Barbara Conrad: Fish Camp, Indian River 1956
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I swear on a stack of Bibles I’m from the south. To be specific, I’m a Tarheel born and a Tarheel bred and when I die I’ll be a Tarheel dead. I can still twirl my baton...
Audrey Wick: Blown
SLS: I am Texas born/raised and can write as well as I can two-step. But weddings can make my stomach sick, just like my main character in “Blown.” Blown Weddings always made my stomach sick. My older brother Juno’s first...
Bobby Wilson: Greens
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My father calls it Lou-Z-anna, Winnfield to be exact. Home of Huey Long and two other governors. The shotgun house he grew up in still stands. Greens On Saturday we go to 李敏’s (li3min3) parents’ house for...
Claire Fullerton: Perfect Circle
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Claire Fullerton is from Memphis, Tennessee, which immediately brings to mind the Mississippi River; the bridge that hovers over it on its way to Arkansas in the graceful shape of the letter M; historic Beale Street, Victorian...
Stephen Harris: Stronger Than Breath
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Stephen Harris is from Cayce, SC and currently lives in Raleigh, NC. He eats a biscuit for breakfast every Friday because he used to eat a biscuit for breakfast everyday. He just ate a Cheerwine donut and...
Rob O’Hara: A Mouthful of Eel
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Oklahoma. I spent the first half of my life trying to get out of this state and, after moving to the northwest for a couple of years, hightailed it back as...
Brenda Butka: April, Taylor Hollow
Southern Legitimacy Statement: So. My husband once bought four hams from a man in Kentucky who can no longer enter his hams in the State Fair because no one else can win. Husband sold one ham to a psychiatrist friend,...
Nathan Leslie: Until Further Notice
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have lived in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2002. Until Further Notice I can keep a secret. I always could. So when IBC approached me about running the motel, I jumped on the op. Living there was...
Bill Prince: Why Dogs Don’t Live Longer
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Earnest and I were bird hunting around the back cornfield near the property line a the dairy we were hunting, when Joe, Earnest’s pointer spooked up a bunch of buzzards. Didn’t know the significance then but this was...
Phillip Thompson on Writing
The Dead Mule spoke with Mule writer and author Phillip Thompson after reading his latest thriller Outside the Law, released this month (Feb 2017) by Brash-Books.com. A review of Outside the Law is included in this issue of the Mule....
Richard Weaver : Mule Toe
My Official Highfalutin’ Southern Legitimacy Statement I was born on the same day that George Armstrong Custer died, though “Autie”, as he called his adopted self, and I never exchanged letters. But that don’t make me a soldier or...
CL Bledsoe: Rice Fields
CL Bledsoe is the Assistant Editor of the Dead Mule. This essay is part of his ongoing series of memoirs — published bi-monthly here on the Mule. Rice Fields Timmy wanted to see this girl. He had some peach schnapps and...
Ruth Heinold: Choose Your Songs With Care
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Although I was born in Cincinnati, the South has been home since 1961. I’d be 100 years old this April and this poem is published in the spirit of my work left behind for my daughter to...
Poetry
Essays
