May Jordan: “Walking Through”

Walking Through A Sunday lit with sunlight made the mountain of snow we accumulated, shine as if a glacier at dawn. I was up-stairs getting dressed for church when suddenly,…

Barbara Conrad: “This Bed”

This Bed I’m counting the years I’ve slept in this Charleston four-poster rice bed, and yes, the men who’ve slept here with me. More than five, fewer than a dozen,…

Paul Jones: “Hell”

About my Southernness: I am still Southern. The other day, I visited the Old St Paul’s Cemetery near Newton, NC. The place is chock full of Setzers, my grandmother’s people.…

Dead Mule Submissions and more…

Hey ya’ll. I sent an email to those of you out there with submissions sitting in the Submittable hopper for the last eight months or more. Basically, if you submitted…

What’s Your Label? Valerie MacEwan

I choose my label. “Writer” It’s rectangular. And temporary. I remove the large blue HELLO, I AM ____________ paper tag from my sweater and stick it to the mirror. Twenty years ago,…

Benjamin Scott: Travis, the First

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Dallas to a father from Hopkins County, Texas and a mother from Ashley County, Arkansas. I come from a long and proud line…

Lenny Lianne: When Rains Were Frog Chokers

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I spent the first five-eighth of my life, the formative years, in Virginia and come from Southerners with a love of language and landscape, good storytellers.…

Christopher Lowe: Hashbrowns

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I spent my first 22 years in Mississippi and my next 17 in south Louisiana. I was driven northward by hurricanes, but my southern bonafides abide. I…

Claire Massey: Driver Side Window

Southern Legitimacy Statement: My grandparents’ Mississippi home was my port in a storm. There was literal nourishment (oh, that gumbo and cornbread!) as well as literary food for a budding…

Looking for new hosting…

Well, to be honest, I’ve had it with GoDaddy. The Dead Mule migrated to Managed WordPress on GoDaddy years ago because of the constant threat of attack. Stupid vulnerabilities popped…

Cecile Dixon: Barlow

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was jerked up by my hair, (according to several preachers) in the spot where the Bluegrass kisses the Appalachian Mountains. I traveled the Hillbilly Highway North…

David Stafford: Shoes

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Just doodling ’round during the pandemic and thought I’d drop you a few lines. I’m still a tater-eating, ex-cotton picker from the Missouri bootheel, living in the…

Jessica Weyer Bentley: Revival

Southern Legitimacy Statement: As with all volunteer vegetation, I was transferred South as a seedling in the wind as my mother decided to give a southern man a chance the…