Three new poets and a couple short stories…

Southern Legitimacy Statement:

I am Rocky Rutherford of Silver Valley, North Carolina. Rodeo is a way of life and I’ve been around it so long everything I write just seems to come out chute number one. I am not redneck, I am not peckerwood, I am not good old boy…I am Southern.

Southern Legitimacy Statement: For most of the year, I live in Western New York, where people and vegetation and water freeze solid for four months of the year, but I escape to Fairfax, Virginia, each spring to stay with my son and to Raleigh, N.C. where my girlfriend’s BFF lives and where I’ve seen the people that I write about.

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a Southerner and I eat greens and barbecue.

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am eating Stuart’s Cajun Dill Beans from a mason jar (canned in Gautier, MS), wondering where do I even start? I was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I saw Bear Bryant in his tower when I was 8 years old. I moved to Prattville, then Clinton, MS. I married my college sweetheart from the Mississippi Delta. I’ve lived in Starkville, New Orleans, Nashville, Franklin, Jackson, and Ocean Springs. At different phases of life, I’ve been Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Presbyterian. Barter Theatre is as good as the Wintergarden Theatre, in my opinion (better really — they do more with less — isn’t that a Southern thang?). My grandfather Fritz is mentioned in Melissa Delbridge’s “Family Bible”…I like to write.

Southern Legitimacy Statement:

Jim Booth was born and raised in Eden, North Carolina. He wrote a novel about his hometown – you could look it up. His other novel has the word “Southern” in the title. You could look that up, too. He likes barbecue and sweet tea. What more do you need to know?