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

Founded in 1995 [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 $50 a year for hosting fees.

Our staff volunteers to help with the Mule. When we pay writers or give prizes, we fund it ourselves — out of our own pocket. Grants are nice but paperwork sucks. We don’t charge reading or submission fees, and intend to always be that way. Writers shouldn’t have to pay to have their submissions read or to have their work published or to be in a "contest." Good literature is not a lottery. All writers who submit to the Mule get equal consideration, regardless of previous publication credits. It’s the writing that counts to us.

The Dead Mule is published in The South, USA — in North Carolina to be more specific.

Again, we say, an almost complete list of our writers and faculty can be found by clicking here.

Editorial comments and email concerning Mule content (not technological questions or comments) should be sent to vmac at macewan dot net and should contain "Editorial Comment" in the Subject line. For a kick, read the blog "Mental Kudzu" at MacEwan.net which now features the stories and journals of Spencer Montgomery, male writer. And for Linux tutorials and other online wonderment, try Macewan.org.

The Mule does not discriminate but good taste and superb quality supercede all other criteria.

While many fine literary sites exist online, the Mule does not contain a link page. Publicly, we neither endorse nor condemn any journals. We also do not publish our contributor’s bios or previous publication credits.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 — assistant editor /fiction 
Helen Losse  - Poetry Editor
Wesley Burnett
Ruth Heinold
Caroline Anthony Atkins
Jane Helmers Olsen (and Andreas)
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…

Editor/Publisher: Valerie MacEwan

Site Administrator and Architect: Robert MacEwan [backend based on WP1.5+]