Tammy Tolbert: Apples (Essay/Memoir)
My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Southern Ohio, where driving forty five minutes one way puts you in West Virginia and thirty five minutes the other way puts you in Kentucky....
Alexandra Melnick: Those Killed in Mississippi
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in South Florida, against my better judgement. I then fled to Jackson, MS and am now settling in the Delta, where we may not have many chain banks but we have plenty of Waffle...
Billy Malanga: Salt Marsh (Memoir/Essay)
Southern Legitimacy Statement : Upon graduation from college in 1984, I sweated my way through basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. After earning the title of U.S. Marine, I was permanently stationed at Marine Corps Air Station – Beaufort,...
Neva Bryan: Sparks and Vinegar (Short Fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Kentucky-born and Virginia-raised, I am the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners. As a child, I played in the woods every summer day, caught lightning bugs in jars at night, and made lunch out of saltine crackers slathered...
Kate Dolinger: The Ceremony of Acknowledgment (memoir/essay)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from Bristol, Virginia, a city that borders Tennessee and is “A good place to live” (so says a sign on the border). I lived on a 10-acre farm for most of my life, and now I...
Adreyo Sen: Poetry
The following is my Southern Legitimacy Statement: I just loved “Gone With the Wind.” For the longest time, I wanted to be Melanie. Now, I am inching towards Scarlett. The Knowable On quiet streets Barely kissed by the sun, A...
Tim Mattamoe: Poetry
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I live in quiet retirement in Chatham County, the gem of the Carolina Central Piedmont. I once taught history in Beaufort County, the pearl of the Carolina Coastal Plain. I am American by birth, Southerner because I...
Claire Fullerton: Visiting Como, MS (essay/memoir)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Though Claire Fullerton resides in Southern California, she considers herself a Southern writer. Having been reared in Memphis, she’ll be the first to tell you that you can take the girl out of the South, but never the...
Kathryn Stripling Byer: Three Poems from 2007
Kathryn Stripling Byer has not forgotten her southern roots. True, she was North Carolina’s Poet Laureate in 2007. True, she has received accolades and praise. True, she is very, very busy. But when the Mule contacted her, asking for poems....
Warren Hines: The Thing About Dancers in Buenos Aires… (memoir)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in a decaying town in the Mississippi Delta as an attorney’s son with riverboat captain uncles who treasure few worldly pleasures more than whiskey and a good story. The Thing About Dancers in Buenos Aires…...
Christopher Allen: Father-Son Activity (short fiction)
My Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was raised “in town,” which means Nashville, but my mother’s family comes from Bell Buckle, which is near Hatchet Holler where my mother was born (she says “borned”) in a shack that has probably succumbed...
Ted Harrison: Pop and Water Oaks (short fiction)
MY SOUTHERN LEGITIMACY STATEMENT I am a born and bred North Carolinian. My life has included having my pictured made with Al “Lash” LaRue at the State Theatre in Salisbury. I met Andy Griffith and even took his picture. My younger...
Bobbi Lynn Neely: The Strength of An Illusion (memoir)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: First… her name is Bobbi Lynn. I mean, really. Bobbi Lynn was born and raised in The Carolinas. She grew up in a small town where her school principal often commented publicly on how well those Neely...
Poetry
Essays
