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Stories

I Heard Them All Speak

Alabama Poet Laureate Ashley M. Jones creates entire worlds in three new poems and affirms the power of poetry to help us see others and ourselves.

What We Love, What We Become

Illumination can spring from anywhere: the beach, our vices, or the sacred tomato sandwich.

Beyond the Coral Reefer

Jimmy Buffett sails away to his own particular harbor.

Under the Tree of Forgiveness

An early excerpt from the upcoming book “Prine on Prine”—one of John Prine’s final interviews, with the man who produced his final album.

The Kindness of Strangers

Playwright Tennessee Williams was born in Mississippi and raised in the almost-South of Missouri. But no writer is more indelibly associated with the Big Easy.

We’ll Get By

Two poems that take an unflinching look inside a struggling family in Southern Appalachia.

Oh, Holly

Salvation South offers its gratitude to one of America’s greatest music writers, who keeps coming back to our pages.

The Last Man Standing

The new Blind Boys of Alabama album marks the final song from Jimmy Carter, who was there eight decades ago, when it all began.

Bluegrass State Blues

Nat Myers’s sound is reminiscent of Charley Patton and Memphis Minnie, but his perspective as a first-generation Korean-American raised in Kentucky brings a fresh twist to the fingerstyle blues tradition.

Balms in the Woods

In summer’s dreadful heat, unfulfilled threats of rain and unfulfilled desires in our chests leave us wanting.

Our Other Important Jimmy Carter

A few words about my long talk with the leader of the Blind Boys of Alabama.

The Persistence of Memory

It’s the title of a Salvador Dali painting, yes, but it’s also a uniquely Southern affliction.

Making Berry Ink

In 1785, on the land where Clemson University now stands, the United States government signed a treaty. It promised the Cherokee people, “The hatchet shall be forever buried.” But that didn’t save the Cherokee town of Esseneca.