Marsha Owens :: As Though We Had Choices ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Richmond, VA, I’ve made it my forever home. My paternal grandpa was a waterman on the Chesapeake Bay, and to this day, I’m a seafood snob. I married an ex-Amishman to whom all things Southern...
Margaret Donovan Bauer :: Well, Bless Your Heart ::
Southern legitimacy statement–As I tell my students, I am from as far South as you can get: Franklin, Louisiana is at the bottom of the state. I grew up on the Bayou Teche there, in a plantation house my parents...
Frankie Franco :: Finding and Fulfilling Our Purpose Right Where We Are ::
My Southern Legitimacy Statement is that my Grandpa on one side was born in Oklahoma before it was a state and my Grandma on the other side was born in Mexico. That’s pretty far South if you ask me! I’m...
Drew Coons :: Becoming a Man ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I entered this world in Florence, Alabama in 1950. My family dates from the Carolinas in the early 1700s. Family lore has my predecessors fighting the British along with Mel Gibson depicted in the movie The Patriot....
James Ryer :: Commentary on the State of Western Democracy – A Visually Sensory Essay ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have almost exclusively lived in the South. The earlier part of that time was still the Old South: segregation, before the Civi Rights legislation of 1960 and 1964, before there was any real sense of diversity...
Erika Hoffman :: Home Fries Riff ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I attended Duke University aka University of New Jersey, the state where I was born and bred. I married a Georgian fellow I met there and lived in Atlanta for five years before returning to North Carolina...
Candice Kelsey :: Relationship Smarts ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: About nine months ago, I left Los Angeles for Augusta, GA. My back yard pushes up against the Savannah River, and I awake most mornings to the staccato of buck shot aimed at duck or deer. I...
Alexandra Melnick: Blade Running in the South
(Reprint from 2017 October Issue of the Dead Mule, seems very relevant today) In 1990, at a public lecture series on art in Los Angeles, three out of five leading urban planners agreed that they hoped someday L.A. would look...
Jonathan Odell: The Language of Home
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised a white guy in Jim Crow Mississippi. In other words, I missed a hell of lot of what went on around me from my privileged white bubble. Midlife, I moved to Minnesota and was...
James Rhine: Essay
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Having grown up in the Bible belt to one day feel it a little too strict around my waistline, I’ve spent the latter part of my waking years learning to unlearn. One day I’ll be South of...
James Ryer: Essay
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The South is comprised of mesmerizing layers of contradiction: What people believe is true or not true. Who you choose to believe. And, what is actually true. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter. You find that...
Jonathan Odell: Memoir:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born and raised a white guy in Jim Crow Mississippi. In other words, I missed a hell of lot of what went on around me from my protective white bubble. Midlife, I moved to Minnesota and was...
Roger Howell: Memoir:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Being of Southern rootage, the past crawls all over me, pestering me when I’m trying to get to sleep. Recently, I read Absalom, Absalom! again. Broke down at the end. Just like I knew I would. The...
Andy Betz: Memoir:
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri and now live (very, very) close to Atlanta. With the exception of college, I have spent my entire life in the South. William and the Tick Tock Clock For my...
John Dorroh: Memoir: May 2022
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in LaRochelle, France, to parents who were serving in the US Army. My dad was from Alabama, and my mom was from Columbus, Mississippi, where we settled when my dad retired from the military....
Poetry
Essays
