Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Georgia and that’s where I’ve returned. I’ve worked at Southern newspapers. And I enjoy tomato sandwiches each summer using tomatoes grown at home. 4ever Mom’s voice crackled over the phone, as if she were calling somehow from my past, a longer distance than my hometown 250 miles
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Ronnie Sirmans: 4ever
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Claire Fullerton: A Place in the World
Southern Legitimacy Statement: a proud Southerner from Memphis, Tennessee. For nine years, I worked in Memphis radio, beginning with a Memphis Music show on WSMS and ending on WEGR, on the infamous Beale Street. A Place in the World I used to go home every Christmas to the house I grew up in, and Finley used
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Van Wurm: Pachinko in the Afterlife
Southern Legitimacy Statement: For my prior publications in The Mule, I have written of my semi-fictional relatives from the part of the world where I first saw the light of day — West Alabama. This time the setting of my story is my current home — the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Pachinko in the Afterlife I
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Hannah Jane Pearson: The Sum Belongings of a Long-Time Collector
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Texan turned South Carolinian, I’ve been tailgating more than I’ve been kissed–but I get all the sugar I need from my sweet tea. The Sum Belongings of a Long-Time Collector The first item that caught Jared’s attention was the wheelbarrow. It was bright yellow, positioned under his Aunt SueEllen’s widescreen, with an
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JL Meyers: Martyrs
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Generations of men in my family proudly have the middle name Leroy, including myself. And all of us have had home-cooked meals of squirrel or frog legs or venison and never turn down a slice of vinegar pie. It seemed normal, growing up, that my grandparents had a 45rpm jukebox in their
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Jake Ford: The Sacrificial Llama
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m a fifth generation East Tennessean. I’ve cleared fields, dug post holes, chopped wood, and hauled hay. Had a beagle named Clyde that wadn’t worth a damn. As a teen I worked at the local AM country radio station which was housed in a trailer where I hosted the Swap & Shop
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Reine Bouton: Moving On
My SLS: Native New Orleanian. Lover of family, jazz, grits, gumbo, Mardi Gras, porches, and Pimm’s Cup. Besides living in New Orleans, I have a son, a dog, and a cat, and have taught English at Southeastern Louisiana University for the past fifteen years. Moving On The counter smelled sour, like a bar the
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Paul Gilberry: The Iroquois King
Once we needed Christmas lights for a 4th of July party, so I went out to the shed, which was getting a little rough after Katrina and Wilma, and there was a possum sleeping on the Christmas lights, and I was torn between just slowly pulling them out from under the possum, and running an
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Geoff Balme: Dizzy Looking Up
The sky was so high and so blue we got dizzy staring up at it. Contrails criss-crossed like giant, white, pick-up sticks. Stumbling out into the sun after so many hours of nothing but being fat-assed on the sofa, eyes vacantly glued to the Jerry Lewis Telethon, where Charo had played guitar and seemed to
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Nelson Lowhim: Journal of the Dead
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Writer and veteran. Born in Africa, currently live in Washington State. Oh, it doesn’t really end there, but that should be good for now. Since some people tend to ask: yes I served in the US Army. I like to think that my writing has been influenced by… no, no, I won’t go
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Carroll Leggett: sis claire
Southern Legitimacy Statement: To start with, I can’t find your so-called “Southern Legitimacy Statement” on this website, so you can just kiss my old southern ass if you don’t think I am southern enough for you. My forbearer James Castellow was in Bertie County NC before 1700 and built the first courthouse there. Was a member
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Stephen Harris: Stronger than Breath
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Stephen Harris is from Cayce, SC and currently lives in Raleigh, NC. He eats a biscuit for breakfast every Friday because he used to eat a biscuit for breakfast everyday. He just
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James A. Autrey: The Lord’s Work
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and due to the divorce of my parents, went back and forth between there and Benton County, Mississippi which, at the time, was the 36th poorest county
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Slow Publishing Schedule for January 2017
Due to the formatting difficulties I’m experiencing with poetry, that section of the Mule is going to lag behind our essays, memoirs and short stories. Poets and patience. I’ll get it online soon.
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Nathan Leslie: Until Further Notice
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have lived in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2002. Until Further Notice I can keep a secret. I always could. So when IBC approached me about running the motel, I jumped on
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Stephen Harris: Stronger Than Breath
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Stephen Harris is from Cayce, SC and currently lives in Raleigh, NC. He eats a biscuit for breakfast every Friday because he used to eat a biscuit for breakfast everyday. He just
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Claire Fullerton: Perfect Circle
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Claire Fullerton is from Memphis, Tennessee, which immediately brings to mind the Mississippi River; the bridge that hovers over it on its way to Arkansas in the graceful shape of the letter
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Audrey Wick: Blown
SLS: I am Texas born/raised and can write as well as I can two-step. But weddings can make my stomach sick, just like my main character in “Blown.” Blown Weddings always made my stomach sick.
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Bobby Wilson: Greens
Southern Legitimacy Statement: My father calls it Lou-Z-anna, Winnfield to be exact. Home of Huey Long and two other governors. The shotgun house he grew up in still stands. Greens On Saturday we go to
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CL Bledsoe: Going to Jackson
Going to Jackson We left Sara standing outside a gas station in Jackson, Mississippi, waiting for her Mom, who lived just down the street. “You better go before she sees you,” Sara said, hugging
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