"No good Southern fiction is complete without a Dead Mule." — Valerie MacEwan *Currently restoring original deadmule.com
Kathryn Stripling Byer has not forgotten her southern roots. True, she is the current North Carolina Poet Laureate. True, she has received accolades and praise. True, she is very, very busy. But when the Mule contacted her, asking for poems. she promptly said, “yes,” because she is as southern and polite as we are.
These poems come from Byer’s new manuscript, more mountain women’s voices.
Parts I and II III. UN BALLO IN MASCHERA. The Maori of New Zealand say you shouldn’t start a story…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and due to the divorce of my parents, went back and forth…
Another in our Series of Memoirs by Mule editor CL Bledsoe. Read on, my mule readers … read on. Feeding…
… the mule is coming back, we loaded the newest Mule issues here on thedeadmule.wordpress.com and we’re pretty skippy proud…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I have appeared in your publication, spent a recent vacation in NC, read in NC, worked in Tennessee…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: To start with, I can’t find your so-called “Southern Legitimacy Statement” on this website, so you can just…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Writer and veteran. Born in Africa, currently live in Washington State. Oh, it doesn’t really end there, but…
The sky was so high and so blue we got dizzy staring up at it. Contrails criss-crossed like giant, white,…
Once we needed Christmas lights for a 4th of July party, so I went out to the shed, which was…
My SLS: Native New Orleanian. Lover of family, jazz, grits, gumbo, Mardi Gras, porches, and Pimm’s Cup. Besides living…
Southern Legitimacy Statement (redux): ’m a fifth generation East Tennessean. I’ve cleared fields, dug post holes, chopped wood, and hauled hay.…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. Eve’s poetry can be found here on the Dead Mule. Don’t…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve swallowed moonshine and lived to brag about it; escaped a copperhead’s randy tongue; ridden a tobacco setter…
The Strange Case of David Lang I was named for my great-grandfather, David Lang. David has long been a source…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m so Southern that it’s literally the only thing I know how to write about. I was…
Another in our bi-weekly Series of Memoirs from Mule editor CL Bledsoe. His southern bona fides run deep, just read…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m a fifth generation East Tennessean. I’ve cleared fields, dug post holes, chopped wood, and hauled hay.…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Generations of men in my family proudly have the middle name Leroy, including myself. And all of…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Texan turned South Carolinian, I’ve been tailgating more than I’ve been kissed–but I get all the sugar…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: CL Bledsoe grew up on a rice, cattle, and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas. He had a…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: As a child I remember two bumper stickers that screamed out the following: “If your heart isn’t in…
Southern Legitimacy Statement river town sleepy town cajuncreole spicy foods filé gumbo sultry air pop guns china berry trees joie…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: There is a warmness to the South. Beyond the obvious, the steamy summers and Goddawful humidity, its…
Southern Legitimacy Statement: For my prior publications in The Mule, I have written of my semi-fictional relatives from the part of…
