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Stories

The Editor’s Favorite Writing

Our editor-in-chief picks his favorite pieces from Salvation South in 2024.

Grace Beyond Her Ability

Sherri McCoy’s service to the unhoused people of Atlanta is an exercise in radical selflessness.

Who Fights for You?

Maddie Stambler’s first short documentary tells the story of a lifelong friendship. Some might call her bond with her subject “unlikely.” Maddie calls it transformational.

Two Cultures, One Filmmaker

She grew up in a bicultural family with deep roots in South Carolina. The product of two rich storytelling traditions, she now captures on film the dualities of the South—and of her own life story.

Far Beyond the Visible

Three poets from Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia offer visions of their fathers.

Living Legacy

Between 1912 and 1932, a collaboration between a Black educator and a Jewish businessman produced 5,000 school buildings in which more than 600,000 African American children in the South were educated.

The Quiet We Share

Grief is an eternal shape-shifter. One of Appalachia’s most resonant voices guides us through it with three poems.

It’s Time for a Revolution in Southern Thinking

As we celebrate Pride Month, our editor prays that our beloved South will rise above old ways that bring hate where there should be love.

Water Always Wins

A jazz player who grew up roaming the banks of the Mississippi produces a musical meditation on life’s most essential element.

A Letter to the Southern Glitter Kids

He grew up in Mississippi and didn’t come out until he was thirty-one. Here is his letter to LGBTQ+ kids—words he wishes someone had shared with him years earlier.

Sunday Fatback

As a child, she saw only the difference between the simple food in her home and the fancier fare on her friends’ tables. Years later, she would see more clearly.

A Hundred Years of Earl Scruggs

In this centennial year of the North Carolina banjo legend’s birth, bluegrass wizard Tony Trischka extols his Earlness with a masterful tribute.

How to Make It Over Mountains

From northwest Virginia, two poems on the depths of persistence and the limits of our knowledge.