Fiction – Snake & Tree

May 21, 2018

Be Ugly, Get Ugly

In the South, ugly is a behavior. “Quit being ugly and give me a hug,” or, my favorite, “be ugly to me and I’ll get you some ugly.”

April 22, 2018

Review: William Gay’s Little Sister Death

William Gay could tell a story. Even a scary one. Especially a scary one.

February 21, 2018February 21, 2018

The Dead Become a Song: Review of Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing

Jesmyn Ward is the New South’s voice and artist. Her new novel is painful, melancholy, and beautifully wrought.

December 16, 2017December 16, 2017

My Buddy Bill: Y’all Need Faulkner

Faulkner scares people. With as much truth as he’s dropping, he probably should.

I’m Rachel, a jaded twenty-something English grad student looking to tell some stories. Currently based in Nashville, born and bred in rural Alabama. Here you’ll find liberal political tirades, stories, book reviews, and folklore focused in on these lower Southeastern thirteen states.

The title, Snake and Tree, comes from the Alabama proverb that if you hang a dead snake in a tree it’ll bring rain. These stories are the snake. The rain is making peace with this broke South.