By English Turn: River Trilogy, Part Two by Robert Klein Engler
“For those who hope in the World to Come, Mr. Mark, Arthur Conan Doyle was correct when he wrote, “We cannot command our love, but we can command our actions.”
Cock-a-doodle-doo by L. E. Bunn
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My Daddy, who was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, taught me the finger lickin’ pleasures of Sunday breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and, oh, yes, GRITS.
Death’s Sister, Silence by John Bach
I was born and raised in the Appalachian South, specifically east Tennessee. Thus, I have Scotch-Irish blood pulsing through my veins, and some German... and a little Cherokee, I was told by my sweet granny. I hope she was right. I also lived for a time in the Deep South, twice. Once in McComb, Mississippi, and once in Yazoo City, Mississippi. I believe my geographical dalliances as a child bode well for me in my literary pursuits.
Princess by Gardner Mounce
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I live in Memphis. It's a wonderful town. I resent the Yankee preconception that Memphians have but a full set of teeth between them. We have many teeth. I have between fifteen and twenty, whatever's the normal amount to have.
“My Disqualification” by Prosenjit Dey Chaudhury
With respect to a Southern Legitimacy Statement, I would like to state that although I have never been in the American South, I have deep admiration for the determined and pioneering individuality that marks the people of that region. I could indeed think of the protagonist of my story as exhibiting some of that individuality in her own way.
Eula Shook, a love story by Grant Jerkins
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The thing about The South is that it isn’t southern anymore.
Cock-a-Doodle-Doo by L. E. Bunn
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My Daddy, who was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, taught me the finger lickin’ pleasures of Sunday breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and, oh, yes, GRITS.
A Tribute to Shann Palmer by Debra DuPree Williams
Southern Legitimacy Statement
Hey, yall. I was born in the Heart of Dixie, Lower Alabama, or LA, as the natives like to call it. I cut my teeth on my Granny's lard biscuits and drooled over her blackberry cobblers and egg custard and sweet potato pies. Cornbread was fried, made to look like little golden doughnuts, hole in the middle and all. I've picked cotton (made $1.10 for a whole day's work, I was only 6), blackberries, peas and butterbeans, and I've gone to the mayhaw groves where they laid old worn-out sheets on the dirt beneath the trees. They shook the trees until the red-orange little berries fell to the ground. Best danged jelly you will ever want to eat! The Peanut Festival and the Boll Weevil Monument are part of my vocabulary. All night Gospel sings and Sacred Harp sings were two of my favorite things. Catching fireflies in an old Mason jar was a typical summer eve's activity. I've eaten scrambled eggs with pork brains, and every true southerner knows that the fish roe was the best part of the fish! Being southern does have its perks, now, doesn't it?
Athena Sasso: Throw Down
Southern Legitimacy Statement: These are names of my relatives: Clem, Lettie, Garlin, Annabelle, Elmer, Cayce, Velma, LV, and Baby Doll.
Dear Mule readers take note: every Spring needs a baseball story and this year, Ms. Sasso has given us a superb one. Read on!
C. L. Bledsoe “Stray” [2007 revisited]
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I grew up on a catfish and rice farm in eastern Arkansas. I must admit, I will take biscuits and gravy over grits any day, though.
Annette Cooper: “The Red Crochet Skirt” from Oct 2000
The Red Crochet Skirt When I found the faded photograph of me taken forty-something years ago wearing the red crocheted skirt, I remembered the balls of red yarn bought one a time from Newberry’s Five and Dime. I remember the...
John McCaffrey “Clamming in January” [2007 revisited]
As for my southern legitimacy: sweet tea. Once, when visiting family in Mocksville, North Carolina, I drank so much during the week that I had something akin to the sugar DT's when I got back north. Snapple can not compare.
Celia McClinton “About Dr. Smilnik” [2007 revisited]
Celia is southern. She knows it, we know it... and Mule readers of our previous 10 years of literary excellence know she's southern.
“Life Story” by Lauren “Elyse” Phillips (58 word micro-fiction) 2007
As for Southern Legitimacy: I couldn't possibly be more Southern. Paw-Paw is a cotton farmer, Aunt Jean's favorite phrase is "for cryin' in the cow butter!", and the little old ladies in the grocery store used to run up and touch my head so they wouldn't give me "ojo." If the preacher's sermon went long, he'd apologize for holding up dinner. "Kudzu," "The Lockhorns," and "Tumbleweeds" were all staples in the morning paper where I grew up, though I've never seen mention of any of them elsewhere until now. I left home, but it's shaped me, and most of what I write is about the love/hate relationship I have with my Southern past.
“Searching for Amy Spain” by Merry Speece [2007 revisited]
From the summer of 1989 to the summer of 2001 I lived in South Carolina. Before moving there I had not heard of the Gullah language and many other things. For the first eight years that I lived there, I read regional histories, old letters, diaries, cookbooks, etc., and took notes. Then I spent the next two years arranging the notes. The result was my Sisters Grimke Book of Days, which was published by Oasis Books (England) in 2003.
Poetry
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