Continuing the Southern Literature Tradition

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sharonda.harris84

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Just curious: how many writers out there are from the Southern part of the US? With such a rich tradition of writers (Truman Capote, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Mitchell, etc.), I would love to know who considers his or herself part of this brotherhood of culture.

And if you are from the South, do you only write about Southern subjects? Historical or New South?
 

backslashbaby

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Woot! I'm a Carolina girl born and bred :D

I don't only write about Southern subjects, but I do use Southern characters pretty often. 20th century.

I'm a big Faulkner fan, and a bigger Garcia Marquez fan. Hopefully some of that rubs off on my work.
 

Soccer Mom

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Texas girl here. I write historicals set in Europe for the most part, but I do have a paranormal mystery set in Dallas coming out next February. I think it's more the culture of storytelling than anything else which has impacted me.
 

Mark W.

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I'm from Tennessee but I wouldn't deign to place myself in the same circles as those greats of Literature. As to why there are so many great Southern Writers, I think that storytelling is more ingrained in traditional Southern Culture. Therefore, that plays out in our writing.

As for the second question... no, I will write about any place or time which strikes me as interesting. I don't restrict it to The South.
 

Collectonian

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Another Carolinian (Northern end) born and bred, now living in Texas. I wouldn't dare consider myself part of that brotherhood, but I think Mark has a good point. Storytelling is an art of the south (though alas it seems to be a dying one in our younger generations). Most folks from the south or who have been there know you don't get any sort of conversation without some story telling happening :)
 
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Lady Ice

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Just curious: how many writers out there are from the Southern part of the US? With such a rich tradition of writers (Truman Capote, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Mitchell, etc.), I would love to know who considers his or herself part of this brotherhood of culture.

And if you are from the South, do you only write about Southern subjects? Historical or New South?

Ironically I'm a Brit but I love Southern Gothic literature: Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_gothic
 

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I love this thread! More, more!

Oh, and I know Garcia Marquez isn't Southern, btw :D That was a Faulkner tie-in, and a way to say that I write Magical Realismy stuff ;)
 

Chris P

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I'm from Iowa originally but moved to Mississippi nine years ago. There is something about the south that makes people want to write, that's for sure. I've been writing since I was a teen but it's only been since living here that I've gotten serious about publishing.

I don't write exclusively southern themes or locales. When I do it's all modern, and I try to write the south as I see it: folks going about their lives the best they know how. Only hot. Really, really hot.
 

SirOtter

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I'm in Tennessee, a little more than two good spits and a stone's throw from Mark W, but I was born in Alabama and have never lived outside of Those States Formerly in Rebellion Against the Union During the Recent Unpleasantness. I agree, there's a tradition of story-telling down here I don't see in other regions. That's what makes Big Fish so spot on. Edward Bloom is just like most of my kinfolk. One of the great regrets of my life is not plunking a tape recorder in front of my Great Uncle Wallace during one of our annual family reunions and letting him ramble on for a couple of hours. He had this one great yarn about a drunk engineer trying to line up a locomotive on the northbound track of a roundhouse that kept us all in stitches every Father's Day for years. I can give you the essence, but nobody could tell it like Wallace could.
 

Kalyke

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I was highly influenced by southern writers, but I am a Southwestern transplant in the Midwest. I have a southern reconstruction/Gothic novel coming-- several chapters have been written, but it is in a box, waiting for me to finish the three novels I am working on now.
 

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Just curious: how many writers out there are from the Southern part of the US? With such a rich tradition of writers (Truman Capote, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Mitchell, etc.), I would love to know who considers his or herself part of this brotherhood of culture.

And if you are from the South, do you only write about Southern subjects? Historical or New South?


Georgia Belle(Jar) here
I write nonfiction articles and books about the South (historical and new) and what lame attempts I've had at fiction have all been southern themed as well.
 

DianeL

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Coming from the Capitol of the Confederacy - unfortunately for the purposes of this thread, though, I could not be less interested in making myself a Southern Writer as such. My entire interest in writing and storytelling is to take myself out of my own world, so my subjects are located thousands of miles and a millennium and a half away.

This said, I am fierce about my roots, and do treasure certain other Southern writers. There is little that offends me like lazily characterized Southerners in other people's writing (books, stories, and of course particularly TV and film).

But I am surrounded by writers obsessed with our city and with the Civil War. It's so thick around here, it brings out the contrarian in me. I don't get the overwhelming proportion it represents in the local writing population. Every year at the James River Writers conference (ridiculously recommended, by the way, y'all!), I get to scratching my head over how few of my fellow regional writers do seem to want to get into any other worlds. To me that's a major point in writing - and, of course, being a contrarian, I resist what others are doing.

Not at all incidentally, this is actually the first sentence of my bio. "Diane Major is a native of Richmond Virginia, who has no desire to become the next great Southern Novelist."

Sorry - I hope this doesn't come across as hopelessly snotty. It's really not meant to, but this very point has fascinated me for a good while now!
 

Jamesaritchie

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I was born in the north, but all my family is southern, and I spent a great deal of my growing up years in the south. I love many southern writers, but I don't like to think of myself as part of any particular tradition or culture.

I just want to tell stories that I find interesting. There are too many faux southern writers out there.
 

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I'm a Kentucky girl who writes contemporary MG and YA. My stories always take place in the South. I've lived in other places (including northern states and England) as an adult, but when tapping into my inner-child for my writing, Kentucky is what I know.
 

the addster

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My grandfather knew Cole Younger and I don't know one person who wasn't dressed up as either Tom Sawyer or Becky Thatcher at some point in their childhood. I live in a four column house that once belonged to a Confederate Colonel. Am I a southern writer? Hell, I don't know.
 

SirOtter

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My grandfather knew Cole Younger

My great-great grandfather was a cousin of Jesse and Frank James. Jesse used my ancestor's last name, Howard, as an alias while living near Nashville.

My wife's grandfather managed a fighter in the 30s. After one bout on the road somewhere, a rough-looking character came up to Charlie and complimented him on his boy, whose win had garnered the gentleman a few bucks in wagers. Charlie, not usually a particularly tactful person, found it advisable to be very polite to the man he recognized as Baby-Face Nelson.
 

kaitiepaige17

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I'm from southern Tennessee, currently living in northern Tennessee. I only write southern characters (modern) because that's what I know. I've never lived up North, so I don't think I could write characters from there very well, or get the style of living right.
 

DianeL

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I'm supposed to be a cousin of some sort to the James boys as well.

And we're all related to Lees and Carters by some-cousin-or-other.

Still, I don't know half about the Jameses that I do about Late Antiquity and the medieval period. I guess for me it's more about interest than red clay and DNA ... And I'm fascinated by distant history.
 

Chris P

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I'm from southern Tennessee, currently living in northern Tennessee.

So you moved across the street? :D

I only write southern characters (modern) because that's what I know. I've never lived up North, so I don't think I could write characters from there very well, or get the style of living right.

It's not that much different unless you try to make the regionalism part of the story. People don't notice if you don't give a northern character a northern accent, but they will notice if you do the northern accent wrong!
 

Jadedinsc

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I'm a South Carolina gal born and raised, and I'm currently trying to move to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. :D I don't, however, write about the South since I tend to favor high fantasy, though that's not to say some things about the South don't inspire me. In the world I've created, there are a couple of events in its history that are definitely inspired by Southern history and my own experiences growing up here (even if I didn't realize it until fairly recently).
 

SirOtter

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People don't notice if you don't give a northern character a northern accent, but they will notice if you do the northern accent wrong!

Just use your find & replace function to transform every "you all/y'all/yawl/ya'll" into "youse guys", and you'll be fine. ;)
 

sharonda.harris84

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Great posts! Just like DianeL, I tend to write about the South because I hate the stereotypes placed on Southerners. I'm more of a screenwriter, currently living in LA, but my home will always be Bayou Country.

I'm more of a modern Southern writer, but I don't write just for the South. It is a large influence, however. I think it is in our blood to be storytellers. Good luck to everyone! Oh, and SirOtter, you forgot "wicked", "pop", and "and stuff". :D
 

DianeL

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sharonda.harris84, I definitely own my love of (and defensiveness for) the South, but I actually don't write about it. I'm working in historical fiction, set in Late Antiquity, at the "fall of Rome" as people like to call it. My next novel will take place in Ravenna and Constantinople, touching the Eastern empire and Justinian's Plague. My third, still in distant planning stages, will be set in the channel islands at the period of the Norman Conquest. Few belles to be had with my work (but one ass-kicking Ostragothic queen, if you like those!).
 

tutty

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LOVE Southern gothic fiction. I grew up in Georgia and Florida; I'll be living in Virginia by the end of summer. And I do write about it.
 

cameron_chapman

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I'm a New Englander, but spent my high school years in Virginia and definitely take a lot of influence and inspiration from southern culture and writing. At some point I may move back south. I've already written one novel set in Virginia (a fictional town based on a real town that was about 20 minutes from where I went to school). I want to write a southern gothic novel at some point, but have yet to come up with an idea I really love.
 
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