lived outside of the South for 4 years while attending seminary in Pittsburgh, but high-tailed it back down South of Mason-Dixon the day after graduation, accepting a position in an Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia. My proudest achievement: teaching Yankees how to say y'all and all y'all.
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

The Hunger of Dogs by Rebecca Clay Haynes

Southern Legitimacy Statement: You couldn’t make my husband leave the South if you set a pack of dogs on him -- he’s spent his whole life in North Carolina but for a spell in Vietnam and that was against his will. I, on the other hand, landed here by accident and have spent some good years plotting my escape. Born and raised Yankee, don’t you know."
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Your Head or Your Heart by Andrew Waters

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m Southern because a photo of Robert E. Lee hung in my childhood home but I was named for a bona fide scalawag. I root for Lost Causes like Tar Heel football and Democrats. I’m Southern because when I lived in New York, and some sassy New York City girl teased me about my accent, I said, “What accent?” I think Pabst Blue Ribbon tastes like piss. I hear trains in the night. I still hate Jesse Helms and that son-of-a-bitch has been dead for years. I’m Southern because my momma’s buried in the shadow of Thomas Wolfe’s angel. I’m as Southern as the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is where I’m from. Is that Southern enough for you?
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

Room by J. Malcom Garcia

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I say ya'll and I declare and I think billboards quoting scripture are as natural as trees. So whatever ya'll may say otherwise, I declare in the presence of the Almighty, that's southern.
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Fiction

How to Treat a Horse by Kitty Liang

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Being born and raised in Beijing doesn't make me a Southerner. But two-stepping to George and Merle, wearing bolo ties and spurs on my boots, raising rabbits and barrel racing do. Most of all, it's the drinking of Southern Comfort that makes me so.
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