T. K. Tolbert: Miss Geneva (an essay)
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....
May Jordan : Poetry!
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I went through the Marine Corps boot camp at Paris Island, South Carolina in 1969. I married a Texan from Brownsville, and you cannot get much further south than that. We had a hound named “Dog,” and a...
Josh Patrick Sheridan: Pride (a short story)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m born and raised in Lewisburg, a small West Virginia town a heavy stone’s throw from the southern border with Virginia. I went to elementary school with a drawl and to high school with an accent, but...
Robert Klein Engler : Poetry!
NIGHT TRAIN TO BENARES when the oily skinned boy offers me some nuts from the bowl he covers with his headband I have to take them like it or not he is thankful but can’t say so in English I...
Carol Poster : Poetry!
Southern Legitimacy Statement : Not a dead mule, but is a dead mule deer close enough? Shapes of Dust Through breaks in the billowing dirt road dust, a shape ahead appears a fallen girl, knees bent, arm outstretched, head turned aside,...
Nelson Lowhim: The Artist
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Was in the south when in the Army. Good times. Or not. Here’s a piece about the scars some carry along with their long and sordid history. The Artist I once knew a painter, artist type, his face...
Mamie Pound: Man in Blue, a short story
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Mamie Pound lives in Columbus, Georgia. Man in Blue She was in the garden, a hoe in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, a wool sweater over her nightgown. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said,...
Eve Lyons: A Poem
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am, as always, a born in New Orleans, raised in South Texas woman. Currently living in Boston. Southern Comfort is a Dangerous Thing “It is a sad time for the heart.” – Gary Soto Southern Comfort is...
Pris Campbell: A Prose Poem Memoir
My Southern Statement I was born in South Carolina where I loved to snack on barbecue sandwiches with cold slaw on top and fried green tomatoes. My great grandfather fought in the War Between the States (if I said Civil...
Tom Sheehan: A Poem
My legitimacy statement says, “I have appeared in your magazine, have read and vacationed in NC, and once worked in Tennessee.” Cold Night’s Dark Advances And always it is this Gift-giver, this woman from midnight’s the other side, this darkness...
Joey Holland: When a Ten Cent Cigar Cost a Dime and a Quaalude Cost Three Bucks
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My family never hid our crazy folks; they generally sat on the front porch and enjoyed the breeze just like the family who weren’t crazy. Come to think of it, we all had some crazy mixed in...
Alan Good: Paris (When I Die) a short story
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in southwest Missouri. My parents were divorced, and they both lived in trailers. That’s not so much a Southern thing as an economic one. I never really thought of myself as Southern, even though I...
Aimee Keeble: Red Dog, a short story
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Growing up in Florida during the war with Iraq I saw the resulting effects ravage a generation of young men with all good intentions. Red Dog Mama cracked an egg and I fell out punch drunk that’s how...