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Stories

Smooth river stones in clear, flowing water with sunlight reflecting off the surface, evoking Mississippi’s natural beauty. In the upper right, the Salvation South New Poets Prize Honorable Mention badge highlights Jennifer Peterson’s award-winning Mississippi poems and her recognition as a Southern poet.

Every Place Is Home to Someone

This finalist for the New Poets Prize—also poet laureate for Hattiesburg, Mississippi—takes us on intricate tours of Saturday in a small town, the thin line between redemption and judgment, and how beauty and love unfold in everyday moments.

Truer Than the Truth

Why fiction is—and should always be—part of Salvation South.

Tupelo, Honey!

ELVIS! was born in Tupelo, crowned the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and became such a legend—and punchline—that the man himself is almost beside the point. Almost.

Salt and Light

A Tennessee social worker unfurls a flag of healing and mercy.

Thank You Kindly

Nanci Griffith, one of the finest Texas songwriters ever, left this earth two years ago. Her music lives on in a new tribute album out today. Mary Gauthier writes about the lasting power of Griffith’s songs.

Gauthier Remembers Griffith

We welcome one of our favorite Grammy-nominated songwriters, Mary Gauthier, to our pages with a tribute to her heroine, the late Nanci Griffith.

Where I’m From: Seven Decades in Seven Scenes

An island poet from North Carolina recounts a life defined by books, music, and events far beyond her control.

Grits by Any Other Name

While studying in Uganda, one Southerner learned that even eight thousand miles away, familiar flavors can bring you home in an instant.

To Make Peace With My Life

An Arkansas veteran and professor unearths the South’s ambiguous tracks.

What Lives On

A Tennessee musician wrestles with ghosts—the troubling, the beloved, and the holy.

Taking Down the Flag

Our poetry editor steps into the Editor’s Corner to walk us through a week of writing that wrestles with the Confederacy, that army of a million ghosts who haunt the South.

Let It Be Declared

From South Carolina to Washington, D.C., a chronicle of poetic lineage and family history.

What We Love, What We Become

Illumination can spring from anywhere: the beach, our vices, or the sacred tomato sandwich.