Take a swallow. Breathe in a deep gulp of air. Walk to the edge of the dance floor. You are about to take the first step. Getting enough nerve to ask a dancer to join you for a step or two is hard. You have to stop being shy and…
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. I most certainly do not miss the snow, or the cold. How Many Dead People Does It Take…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Bogotá, Colombia. I have been living in South Carolina since 2010. I currently work at Presbyterian College, in Clinton. Before that, I lived in Columbia for eight years. I received a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of South Carolina (the original…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Florida and am still living here, two miles from Georgia. My dad and grandparents were also native Floridians, and I can’t find an ancestor who was born or lived north of the Mason-Dixon line. Mom was born in southern Georgia and crossed…
My Southern Legitimacy Statement is that my work has appeared here before, and I have read in NC, vacationed in NC, have baby-sat in NC and will visit there again to see three of my ten grandchildren. My military training was with Tennessee’s 278th Infantry Brigade at Fort Devens, MA,…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is a place where past meets present, where ghosts of things long gone seem, at times, to be more real than the person standing beside you. It’s a place of memory and escape, a place of pain and hope, joy and deliverance, and ultimately a…
This report was written by a particularly astute carpenter ant named Cindi camponotus. I let her use my computer at night in exchange for the promise that she and her 200,000 sisters will not eat my house. Cindi can push down one key at a time, but not while also…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Stephen Hundley was raised on the Lincoln River, south of Savannah, Georgia. When the weather was right, you might have found him in a clawfoot tub on the porch. When the game warden wasn’t around, you might have found an alligator in the tub too. Stephen’s love…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Yes, I lived so close to where you do. I studied at Wake Forest University for nearly two months… I like that area greatly. The weather has a kind of healing effect. I was seriously compromised before I went there. People there are also very warm and…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: “Georgia and Louisiana–specifically New Orleans which the rest of Louisiana hates anyway–are both located in the South and they are where I come from. My family came to Virginia from the British Isles; migrated to Georgia; didn’t spread out much till after World War II, and my…
Here’s my Southern Legitimacy Statement: I live in southeastern Ohio. That counts, doesn’t it? After all, maybe being southern is a more a state of mind more than an actual place. And, anyway, this place where I live? It sure feels southern. Or, at least, southern-ish. What I’m saying is…
Southern Legitimacy Vital Statistics of Rhys Beleu Born: rural Texas Raised: Rich White Trash Religion: heathen Favorite Flags: Lone Star, Stars and Bars, Battle of Gonzales cannon “Come and take it” Principles to live by: 1. Never trust the government. 2. Cooking is a competitive sport. Never sacrifice taste for…
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. Mud An assassin’s doctorAncient brick starter materialSling to insultFacial mask soothingEye socket counterpart during champagne toastingGhost pottery wheel…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I once moved to Nebraska. This after 28 years of legitimate southern living in upstate South Carolina. For two cold hard Midwestern years, I shivered inside a corn farmer’s coat and dreamt of the day I’d come back South. Praise God: I don’t need to dream anymore….
SOUTHERN LEGITIMACY STATEMENT I was conceived on a houseboat on the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina and was born in Monroe, North Carolina first year of the Baby Boomers. I got my undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. My kin, Irish immigrants to North…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Dallas and raised in the Piney Woods of East Texas, I now reside on the coast of South Texas. My family traces their roots all the way to the founding of a county in Texas. Before that they came from the Duck River in Tennessee…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Stephen Hundley was raised on the Lincoln River, south of Savannah, Georgia. When the weather was right, you might have found him in a clawfoot tub on the porch. When the game warden wasn’t around, you might have found an alligator in the tub too. Stephen’s love…
We’re starting out 2019 early with a new format style on the Dead Mule. January is going to be a bit tough to get online but we’ll do it! If you notice any changes that “don’t look or work right” please let us know on our Facebook page. We’ve been…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Dear Ms. MacEwan, I should not feel the need to apologize for living now in Ontario, for your name suggests first generation roots in Scotland, or at least Nova Scotia. My claim to a southern heritage comes from growing up early outside Atlanta before it became a “real”…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: East Texas food figures prominently in my memory of childhood where I lived in Longview (and later in Dallas and Austin): cornpone, grits, collard greens, cornpone, fried chicken, the catfish and green jello at Luby’s Cafeteria, and of course the sweets like pralines and molasses candies. It’s no…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and reared in Texas, but graduate schooled three years in Starkville, Mississippi, and spent three years teaching at LSU in Lafayette, Louisiana. Lived and wed a talented and sweet Cajun in Crowley, La. With mind and soul embedded in southern literature, my heart is Southern. Ned the…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Relative to this piece, I have run throughout the Southeast, for North Forsyth high school, the University of Virginia, and Wake Forest University. I raced Peachtree back when we thought 1,200 was an astounding number of competitors. I once placed second at the Tuckasegee River and Road Race,…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: When I was ten, eleven, twelve years old, I dreamed of moving up North to live in a garret and write novels–never knowing exactly what I’d write about, but it would be lofty. Fifty years later, I still live in the South, and I write about the…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My given name is Laura Ruth, and I am a sweet tea addict. I grew up in Woodruff, South Carolina–home of the Wolverines. I won a shagging contest in college at Clemson University, and, no shagging is the SC state dance–get your mind out of the gutter….