The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature is found on the web at: www.deadmule.com

We love The South.

We appreciate all the quirks, follies, and faults that have brought the region to where it is today. If our beloved “below the Mason-Dixon Line” self  gives way to the influences of a status quo world which requires all people to be of one idea — to walk in lock-step with all others — we cease to be The South.

Simply put — Let us celebrate the individual. The South revels in individuality. Freedom and the right to be southern. It’s not a curse-word, or a curse. It’s just little old us. Not one race, not one religion, and certainly not just one cause… the South contains all sides of all arguments.

Help the best of “The South” stay as is.  Let the bitter past be studied — not re-lived — and let us not seek to destroy a unique culture. Remember, please, we are not simply a bunch of back-ass swamp-dwelling moonshine-drinking coon-hunting mother f’ers. We are — arguably— the last true bastion of individuality left in the US. The Dead Mule Southern Legitimacy Statement is about describing those things which are uniquely southern, wherever you are.

The great, the bad and the ugly all come together and learn to survive right here along with the no-see ums, bullfrogs, water moccasins, tadpoles and crawdads. Embrace us. Enjoy every new Mule issue.

STAFF:

Helen Losse was the Mule’s amazing Poetry Editor for years, as you well should know. Her hard work and determination set the Mule apart from other literary journals as her high standards and vast knowledge assured readers the finest poetry available anywhere – online or not.

Jane Olsen is our interim Poetry Editor and for that we are grateful. Poetry submissions may now be sent via our Submishmash process, see our submissions page.

Phoebe Kate Foster helps to handle the fiction department. She’s been with the Mule for a decade and her edits are as gentle as her life. Phoebe Kate nurtures new writers and sends them on their creative journey while assisting seasoned writers to be the best they can be.

Valerie MacEwan conceived of this Mule, henceforth shall be deemed its Founder, Owner, Publisher, Biggest Ass and General Manager.

The Mule is here because we’ve been dedicated to its existence for over 15 years.

Robert MacEwan maintains the backend of the Mule. He applies his affiliate marketing monetizing excellence to maintaining a financially stable base for mule hosting.

THE DEAD MULE SCHOOL OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE:
Founded in 1995 [Historical Dead Mule Faculty and Alumni can be found by clicking here]

Originally, the Mule was a traditional print literary journal supported in part by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. Note should be taken here that Ellen Roberson drew the original dead mule. After fulfilling grant specifications and publishing an inaugural paper copy of the Dead Mule, the Mule went online as a private publication supported by Valerie and Robert MacEwan, Ruth Heinold, and through Dead Mule Gear sales receipts. We’ve never asked for money to help pay for publication online. The bottom line is, server space was graciously donated by John Biggs on BigWideLogic for a while, we used Digital Space for a few years and then we were severely hacked (even the backups were compromised), and now we use GoDaddy and pay less than $75 a year for hosting fees.

The Dead Mule is published in The South, USA.
The Mule does not discriminate but good taste and superb quality supersede all other criteria.

We also do not publish our contributor’s bios or previous publication credits. Google does a very good job of this for us.

Copyright — Creative Commons but also, we’d like to copy Half Drunk Muse’s copyright statement because it’s a good one. Obviously we’ve inserted our name:
Submission to and acceptance by Dead Mule grants us first electronic and indefinite archive rights. All other rights revert to the author upon publication. Please credit Dead Mule as the first publisher if you reprint elsewhere; we like seeing our name in print, too.

With gratitude and affection, we give thanks to those friends who have helped and encouraged us through the years:
Phoebe Kate Foster
Helen Losse – Poetry Editor
Wesley Burnett
Rebecca Cowell
Ruth Heinold
Caroline Anthony Atkins
Jane and Andy Olsen
Jeremy Jethro
Kevin Blankenship – past co-editor/poetry
Debbie McGillis
Janis Owens
Charlie Whitley
Danny Lee Ingram
Tim Peeler
Gerald Bosacker
Ed Lynskey
the ever-fantastic Mr. Tim Bullard — the original Mule Friend
Carter Monroe
CL Bledsoe
Wayne Scheer
Zan Nordlund
Ann Hite
Gideon C. Kennedy
G. C. Smith
John Biggs

and many more…