Southern Legitimacy Statement: Florida is in me and has never left me, though I have left Florida. In Florida I rode the yellow school bus, drove my first car, played guitar in a punk rock band and kissed my first kiss. I swam in sinkholes and drank by rivers and…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Simran Bhakta is an emerging writer from Texas. She likes her tea iced, and sweet (And not served unsweetened with a jar of sugar when she requests it at a restaurant) and says y’all at least once in every sentence. When she’s not writing she moonlights as…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Kansas City, MO. Not technically, on the Missouri side mind you–but that’s the bit of Kansas City I claim. Nothing has ever happened in Kansas, except The Wizard of Oz. I’m tired of people making a Dorothy joke when they meet me for…
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: I live south of Lake Erie now, the shallowest of the Great lakes and the one with the most shipwrecks, but my mother’s family started in Virginia, some as indentured servants, working their way through Tennessee and Kentucky in five generations, before finally ending their journey as…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have lived in the South for 4 generations. I went to college and lived in Chapel Hill for 5 years. This was considered “north”. I did come North and have been here now for decades. I still have dreams about the mashes and my soul longs…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a South Carolina explorer, drama maker, and am known for being a bit high-strung. i enjoy going on long walks, taking pictures of snakes, and love all kinds of critters. Even though i don’t have much of a Southern accent, i’ve lived in the South…
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 have to be carefully explained. He doesn’t hold chairs for…
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: His southern roots go back to the 1750s when the first European branch of his family settled in Virginia. A son, Abendego, enlisted in the Continental Army after the Hard Winter, was inocculated for small pox, under orders of General Washington, got sick, couldn’t muster up, and…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Having moved out of the South for the first time in my life, The Dead Mule has been instrumental in alleviating homesickness. It’s been a great reminder of why I consider the South home. As far as a Southern Legitimacy Statement, it’s hard to know where to…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was raised in a sand blow surrounded by the cotton fields around Black Oak, Arkansas. My kids are still filling empty butter bowls with the same sandy ground I did as a child. I have eaten sardines straight from the tin moments after baiting a fish…
Southern legitimacy statement: My parents dragged me away from the home I loved in Louisville, to put down roots in the frigid Midwest. My time residing in Louisville, the home of my earliest memories, was well spent though. When I wasn’t watching workers pick grapes from the field across the…
We’re chockfull of literary deliciousness this month. Loading poetry, essays, short fiction, and more today but the internet tubes (remember them?) are slow, ponderously so. January certainly is going out like a lion, even eastern NC had snow last week. Highs in the neighborhood of 72 degrees coming up later…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in Missouri and moved to Georgia almost fifty years ago as a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer. After over three decades of service, I retired from Georgia state government. Would They Do It Again? From 1964 to 1968, a handful of Black…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have almost always lived in the South (Southern Maryland, Southern India, Southern Florida, and Southern California). Give me an afternoon under live oak trees dripping with swaying Spanish moss, sweet tea, and a good book, and I’ll be happy. Humidity? Bring it on. It’s just part…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: You’ll know I’m from the South when you hear my drawl, or smell my Meemaw’s peach cobbler bubbling in the oven. Born and raised in Texas, I share with all those who call these steamy lands home a history as much told as untold, as painful as…
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: “Stop bein’ ugly or I’ll paint your back porch red.” Jerked from the reverence of a funeral graveside prayer because the fire ants have crawled into your sandals, driving nails into your feet. Sitting on the porch swing, watching the heat lightning while listening to Christmas music…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived in West Tennessee all of my life, and though I believe myself to be the most polished of my siblings, I still have quite a bit of residue on me. My six brothers and I were the proof that things are not boring in rural…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My first cousin initially said it and has reminded me often, “You know where your roots are.” His words were in response to my living and teaching in northern China for two years. I was born in north Louisiana and ultimately moved to central Louisiana. Oddly, I…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: You may be from around here if you’ve ever loved how cool June mornings are until about eight, but didn’t mind the afternoon heat as long as there was some shade, a breeze, and a glass of ice tea. You may be from around here if you’ve…
My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I went to college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, home of the Krispy Kreme donut. One of my elders (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) once executed an illegal U-turn in downtown Charlotte when he spotted a flashing Krispy Kreme “hot” light. A Ten-Dollar Hole…