Stories – Snake & Tree

Populism

Good country folk historically hate big business, cops, authority of any kind, and rich folks. What happened? Nothing, really.

April 28, 2018April 28, 2018

Review: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Poverty is a state of emergency.

Review: William Gay’s Little Sister Death

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

A Mississippi miss will set you free

Ode to Southern women, the girls who’ve been whooping asses longer than anybody should have to.

March 11, 2018March 11, 2018

Sometimes, Evil Prevails: Dry County Economics

Liquor money is green as anybody’s.

March 5, 2018May 17, 2018

Still on Subsistence: Redneck Survival and The Walking Dead

Crossbows, accents, and bad bitches. The Walking Dead is the white trash Game of Thrones.

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.

February 19, 2018

Loud and Rowdy Howdy Howdy, Texas Was Fun

I went to Austin last week. It was a blast.

February 12, 2018February 12, 2018

Meth Mouth

As if you needed to know the various ways policies have ignored the meth epidemic.

February 3, 2018February 3, 2018

Guilt, Shame & the Southern Imaginary

We can feel guilt or shame about our ancestors. Or we can drink a lot and get to work.

I’m Rachel, a jaded twenty-something English grad student looking to tell some stories. Currently based in Knoxville, Tennessee, 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.