Kaiya Parkinson :: Torgi the Corgi ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: As someone who grew up in the military, I’ve lived everywhere. Despite the military bases all around the world, my father’s job always seemed to bring us back to the south. From the south I’ve picked up...
Ghelka Ibarra :: When the Light Fades ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in southeastern Virginia, where the summers humid, the mosquitoes are relentless, and the history runs deep. I’ve spent evenings by the water, watched storms roll in off the bay, and driven down roads lined...
Chloe Aquino :: We Never Really Know Ourselves Until We’re Raw ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: What’s southern to me is something I could never be, and that’s myself. I never seem to act like or connect with other people my age, race, and even those who have similar interests. Don’t get me...
Anastasia Davis :: Change in the Tides ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: In the cold eastern part of Europe just south of Finland, in a small cold orphanage in Russia, there was my mom. A small girl tucked in the corner of St. Petersburg. Eventually she came to America;...
Carlos Ibarra :: Tragedy ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in eastern Virginia where people sit around a fire and love to talk about their feelings toward each other. Where people have different life stories and the fire in the middle never blows out....
Tayshawn Campbell :: Unyielding Passion ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The south is a unique region where tradition and heritage rule supreme. The south is completely different from the rest of the United States, its identity was formed from the migrants who flocked there in order to...
Amiyah Simms :: Band-tober ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Being in the south and surrounded by so many cultures of dance and music has truly impacted me. I have been able to use music and dance as an escape and a fun way to express myself...
:: The Dead Mule High School Essay Contest ::
Drum roll please… This was, hands down, the hardest competition I’ve ever worked on with the Dead Mule or any other publication. What a terrific group of writers. Each and every one of you. To the student essayists: You all...
Nick Wynn :: No Taste for Chicken and Dumplings ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement:I am a Southerner–born, bred, raised, and hopefully to be buried in the red clay soil of Georgia. I grew up in rural Georgia and experienced the poverty and wealth of a lumber dependent family. From outdoor toilets,...
Andy Betz :: raconter des salades ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri and now live (very, very) close to Atlanta. With the exception of college, I have spent my entire life in the South. raconter des salades I’ve been told no one...
The Dead Mule High School Essay Contest Semi-Finalists
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature is pleased to announce the semi-finalists (Top 20) in our first ever best of the best writing competition with Olivia Germann-McClain’s students in the writing program at Woodside Arts and Communications Magnet School...
Con Chapman :: My Right Arm ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was raised in Sedalia, Missouri, site of a “skirmish” between Yankee and Rebel forces during the Civil War; while the town had southern sympathizers, I found a Union army cavalry handbook in a stove in the...
Poetry
Essays
