this is what war looks like.
The Library of Congress digital archives provide us with this month’s photos. You should zoom in on Fort Hell, the featured image. The tragedy is that the world is filled with war. And yet another tragedy? People who don’t know...
Margaret Donovan Bauer :: Well, Bless Your Heart ::
Southern legitimacy statement–As I tell my students, I am from as far South as you can get: Franklin, Louisiana is at the bottom of the state. I grew up on the Bayou Teche there, in a plantation house my parents...
Vincent Worsley :: The Dogs Are Out ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, in the suburb belly of hill country. My neighborhood is prowled by feral cats and the occasional stray dog— those dogs are the core of this poem, “The...
Mia Eaker :: Red Lipstick ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Pumpkin Center aka Punkin’ Center, North Carolina. I’ve drank moonshine, gathered fresh eggs, fallen into cow manure, and been shocked by an electric fence. Cornbread and story-telling were staples around our...
Lindsey McIntosh :: Tragedy of Mrs. McQueen :: When Rivers Run Red ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Southern Appalachia is home. The mountains have consistently entered their service as the building blocks of what it means to be alive. Within its peaks and valleys, I was raised by fearless women–their strength and light guided...
Kyla Houbolt :: Where We Went ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Once, near the coast of NC, (where I was born and raised) I watched a man wheel the entire carcass of a frozen dead pig into the front door of the Piggly Wiggly. I guess it was...
David Grubb :: The Rodent Queen of Half Dome ::
Southern Bona Fide I’m still a bonafide southern fried hunting and fishing machine. I’ve gotten up before dawn and bagged an 8’ gator, went right up to dusk to put an arrow in the heart of a tusky razorback, and...
Nora Super :: Brains vs. Beauty ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, I moved to Washington, DC, right out of college to try to change the world. When I left New Orleans, I rejected the party culture: full of festivals, jazz music,...
Thomas Macfie :: Edge-of-Water ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Sewanee, TN, on the campus of the University of the South, an appellation instigating much debate, angst, and consternation, as well as ecstatic generational joy for some, and excruciating generational pain...
Heather Loudermilk :: Three Poems ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I come from West Virginia folks who moved around after World War II and eventually settled in Bassett, Virginia. I’m a mix of Appalachian and Southern, with an accent that skips quick instead of drawling slowly through...
Melanie McGehee :: Remember Me :: Three Poems ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Have you heard me talk? No. In that case, I’ve spent all of my 53 years in the rebellious state of South Carolina. I love cornbread and pot liquor. I question wearing white after Labor Day. I...
Michael Amos Cody :: Holy City Buskers ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Sumter, South Carolina, grew up in the village of Walnut, jewel of Madison County, North Carolina, and spent my early adulthood in Nashville, Tennessee. I started writing seriously in high school, working in...
Matthew Cullifer :: The Big Bass ::
I’ve lived in the southwest corner of Georgia all of my forty-seven years. Cows and lightning bugs outnumber the people. Lynyrd Skynyrd is the finest American rock band of all time, and Lewis Grizzard wrote real literature. Saturdays in the...
Harry Neil :: We Discover Cottage Cheese ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in a very rural part of North Carolina’s Cape Fear Basin. My grade school was part of Penderlea, “America’s first farm city,” a depression-era homesteading project that ultimately failed. I went on to the...
R. L. Frazier :: Timmy ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in a part of Oklahoma known as Little Dixie. I don’t consider Oklahoma to be in the Deep South any more than you do, but I believe most Oklahomans to be Southerners – the...
Poetry
Essays
