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Stories

A photo illustration accompanying Tiana Clark's Scorched Earth poems, reflecting themes of Black motherhood in poetry, faith, and grief.

The Raw Root of Dark Sounds

These three poems excerpted from “Scorched Earth” reckon with a mother’s face, the devil’s music, and what miracles can happen on a plain day.

Young and Queer and Mountaineer

Mesha Maren’s third novel, out this week, is a landmark achievement for a new generation of Appalachian writers who assert their right to be fully queer and fully mountaineer.

Georgia

Chock full of images, an ode to the spirit of the New South.

Better Branching for More Blooms

With spring in full swing, two glittering poems from southeast Tennessee.

Rich Dirt

Sometimes, you think you’ve gotten above your raising, and then you discover you started out much higher than you thought.

The Liquor Trailer

Just across the state line, that’s where you go to be a man.

In This Soil of Grief and Hope

For Mother’s Day, a look at mama through the eyes of North Carolina poets.

Remembering Miss Margaret Parks

Last week, our editor wrote about a teacher who changed his outlook on the world. A poet who contributes regularly to us this week recalls how a simple correction from her teacher sparked a lifetime of reconsidering the story of the South.

The Root System

We were taught the South’s greatest music sprung up in specific places, like the Mississippi Delta or New Orleans or Appalachia. Our teachers didn’t dig deep enough.

The Check’s in the Mail

An unexpected inheritance came too late to raise her mother from poverty, but not too late for the state of Tennessee to claim the money for itself. A first-person look at how Southern states stack the deck against their working poor.

Taking Stock

A North Florida cattleman looks back and wonders, what happens when you can no longer afford to love the thing you love the most?

Teach Your Children Well

It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week, so we’re doing exactly that—showing love and respect to the people who led us from confusion to inspiration.

After Another School Shooting, I Go to Work

Every day, millions of teachers and students face the possibility of violence. This Mississippi teacher is one of them.