THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
  • Feature Stories Podcast
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • General Store
THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
  • Stories/
    • Feature Stories
    • Podcast
  • About/
  • Subscribe/
  • General Store/
THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

Better South / Better Word

Weekly Columns

Essays, opinions, commentary, criticism, and fiction from Southern writers.

THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
  • Stories/
    • Feature Stories
    • Podcast
  • About/
  • Subscribe/
  • General Store/

June 23, 2017

Four Reasons Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

June 23, 2017/ Dr. Joycelyn Wilson
Four Reasons Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

Trap music — the subgenre that currently dominates Southern rap — is misogynistic, but that doesn’t mean it can’t inspire women to go get theirs.

Read More
June 23, 2017/ Dr. Joycelyn Wilson/
trap music, second
June 19, 2017

The Politics of Memory and Marble

June 19, 2017/ Tom Lee
The Politics of Memory and Marble

Nothing in our poor power — not even decades-old, marble statues — can add or detract from truths about the American South.

Read More
June 19, 2017/ Tom Lee/
June 16, 2017

Life and Death and Burial Beer

June 16, 2017/ Bob Townsend
Life and Death and Burial Beer

A brewery with a most unlikely name is resurrecting historic buildings and experimenting with novel beer styles in Asheville, North Carolina.

Read More
June 16, 2017/ Bob Townsend/
beer, breweries, Asheville
June 12, 2017

Getting Off the L.A. Freeway

June 12, 2017/ Holly Beilin
Getting Off the L.A. Freeway

A company called Alternative proves the fashion industry wrong when they say it can’t be done in the South. 

Read More
June 12, 2017/ Holly Beilin/
apparel, alternative, second
June 09, 2017

A Gate-Cut From Us All

June 09, 2017/ Tom Lee
A Gate-Cut From Us All

The Bitter Southerner’s new Southern Politics column will explore the duality of the Southern thing not through shrill partisanship, but by passing along knowledge about how state legislatures in our region work and by putting their actions in historical perspective. Because, you know, we gotta get under all this yelling. 

Read More
June 09, 2017/ Tom Lee/
politics, southern politics, state legislature, second
June 05, 2017

Black Genius

June 05, 2017/ Adam W. Jordan and Todd S. Hawley
Black Genius

Schools typically labeled as “failing” are most often found in communities of color and in communities with lower household incomes. An organization called Village of Wisdom has risen in Durham, North Carolina, to stand up for families of color in the schools. 

Read More
June 05, 2017/ Adam W. Jordan and Todd S. Hawley/
education, black genius, Durham, North Carolina
June 02, 2017

S-Town, Alabama

June 02, 2017/ Martha Polk
S-Town, Alabama

By now, it seems like every Southerner we know has listened to “S-Town,” the seven-part podcast series that took the world inside tiny Woodstock, Alabama. Today, Martha Polk interviews “S-Town” creator Brian Reed about what he learned about the South.

Read More
June 02, 2017/ Martha Polk/
top, s-town, Alabama
May 29, 2017

"Gregg Allman's Over There"

May 29, 2017/ Guest User
"Gregg Allman's Over There"

Muscle Shoals songwriter John Paul White, Atlanta rapper Killer Mike and our editor, Chuck Reece, remember a legend of Southern music.

Read More
May 29, 2017/ Guest User/
top, music, Gregg Allman, Killer Mike, John Paul White
May 26, 2017

Your Imaginary Bartender

May 26, 2017/ Clair McLafferty
Your Imaginary Bartender

Picture, if you will, the stereotypical craft-cocktail bartender. Your bartender is probably wearing suspenders, possibly arm garters, and a well-pressed shirt. He also probably sports a well-coiffed mustache. He is also, dollars to doughnuts, white.

Read More
May 26, 2017/ Clair McLafferty/
top
May 22, 2017

The Fried Green Tomatoes

May 22, 2017/ L. Kasimu Harris
The Fried Green Tomatoes

Our newest food columnist, New Orleans's L. Kasimu Harris, debuts with a story about how he learned — the hard way — that we should make a point to get in the kitchen with our moms.

Read More
May 22, 2017/ L. Kasimu Harris/
top
May 19, 2017

For the Love of Lil Yachty

May 19, 2017/ Dr. Joycelyn Wilson
For the Love of Lil Yachty

When New York rapper Joe Budden went off on Atlanta’s Lil Yachty, was he lecturing a new generation, or was it 20 years of resentment toward rap from the South?  

Read More
May 19, 2017/ Dr. Joycelyn Wilson/
lil yachty
May 15, 2017

Southern Artists Embrace Alternate Realities

May 15, 2017/ Muriel Vega
Southern Artists Embrace Alternate Realities

With companies in the South pioneering virtual and augmented reality technologies, artists are using VR and AR to tell stories — and provide help to the suffering. 

Read More
May 15, 2017/ Muriel Vega/
Atlanta, Arts, Science
May 12, 2017

No Malt, No Beer

May 12, 2017/ Bob Townsend
No Malt, No Beer

Riverbend Malt House in North Carolina is putting Southern “terroir” into beers across the nation, with its old-school approach to getting grains like barley and rye ready for the brew kettle.

Read More
May 12, 2017/ Bob Townsend/
Beer, Asheville
May 04, 2017

Floating Eastwardly: Col. Bruce Hampton

May 04, 2017/ Guest User
Floating Eastwardly: Col. Bruce Hampton

When Colonel Bruce Hampton collapsed onstage at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre Monday night, the very model of Southern musical freedom left this world.

Read More
May 04, 2017/ Guest User/
top, bruce hampton
May 01, 2017

Let’s Stop Failing Schools

May 01, 2017/ Adam W. Jordan and Todd S. Hawley
Let’s Stop Failing Schools

Today, our Southern Schooling columnists argue that all the talk about “failing” schools draws too much attention away from the folks working to make our public schools — particularly in urban and rural areas — into great learning environments. They’re tired of it, and offer suggestions about how to move beyond the poisoned rhetoric.

Read More
May 01, 2017/ Adam W. Jordan and Todd S. Hawley/
top
April 27, 2017

A Cup of Lovejoy in Florence

April 27, 2017/ Clair McLafferty
A Cup of Lovejoy in Florence

Florence, Alabama, is a town rich with musical heritage and a thriving global fashion business, but until Brian Lovejoy came back home, the place never had a great Southern cocktail bar. Now, it does, and Florence is drinking up.

Read More
April 27, 2017/ Clair McLafferty/
top, Southern Bars, Drinking
April 24, 2017

Cooking With Cane Syrup

April 24, 2017/ Nicole Taylor
Cooking With Cane Syrup

Our Southern Food columnist, Nicole Taylor, visits the Purple Ribbon sugarcane fields of Georgia’s Sapelo Island and ponders the beauty of a too often neglected ingredient — cane syrup.

Read More
April 24, 2017/ Nicole Taylor/ /Source
food, cooking, southern, top
April 20, 2017

Outkast’d and Claimin’ True

April 20, 2017/ Georgia Institute of Technology/ Dr. Joycelyn Wilson
Outkast’d and Claimin’ True

Outkast's Big Boi dropped into a class our Southern Music columnist Dr. Joycelyn Wilson was teaching. These are the lessons he taught.

Read More
April 20, 2017/ Georgia Institute of Technology/ Dr. Joycelyn Wilson/
top, hip-hop, Big Boi, Outkast, Southern, Dirty South
April 17, 2017

Where the Hustle of Tech and Hip-Hop Collide

April 17, 2017/ Holly Beilin
Where the Hustle of Tech and Hip-Hop Collide

How the technology industry is cross-pollinating with hip-hop.

Read More
April 17, 2017/ Holly Beilin/
Hip-Hop, Business, Technology
April 14, 2017

Writing About Beer: Almost as Good as Drinking It

April 14, 2017/ Bob Townsend
Writing About Beer: Almost as Good as Drinking It

The Bitter Southerner’s beer writer is Bob Townsend, who’s been writing about the beloved suds for 15 years. Here are his intentions for covering the Southern beer world.

Read More
April 14, 2017/ Bob Townsend/
Beer, Southern
  • Previous
  • Next
  • Stories/
    • Feature Stories
    • Podcast
  • About/
  • Subscribe/
  • General Store/

THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

A new kind of magazine for a new kind of South.

 
 

 

SUBSCRIBE
NEWSLETTER
GENERAL STORE
MAGAZINE

STORIES
PODCAST
FOODWAYS
PARTNER STORIES

ABOUT US
TEAM
CONTACT

MEDIA KIT
CUSTOMER SERVICE
SUBMISSIONS

 

 
THE BITTER SOUTHERNER ©2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.