Barbara McLay: Five Faiths (essay)
Southern legitimacy statement: I was born and raised in Florida and am still living here, two miles from Georgia. My dad and grandparents were also native Floridians, and I can’t find a maternal or paternal ancestor who was born or lived...
Robb White: The Neurosurgeon’s Rat (fiction)
My Southern legitimacy is purely honorary (two degrees from U. of Arkansas, 1985). The Neurosurgeon’s Rat The neurosurgeon grimaced at the sight of the family clustered in the waiting room. They refused to leave the waiting room, according to the...
Tim Peeler: Résumé (fiction)
Here’s a fan favorite from Mule writer Tim Peeler. So much code to delete, it took forever to clean this one up. This came from the Wayback Machine. 1990s Classic Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Résumé Was there snow...
Jesse Miller: See It To Believe It (micro-fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: parts of this world differ from others in the oddest, saddest and most real ways. and in those same differences we find similarities. such is my south. such are all places. towns of the south are often islands....
Barges by Scott McKenzie (fiction)
Another great old story from the 1990s Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. One more attempt at rebuilding our archives. This is one of my personal favorites. I think he’s known as Thomas Scott McKenzie now. Barges They sat in...
JC Reilly: Five Poems
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up across from cotton fields in Shreveport, Louisiana with my Mama and sister, back when anything south of of the city that wasn’t covered in cotton was covered in kudzu. Not too far from our home...
Fred Guyette: They Had to Call Life-Flight (micro-fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: When I was a kid, my grandmother made us biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and she always made two with a special pinch of dough on the top. She called it a “hop toad” and I knew that...
Chris Espenshade: Will to Die (micro-fiction)
For my SLS, I have worshiped at the twin altars of Stone Mountain (friction climbing) and Seneca Rocks (face and crack climbing). In my lifetime, I have achieved about a 50 percent success rate on the last rapid on the...
Steven Carr: Noise (fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived in Richmond, Va. for over 13 years and lived in Farmville, Va. for 2 years before that. Farmville, a small town with Southern charm, is the setting of the story. Noise The sound of the 5:10...
F. Brett Cox: Up Above the Dead Line (fiction)
One of our favorite stories ever published on the Dead Mule, from around 1998 or earlier — archives found on the WayBack Machine. A blast from the past, still working on rebuilding our archives. Up Above the Dead Line It...
Catherine Moore: Festival Talk (fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Virginia and write from the hills of Tennessee. Festival Talk Every time the cold grip of winter thawed to creek water in Alabama, there came the chatterings of spring including festival talk. A well-attended...
Briana Loveall: The Wool-Gatherer (essay/memoir)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My grandmother raised me on cornbread and southern stories, the anecdotes of her girlhood among the cotton rows. The Wool-Gatherer I buy the strawberries grown and shipped from Watsonville because my grandmother’s hands once picked them there....
Lanny Gilbert: The Elves and the Dwarves (fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I know what a #2 washtub, a #9 turner and a come-along are. I also know at least 3 ways to prepare chicken for Sunday lunch without going to a grocery store for the bird. If that’s not...
Charles Kersey: Three Poems (poetry)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in the South, deeper, in fact, than my father and mother, both of who relocated from southern Georgia and southern Mississippi respectively. I attended college in Charleston, South Carolina, at The Citadel which, contrary...
Laura Valeri: Ice Storm (fiction)
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I came to Savannah, GA in 2003 by way of Miami Florida, and I have since been teaching creative writing at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga. Ice Storm The couple had flown to Tybee Island in the...
Poetry
Essays
