Essays, opinions, commentary, criticism, and fiction from Southern writers.
At the second annual All Y’all Social Justice Summit for Southern teachers, held this year in rural northern Georgia, educators examined their profession on a deeper level.
Read MoreWhen Ernest P. Worrell showed up at the White House, he had the press in hysterics. What were they laughing at?
Read MoreMarianne Leek teaches at tiny Hayesville High in Clay County, North Carolina. Introducing her students to writers from their Appalachian home, like Ron Rash and David Joy, has opened up new worlds for kids and teachers alike.
Read MoreThe Bitter Southerner’s education columnists went searching for musicians who would talk about the teachers who influenced them. Then, they found the whole package in one household.
Read MoreJoycelyn Wilson, our resident Southern hip hop scholar, addresses how the lightning-fast ascendance of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” shines a light on the decades-long influence African Americans have had on the sounds of country music.
Read MoreMississippi Writer Ellen Ann Fentress thinks folks like her — alumni of segregation academies — now face a reckoning with how their educations shaped the way they’ve lived their lives.
Read MoreIf Southern cities can be measured by the caliber of performers they attract, then Greenville, South Carolina, is big enough for Paul McCartney. Kristi York Wooten remembers waiting half a century for her home city — and a Beatle — to arrive.
Read MoreBreaker, breaker. A look back in Southern political history to the CB radio’s brief but nutty tenure in the national campaign spotlight.
Read MoreThe renowned Mississippi sculptor Bill Beckwith has never stopped reshaping his own life, just like he shaped the bronze of William Faulkner on a park bench in Oxford’s town square.
Read MoreEvery Southern kid grows up knowing the deal with “ma’am.” Writer and food editor Kathleen Purvis reckons with whether the required honorific is still worthy of honor. For her, the answer is yes, with some qualifications.
Read MoreHow the lack of a will and a family dispute have prevented the Ogletrees, an Atlanta family The Bitter Southerner has covered for the past year, from getting running water.
Read MoreForty years ago, the generation that shaped Southern hip-hop also lived through the Atlanta Child Murders, the kidnapping and killing of 30 African Americans between the ages of 7 and 27. With the murders in the public eye again and Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms’ recent decision to re-examine the evidence, Dr. Joycelyn Wilson investigates how her generation’s music was shaped by — and still memorializes — the trauma.
Read MoreFighting hate through education to help students — and the world — a more tolerant place
Read MoreAfter covering protests over police killings, Charlotte’s Michael Graff attends a seminar designed to teach folks “to disagree with grace again.” Is it possible?
Read MoreKelundra Smith sits down with Amy Sherald to talk about her work and her iconic painting of former First Lady Michelle Obama
Read MoreIn 1980, a young Florida man was sentenced to four years in prison for theft. He wound up doing almost 40 years because he repeatedly (and successfully) escaped. Last month, he was released. But it didn’t last long.
Read MoreM.O. Walsh, author of the bestselling novel My Sunshine Away, brings us an essay on fishing from an upcoming collection, Gather at the River, in which 25 contemporary authors tell fishing tales.
Read MoreFor four years, Athens, Georgia, musicians and activists have used every MLK holiday weekend to cross the lines of genre and race to make music together. Bertis Downs tells us about his turn at the mic last month.
Read MoreA mind-numbingly dismissive quote from the president’s son prompts our teachers to write a full-throated defense of their co-workers — and their noble profession.
Read MoreWhen LaRue Cook left his editor’s job at ESPN in Connecticut and returned home to Tennessee, he made a living as an Uber driver — and wrote the upcoming book, Man in the (Rearview) Mirror, from which we excerpt this essay.
Read MoreA new kind of magazine for a new kind of South.
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