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...
Walter B. Thompson: Death and Christmas, a short story
Southern Legitimacy Statement I was born and raised in Nashville. My mother’s people come from Shelbyville, Tennessee, where the pencil factories are. My father was born in Columbia, Mississippi, just like Walter Payton. His mother, who we called Mama Tee,...
Peter Stavros: Smoke, a short story
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Although a Northerner by birth (NYC), I was raised in Eastern Kentucky where my family returned after Dad was done working for J. Edgar and the Feds. I attended college in North Carolina before I too was pulled...
Claire Fullerton: How Does One Become a Writer
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a proud Southerner from Memphis, Tennessee, who now lives in Southern California, which makes me all the more Southern, for I am now a Southern ambassador. As a bona fide representative of the South, I am...
Luisa Reyes: “Thank You” — Our Memoir Writing First Place Winner
My Southern Statement is as follows: Luisa Kay Reyes was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Roll Tide! Her mother wanted to be sure she was born in the South, so even though she was living in Mexico while she was expecting,...
Andy Fogle: “Edward” First Place Winner in April Memoir Contest (it’s a tie!)
Southern Legitimacy Statement (a story in its own right)I was born Paul Andrew Fogle in Norfolk VA and grew up in Virginia Beach, and as far back as I know all but 2 threads of my family in the U.S....