The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Essays

Chris Epenshade: Chasing the Wrong Scent (essay)

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont from the seventh grade through college. I was fully immersed in classic Southern pursuits including hunting just about everything, fishing, trapping muskrats, frog-gigging, arrowhead collecting, and high-speed, dirt-road driving....
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Essays

Helen Wurthmann: Forbidden (essay)

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri, whose Southern statehood led to the civil war, regardless of whether or not modern Missourians consider themselves Southerners. Missouri and I are the middle children of our respective families: often overlooked...
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Essays

Joan Baker: The Burial (memoir)

Southern Legitimacy Statement: This is a story about New York Yankee children listening to their Southern parents’ same old argument about their burial sites in the South. As you say, the South has all answers to all arguments… The Burial “I...
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
Essays

Mary Wiygul: Life Lessons (memoir)

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Panola County, Mississippi, (where SEC affiliations are handed out as birthrights) to parents from towns named Tocowa and Blackjack. They decided to split the difference and raise me in a town called Pope...