Category: Poetry

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I used to be illegitimately Southern, living in South Florida until recently, now having completed my first year in the Tarheel state of NC. I grew up in a family that made fun of Southerners and now...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Native to Virginia and long-resident in Georgia, I’m as Southern as Southern can be. (Let’s not talk about the seven-year stretch in New Jersey.) A prominent Mid-Western poet once told me during a workshop, “I could listen to...

Southern Legitimacy Statement:  I am a native-born Oklahoma poet who’s work is inspired by nature, class, and life experiences that were shaped by my Southern family. The poem is inspired by a recent family vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama and how...

Flashing Mirrors at a House Built in 1742, III I leaned against the largest maple tree, planted hungry years before upon a leech trench, watching my going out of me at play and shining the souls of mirrors back, telling...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Though my genetic roots were not planted in Southern soil, a brief sojourn in San Antonio, Texas provided me with a life-changing experience. Southern culture and literature has been a strong influence in my writing. Five Poems...

SOUTHERN LEGITIMACY STATEMENT I was conceived on a houseboat on the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina and was born in Monroe, North Carolina first year of the Baby Boomers. I got my undergraduate degree from the University of North...

My Southern Legitimacy Statement: My parents hailed from small communities about an hour north of Baltimore, places where front porch sittin’ and strawberry eatin’ were the norm during the longest days of June. I remember my mother’s dad liked his...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: All of my ancestors before my generation were born in Alabama. Because my father as a career Army man, I was born in a military hospital. But every summer, we went “home” to Alabama to see grandparents, cousins,...

Legitimacy Statement: Native to Virginia and long-resident in Georgia, I’m as Southern as Southern can be. (Let’s not talk about the seven-year stretch in New Jersey.) A prominent Mid-Western poet once told me during a workshop, “I could listen to...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Born in Florida, I’ve lived in Louisiana since 1976, 17 years in New Orleans, the rest in Cajun country. South Louisiana is strange even by Southern standards: We think Mardi Gras is a national holiday, that a Catlick...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Like I said, I’m from a small town in Southern Kentucky. That small town is Harlan, in the Appalachian mountains. I’ve been here my entire life and my writing style is influenced by Delta Blues music. THE BUTTON...