#39 – Spring 2013
Tribute to Southern Poets
Conversation with
David Bottoms
Releasing March 1, Rattle‘s inaugural quarterly issue is devoted entirely to the work of Southern Poets. As William Wright describes in his essay on the subject, “there is no definable element that makes a Southern poet Southern, other than the geography he or she claims.” What’s more, the cultural fabric of the American South has been changing rapidly in the 21st century, and many of the old assumptions about Southern literature—an emphasis on bucolic landscapes, history, family, and so on—no longer hold. So what is it that makes a poet Southern?
As always, we’ve let the writers speak for themselves, selecting the best 39 poems that we could find from over 10,000 submissions. There are plenty of donkeys and drinking, bibles and baseballs and bass boats—but there are also teenagers tripping on acid, movie stars finding romance, and Mexican workers on strike. The South is too rich a heritage for any stereotype, but by gathering these poems together we can tease out the subtle traits they share. Helping us along the way is an intimate and entertaining conversation between Alan Fox and Georgia State Poet Laureate David Bottoms, and a series of black and white photographs by Southern Poet William Walsh.
$5.95 |
Southern Poets |
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| Leslie Marie Aguilar | Poem for the Educated Black Woman … | |
| Dan Albergotti | A Brief History of Poetry | |
| Michael Blaine | Jayus | |
| David Bottoms | Cubs on Allatoona | |
| Slow Nights in the Bass Boat | ||
| Michael Chitwood | Summer Job | |
| Liz N. Clift | At the Edge of the Hennessey Farm | |
| R.G. Evans | The Things That Mother Said | |
| John Gosslee | Her Sports Game | |
| Chera Hammons | Tornado Alley | |
| Gretchen Hodgin | To Bitterness: | |
| David Brendan Hopes | James Dickey Died Owing Me a Bar Tab | |
| Edison Jennings | Brown Eyed Girl | |
| Joel F. Johnson | Oakbrook Estates | |
| Julie Kane | Dullahan | |
| Katie Knoll | Skinned | |
| Cody Lumpkin | Egging a House | |
| Ed Madden | Church Camp, Summer 1977 | |
| Sandra Marshburn | Small Spool | |
| Arthur McMaster | Things to Ponder about the Southern Baptist | |
| Devon Miller-Duggan | Oliver Leamy (10 Months) … | |
| Anis Mojgani | Somewhere in My Body Are Two Flowers … | |
| Annie Mountcastle | Labor | |
| Jeremy Dae Paden | After My Copy of Levertov’s Life in the Forest | |
| Melissa Queen | Learn to Sail with Your Dad | |
| J. Phillip Reed | Apotropaic of Giving Good Ole Boys Roadhead | |
| Liz Robbins | Drive-In Church | |
| Larry Rogers | Mr. Rescue | |
| Mike Saye | Scent and Bones | |
| R.T. Smith | Cervine Occurrence | |
| Philip St. Clair | Newton Township | |
| Ronnie K. Stephens | Universe in the Key of Matryoshka | |
| Lolita Stewart-White | If Only | |
| Marcela Sulak | Men on Strike | |
| Sarah Sweeney | Tripping at the NC Agricultural State Fair | |
| William Walsh | The Movie Star’s Secret | |
| Kenny Williams | The Hummingbird | |
| Matthew Wimberley | Tabula Rasa | |
| William Wright | Nightmare, Revised | |
| Beyond Geography: Why I’m a Southern Poet (Essay) | ||
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Conversation |
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| David Bottoms | ||
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Photography |
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| Dagmar Nelson | ||
| William Walsh |
