SLS:
I never thought I was very southern until my neighbor from California came over early one morning. We were going through a "lifestyle change," and she had arrived to drag me out for an early morning jog. She went into conniptions when she saw what I was eating - a country ham biscuit dipped in red eye gravy. Cholesterol, calories, carbs, oh my! It hit me that I was southern through and through when I very calmly told her "Something's bound to get me eventually," got another biscuit and a helping of grits smothered in butter, and ate to my heart's content.
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Ashley Fields “Legacy” [flash fiction]
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Heather Adams “Warmer Over Here” [flash fiction]
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Honey, my southern roots go way back - at least four generations of my family have been born and raised in western North Carolina.
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Thom Bassett “Keep It In There” [flash fiction]
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I confuse the nice old ladies at my Rhode Island supermarket by asking for my groceries to put in a paper *sack instead of a bag. I'm an atheist Jew who thinks "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" is the prettiest hymn. I call hymns and lots of other things "pretty." I get red in the face when people don't say "excuse me" or "thank you" in public intercourse. Because I believe in decorous public intercourse. Atlanta doesn't feel Southern to me. Hell, small towns in Massachusetts have more of the South in them than Atlanta. Or Dallas. Or Nashville, I say.
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Hope Denney “Waiting for the Undertaker” [flash fiction]
Southern Legitimacy Statement: When you’re a half Jewish girl from Tennessee with a heavy Appalachian accent, people really don’t know how to take you.
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Possum Holler Morning by William Matthew McCarter
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Them folks up there in St. Louis prolly think that Johnny Cash is a pay toilet but we know how the cows eat the cabbage down here in Ironton.
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My Father The Millionaire by Travis Turner
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Son of the Blackbelt. Lover of good bourbon & better storytelling.
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Blackout by Alan Watson
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Alan Watkins was born, raised, and still lives in the Raleigh, NC area. Generally, his writings end up as short films, but recently he has decided to delve into the written word after being intrigued by several anthologies of horror related short stories. As a Southern Baptist, there are generally subtle religious aspects in most of his stories.
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The Wink That Saved Me by Cindy Shearer
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My family cookbook has recipes for fried chicken, fried venison and fried squirrel. (As to the latter entrée, submitted by my Uncle Toodler, he notes that Aunt Fay “says she would just as soon eat a cat.”) Note: Ms Shearer has allowed that she will give out family recipes, upon request.
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The Subway Bride by Meg Stivison
SLS: Meg Stivison did indeed move from Brooklyn to North Carolina when her handsome Southern boyfriend proposed, but as far as she knows, he is not actually a changeling.
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Transcript of Audio: Miss Jewell Eppinette by Nonnie Augustine
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I now live in Panama City Beach, Florida and have been living here since 2005. There was also a six year spell here in the 80’s. I was born in NYC, grew up in New Jersey and have lived in NYC, NY State, New Mexico, Maryland, and England, and my first book of poems, One Day Tells its Tale to Another was published in Ireland. Please excuse me for including that last bit but I couldn’t help myself. ...This is a fiction submission, originally written for a Surreal South anthology and although they kindly told me it did not make it to the book, it did make it to the later stages of decision-making. Ahem.
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“Christmas I-55″ by John Calvin Hughes
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I’m John Calvin Hughes, son of a son of a preacher chased out of Mississippi for plucking the flock. I’m a southern (if I spell it southren you’ll get it, right?) boy who moved south and found himself surrounded by Yankees. I’m in Orlando. There's not a hill in sight and the restaurants that specialize in “Real Southern Cooking” put sugar in the cornbread. I'm making my own red eye gravy
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“Searching for Amy Spain” by Merry Speece [2007 revisited]
From the summer of 1989 to the summer of 2001 I lived in South Carolina. Before moving there I had not heard of the Gullah language and many other things. For the first eight years that I lived there, I read regional histories, old letters, diaries, cookbooks, etc., and took notes. Then I spent the next two years arranging the notes. The result was my Sisters Grimke Book of Days, which was published by Oasis Books (England) in 2003.
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“Life Story” by Lauren “Elyse” Phillips (58 word micro-fiction) 2007
As for Southern Legitimacy: I couldn't possibly be more Southern. Paw-Paw is a cotton farmer, Aunt Jean's favorite phrase is "for cryin' in the cow butter!", and the little old ladies in the grocery store used to run up and touch my head so they wouldn't give me "ojo." If the preacher's sermon went long, he'd apologize for holding up dinner. "Kudzu," "The Lockhorns," and "Tumbleweeds" were all staples in the morning paper where I grew up, though I've never seen mention of any of them elsewhere until now. I left home, but it's shaped me, and most of what I write is about the love/hate relationship I have with my Southern past.
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Celia McClinton “About Dr. Smilnik” [2007 revisited]
Celia is southern. She knows it, we know it... and Mule readers of our previous 10 years of literary excellence know she's southern.
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John McCaffrey “Clamming in January” [2007 revisited]
As for my southern legitimacy: sweet tea. Once, when visiting family in Mocksville, North Carolina, I drank so much during the week that I had something akin to the sugar DT's when I got back north. Snapple can not compare.
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C. L. Bledsoe “Stray” [2007 revisited]
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I grew up on a catfish and rice farm in eastern Arkansas. I must admit, I will take biscuits and gravy over grits any day, though.
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Athena Sasso: Throw Down
Southern Legitimacy Statement: These are names of my relatives: Clem, Lettie, Garlin, Annabelle, Elmer, Cayce, Velma, LV, and Baby Doll.
Dear Mule readers take note: every Spring needs a baseball story and this year, Ms. Sasso has given us a superb one. Read on!
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Cock-a-Doodle-Doo by L. E. Bunn
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My Daddy, who was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, taught me the finger lickin’ pleasures of Sunday breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and, oh, yes, GRITS.
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Eula Shook, a love story by Grant Jerkins
Southern Legitimacy Statement: The thing about The South is that it isn’t southern anymore.
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“My Disqualification” by Prosenjit Dey Chaudhury
With respect to a Southern Legitimacy Statement, I would like to state that although I have never been in the American South, I have deep admiration for the determined and pioneering individuality that marks the people of that region. I could indeed think of the protagonist of my story as exhibiting some of that individuality in her own way.
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