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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.

Beyond the Coral Reefer

Jimmy Buffett sails away to his own particular harbor.

Under the Tree of Forgiveness

An early excerpt from the upcoming book “Prine on Prine”—one of John Prine’s final interviews, with the man who produced his final album.

The Kindness of Strangers

Playwright Tennessee Williams was born in Mississippi and raised in the almost-South of Missouri. But no writer is more indelibly associated with the Big Easy.

We’ll Get By

Two poems that take an unflinching look inside a struggling family in Southern Appalachia.

Oh, Holly

Salvation South offers its gratitude to one of America’s greatest music writers, who keeps coming back to our pages.

The Last Man Standing

The new Blind Boys of Alabama album marks the final song from Jimmy Carter, who was there eight decades ago, when it all began.

Bluegrass State Blues

Nat Myers’s sound is reminiscent of Charley Patton and Memphis Minnie, but his perspective as a first-generation Korean-American raised in Kentucky brings a fresh twist to the fingerstyle blues tradition.

Balms in the Woods

In summer’s dreadful heat, unfulfilled threats of rain and unfulfilled desires in our chests leave us wanting.

Our Other Important Jimmy Carter

A few words about my long talk with the leader of the Blind Boys of Alabama.

The Persistence of Memory

It’s the title of a Salvador Dali painting, yes, but it’s also a uniquely Southern affliction.

Making Berry Ink

In 1785, on the land where Clemson University now stands, the United States government signed a treaty. It promised the Cherokee people, “The hatchet shall be forever buried.” But that didn’t save the Cherokee town of Esseneca.

Light in August

Our Southern Reader’s Travelogue continues on the trail of William Faulkner, from his home in Oxford to the bookshop that bears his name in New Orleans.