Tag Archive
Farming Cotton
FICTION
BY LISA GROEN BRANER
1.
Tonight the voices from the house are louder than usual. Daddy’s trying to convince Granddad of something. “You wait, it’s coming,” is all I hear before the radio blurs his voice again.
In the light of the moon, I lie in a field of tall grass not far from my grandparents’ house. The… »
Literary contest open to poetry, fiction and nonfiction
The 2010 New Southerner Literary Contest is open to previously unpublished poetry, fiction and nonfiction from April 1 through October 1. Although the contest theme is open, we are especially interested in work that relates to our mission, which is promoting self-sufficiency, environmental stewardship and local economies. We are also interested in works by writers… »
Fifty Dollar, Fifty Dollar
FICTION
By CHRIS HELVEY
It was Tuesday morning, so early the crows weren’t even cawing. I was in the rear of the Three Point Market buying night crawlers. Bob Hemphill and I were going to do some fishing on the Ohio. I was meeting him down below the Falls of the Rough. Bob was an artificials guy;… »
The Beauregard Group
FICTION
By LESLIE WHATLEY
Otto hauled me up out of the passenger seat of my mother’s Buick and slung my arm over his shoulder and dragged me over the grass because my legs weren’t working properly. Halfway across the lawn I looked up at his shiny red face, awash in Old Spice, and … »
Tomlinson’s fictional stories reveal hard truths of mountaintop removal mining and other subjects
BOOK REVIEW
By MARY POPHAM
Fiction offers a close look at the truth in Jim Tomlinson’s group of short stories, Nothing Like An Ocean. When he delves into issues such as mountaintop removal coal mining, marriage difficulties and the loneliness of single people, he gets to reality—the heart of the subjects.
In lovely prose, Tomlinson reveals the interiority… »
The Birdman
FICTION
By VERNA AUSTEN
The feeder hung from the ginkgo tree in the shape of a cross. Dried ears of yellow corn jetted from the head, hands and feet as David’s offering to the squirrels in hopes they’d leave the birdseed alone. He’d seen them running the length of the garage roof with their pouchy cheeks… »
Outsourcing
FICTION
By KURT JOSE AYAU
I’m not Jewish, but I’m good friends with Sammy Greenbaum, whose father is a rabbi, so when I have a religious question, I go to Sammy, since he’s the only friend I have whose father is a man of the cloth. We play basketball together twice a week, Monday-Wednesday, 6:30-8:00 at… »
Something in the Wash
*Winner, FICTION PRIZE
By ANGELA JACKSON-BROWN
1875
I knowed that was Preacher’s boy soon as I laid eyes on him. He looked just like Preacher round the eyes and the mouth. He had them same sleepy eyes Preacher got and the same droopy mouth that make Preacher look like somebody done took his bottom lip and give… »
Mine
Honorable Mention, FICTION PRIZE
By C.D. NOONAN
She stood at the sink wearing her apron, the white one with the blue flowers that had been her mother’s and her grandmother’s, so that the white had been sullied into cream. The tips of her hipbones rested against the stainless steel rim of the sink. She had turned… »
Novel offers compelling view of 19th century mountain life
BOOK REVIEW
By KAY HUBBARD
Joan Donaldson’s On Viney’s Mountain offers a compelling perspective on Tennessee mountain life in the late 19th century. The title is apt, because it is a story about the land (and all that lives there), told in wonderful detail by the 16_year_old Viney Walker, who is not an objective observer.
Viney loves the… »
