Southern Lit Presents

Perform a general Google search for authors past and present hailing from any American state below the Mason-Dixon line, and you’re bound to find a convoy of white males. Even in these supposed progressive times, it takes more digging to uncover the biographies and bibliographies of female authors, authors of color, and authors within the LGBTQ+ community. Yet their voices are as essential in representing the Southern experience as those belonging to their easily searchable counterparts.

Southern Lit Presents, a column featuring historical contributors to Southern culture who speak from and for underrepresented populations. We hope these features will expand your perception of Southern culture and deepen your love the rich history surrounding it!

Southern Lit Presents: Roxy Gordon

by TNSF | Aug 22, 2018 | Nonfiction, Southern Lit Presents, Vol. 1, Issue 41

“Poetry Is An Indian”—An Outlaw Ghost Still Speaks Many Southerners are quick to take great pride in their potential ancestry of Native American tribes. Insert Sioux, Cherokee, or Apache here. If we try, we can visualize the images hung on the walls of some...

Southern Lit Presents: Douglas Ray

by TNSF | Jul 25, 2018 | Nonfiction, Southern Lit Presents, Vol. 1, Issue 37

Always Queer, Never Quiet Queer folks in the South generally don’t enjoy the limelight reserved for heterosexuals. When light is cast on the LGBTQ community, it’s generally around much-deserved human rights: whether members can exist safely in their identities in...

Southern Lit Presents: Alice Dunbar-Nelson

by TNSF | Jun 27, 2018 | Nonfiction, Southern Lit Presents, Vol. 1, Issue 33

Unapologetic Alice Defiant Southern women have found a new infatuation with an old name: Alice Dunbar-Nelson. The Louisiana native preceded celebrated essayists like Langston Hughes and ought to be taught in the same vein as Frederick Douglass. Yet, only...

Southern Lit Presents: Richard Wright, Forgotten Fugitive Poet

by TNSF | May 30, 2018 | Nonfiction, Southern Lit Presents, Vol. 1, Issue 29

Richard Wright: Forgotten Fugitive Poet One of the most favored and eloquent Southern traditions in literature involves human’s relationship to nature. From 1922–1925, the Fugitive Poets exemplified this in their literary magazine, with each member’s unique...

Southern Lit Presents: Sonia Sanchez

by TNSF | May 2, 2018 | Nonfiction, Southern Lit Presents, Vol. 1, Issue 25

Stutters, Spirituality, and Self: Redefining Southern Womanhood Southern culture is rife with leaders, both spiritual and political. Walk into a church, the South’s favored place of worship, and you’re likely to find a pastor. Last year, Christianity Today noted that...

Southern Lit Presents: Nikki Giovanni

by TNSF | Apr 4, 2018 | Nonfiction, Southern Lit Presents, Vol. 1, Issue 21

An Old Adage’s Expiration Date: Giovanni’s Sweet Inspiration “If white defines Black and good defines evil then men Define women or women scientifically speaking describe Men. If sweet is the opposite of of sour and heat the Absence of cold then love is the...