The Stories We Share, Thanks to You
From reporting to essays to poetry and fiction, every piece we share depends on readers like you who believe in a better, truer Southern narrative.
Chuck Reece | Salvation South | progressive Southern magazine
As we close the last week of our monthlong Family Circle membership drive, I find myself reflecting on what it truly means to sustain a progressive, forward-looking conversation about the South—and why your support is the only way we can keep doing it.
This week’s Sunday edition of Salvation South is a testament to the region’s complexity, its heartbreak, and its hope. In Robert Gipe’s “Poor Wayfaring Strangers: Can Appalachian Studies Survive the Age of Trump?”, we witness the struggle to keep the Appalachian story alive in the face of institutional neglect and political hostility. Nancy Yang’s trio of poems, “Memory, Migration, and Molasses,” captures the bittersweet ache of leaving and longing, of family ties stretched across time and geography. And our beloved, longtime contributor Sybil Rosen’s “Teardrop Road” puts us on a Greyhound bus traveling through the tangled back roads of Southern memory, grief, and redemption.
We’re proud to welcome Robert, an award-winning writer, illustrator, and activist for the people of Appalachia, to our pages for the first time. The same goes for Nancy, a California writer who was born and raised in Georgia and South Carolina. And we're delighted, as always, to publish Sybil's work. Her epic (and epically heartfelt) essay, “Paradise,” attracted many new readers to Salvation South three years ago.
Each of these pieces is singular. Together, they embody what we strive for at Salvation South: journalism and conversation that challenge our region to look forward, alongside fiction and poetry that tell the truth about our people and our culture.
But none of this happens by accident. And none of it happens without you.
Daniel Wallace | Salvation South | Southern literature
Why Your Membership Matters
The stories we publish are not the kind that appear in glossy travel magazines or in the pages of corporate-owned dailies. They are stories that ask hard questions about who we are and who we might become. They are stories that refuse to flatten the South into caricature or cliché. Gipe writes this week about how the Appalachian Studies programs that are now under political threat “expand understanding of the diversity of the Appalachian region, telling indigenous, African American, and Latinx stories, women’s and LGBTQIA+ stories, and stories of the land itself.” Salvation South strives to do the same, to tell stories that reckon honestly with our past, even the painful parts, and that dare to imagine a more inclusive, resilient future.
This kind of storytelling is fragile. It depends on a network of writers, editors, photographers, and artists who are committed to the work of truth-telling. It depends on readers who are willing to be challenged, to be moved, and sometimes to be unsettled. And, most of all, it depends on the financial support of people who believe—really believe—that the South deserves better stories and that those stories deserve to be told.
Chuck Reece | Salvation South | progressive Southern magazine
A Community Sustained by Its Members
In “Poor Wayfaring Strangers,” we see what happens when institutions fail to support the work of cultural preservation and critical reflection. We see how easily programs can be gutted, how quickly the spaces for honest conversation can be lost. Yet we also see how, in the face of such losses, communities come together to build new spaces—living laboratories for tradition, inclusion, and resilience. The lesson is clear: When the old supports are pulled away, it is up to us to build something better in their place.
That is exactly what our Family Circle members do. With every monthly or annual contribution, you make it possible for us to find new fiction and poetry, to report deeply on the issues that matter most, and to keep our magazine open and accessible to all. You make it possible for us to nurture new voices and to hold space for the stories that might otherwise go untold.
Thank You, From the Bottom of Our Hearts
To those who have joined our Family Circle this month—and to those who have been with us since our launch in 2021—I offer my deepest thanks. You are the reason Salvation South exists. You are the reason we can keep publishing writing and photographs and films that matter, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Your support is not just a transaction; it is a partnership. It is a vote of confidence in the idea that the South is worth writing about, worth fighting for, and worth imagining anew.
An Invitation to Join Us
If you have not yet joined our Family Circle, I ask you—plainly and sincerely—to consider doing so before the week is out. Your membership is the lifeblood of this magazine. It is the difference between a South defined by its stereotypes and a South defined by its stories.
As Nancy Yang’s poetry reminds us, memory is fragile, migration is hard, and the bonds of family and friendship are what sustain us through change. As Sybil Rosen’s fiction shows, the road home is never easy, but it is always worth traveling. And as Robert Gipe’s reporting makes clear, the work of preserving and reimagining Southern culture is never finished—it is ongoing, and it belongs to all of us.
So, as we close this drive, I hope you’ll join us. Become a member of the Family Circle. Help us keep the forward-looking Southern storytelling coming. Help us keep the conversation alive.
With gratitude and hope,
Co-founder and editor-in-chief
P.S. See below for details on the four levels of the Salvation South Family Circle. There are options for every budget.
The Cornbread Level: $5 monthly or $50 annually
You get:
- This pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 10% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
The Biscuit Level: $10 monthly or $100 annually
You get:
- A commemorative 2025 Salvation South Have Mercy kitchen towel
- The aforementioned pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 15% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
The Sunday Dinner Roll Level: $15 monthly or $150 annually
You get:
- A commemorative 2025 Salvation South Have Mercy T-shirt in any size from S to 4X
- The aforementioned pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 20% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
The Red Velvet Cake Level: $25 monthly or $250 annually
You get:
- A cool, breezy, lightweight Salvation South performance hoodie (SPF 50) in any size from S to 4X.
- A sturdy canvas Salvation South tote bag—with a zipper closure!
- The aforementioned pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 25% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
Chuck Reece is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Salvation South, the weekly web magazine you're reading right now. He was the founding editor of The Bitter Southerner. He grew up in the north Georgia mountains in a little town called Ellijay.
