Spoon Theory
Morgan DePue on how good memories, childhood trauma, and chronic pain can all rest in the hollow of that wooden spoon you hold in your hand.
Stories
What a Way to Make a Living
The Preservation Hall Brass Band and the East Tennessee Bluegrass Association find common ground in Dolly Parton.
By Rob Rushin-Knopf /
Free Bird
Jodi Cash’s father passed away at the end of 2020. Ever since, the scenes of their relationship in her memory have been a movie she can’t stop watching.
By Jodi Cash /
A Summer of Rest
Salvation South’s Stacy Reece believes it’s time for a summer of rest and renewal.
By Stacy Reece /
You Are Safe Now
Borscht, chemo and Southern hospitality: the story of how St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis stepped in to help Ukrainian children fleeing war and fighting cancer.
By Richard Murff/photos courtesy of St. Jude /
The Joy of Cattywampus
Since its inception in 2009, Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival has become one of the world’s foremost gatherings for music from outside the lines. But when it returned this year after a two-year COVID shutdown, it became something greater than a chance to hear music. Instead, it brought the Knoxville community together for a joyful, citywide celebration. Big Ears offers lessons in how to make joy happen for a whole town. This is the first of a three-part series in which Salvation South studies the Big Ears method.
By Rob Rushin-Knopf Photos Courtesy of the Big Ears Festival /
Mr. Portwood’s Tomatoes
Every week in summertime, he’d visit the bank where she worked, set up shop in a vacant office and sell his prize Better Boy tomatoes.
By Lucy Mercer with an illustration by Stacy Reece /
Our Queer Little Hybrid Thing
Until his death in 2019, Florida State University’s Ned Stuckey-French was a master of the tricky beast called the “personal essay.” Rob Rushin-Knopf looks back at the writer and teacher’s brilliant career.
By Rob Rushin-Knopf with illustration by Stacy Reece /
The Wichahpi Wall
Tom Hendrix spent 30 years building a wall that is neither a barrier to keep anyone out nor a monument to glorify its builder. It is, instead, a portal to the past. It pays tribute to a courageous Native American ancestor and what her life’s journey teaches us about our common humanity and the profound significance of how we order our steps in this world.
By Shawn Pitts /
After Our Shutdown, We’re Back at Full Steam
A severe head injury to our editor shut us down for almost two months. Now we’re back and better than ever.
By Chuck Reece /
Damaged Goods
Robert Fell reflects on 42 years behind bars for the murder of his wife
