Southern Cultures

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Southern Cultures

All things southern. Peer-reviewed quarterly from UNC Press and the Center for the Study of the Amer

“The rich array of photographs and graphics, and the sincere and effective attempt at readerly appeal, go well beyond what is attempted by most… Southern Cultures is truly impressive.” — Council of Editors of Learned Journals

06/11/2026

New call for submissions! Farm Labor, guest edited by Melinda Wiggins (Labor South)

Although we are living in a time with information at our fingertips, there is still a lack of awareness of agricultural workers’ daily lives, rituals, work, hardships, and rich cultural traditions. For this special issue, we call for submissions that reckon with and shed light on how misconceptions and inaccurate narratives of southern farming, such as the dominant myth of the white farmer, have been constructed in the public imagination around race, class, and labor. This issue centers on the voices of workers who are at the heart of corporate agricultural farms, including livestock operations, produce, and nurseries, as well as sustainable, small-scale farms and cooperatives.

Submissions due August 31, 2026
Details at SouthernCultures.org

Image: South Carolina farmworkers, by Lucero Galván and Guillermo Alvarado, Monetta, South Carolina, 2012.

04/29/2026

Poetry on the Porch got ROWDY last night! Big thanks to poet Anna Lena Phillips Bell, who joined us in conversation with our poetry editor Gaby Calvocoressi, read from her book Might Could, AND called a rowdy square dance with the Five Point Rounders.

What a joyful way to round out the semester! Big thanks to all who came out, danced, and listened. Big thanks to the band! Big thanks to Gaby for the heart and vision. And also gratitude to UNC’s Creative Writing Department and Epilogue Books for all their support.

Let’s do it again!

04/16/2026

The Spring 2006 issue has officially launched. Now available to read for FREE via Project Muse! Subscribe now to receive a copy, or order a single issue via our website. Find links in our bio!

As Regina N. Bradley writes in the introduction to this varied collection, we “grapple with the South’s complexity and how we are communal in spirit, in blood, in truth, and in action.” We look for family histories in the archive, reintroduce ourselves to Cousin Jimmy Carter, reconsider one family’s gay hairdresser, romp around with some Florida Boys, envision new futures for New Orleans, and more.

04/14/2026

See this pretty little lawn? It’s about to get ROWDY! On April 28, Poetry on the Porch is back with Anna Lena Phillips Bell and her new book, Might Could. Bell is also a square dance caller and will call a rowdy, engendered square dance with the Five Point Rounders.

Free and everyone welcome! (Bring your kid!)
CLE credit for students
Refreshments provided
More details via link in bio

04/13/2026

Thursday was one for the books! Thanks to all who joined us to celebrate the launch of our Country Music’s Mythology issue. We had music and conversation on the porch with guest editor , , and .staton.music. And inside, we exhibited work by and the Grand Ole Opry archives (thanks to curator Tim Davis).

Grateful to all who came out! Please tag us in your photos and join us on the porch again on April 28 for poetry and a rowdy square dance.

04/08/2026

Quadruple feature tomorrow (4/9) at !

1. Music by Rissi Palmer & Frankie Staton
2. Conversation with Amanda Marie Martínez, Rissi, and Frankie
3. Portraits by Amanda López (including this photo of Ross Palmer)
4. Photos from 100 years of the Grand Ole Opry

Details via link in bio. CLE credit + refreshments. Come join us!

04/06/2026

THURSDAY (4/9)! Join us to celebrate the Country Music’s Mythology issue at at 5:30 on the porch. Music by & .staton.music + conversation with .

Inside, view photos by & .

Details via link in bio! RSVPs appreciated.

03/26/2026

Last night we hosted an edit-a-thon for Country Music’s Mythology with the NC Wikipedians. The incredible Rissi Palmer kicked things off, saying, “Just being here is an act of resistance.” We need facts. We need history.

Thanks to all who attended! And please join us again on April 9 to hear Rissi Palmer in conversation with Frankie Stanton and Amanda Marie Martínez. Details via link in bio!

03/12/2026

New Call for Papers: GROUND, guest edited by artist and filmmaker Elizabeth M. Webb
—Submissions due: June 5, 2026
—More details via link in bio

This special issue of Southern Cultures engages ground as method. We are seeking projects that thinkfrom and with ground (rather than “about” it), offering southern soils as generative ways of knowing.

Ground here is both literal and conceptual. The particular grounds of the South—from dark, fertile soil to delta silt deposited over centuries to sandy coastal plains to red clay that sticks to the soles (or souls)—hold memory, time, and possibility. Ground is always-already in relation: never separate from water, air, what grows, and what decays. Soil texture, described by varying proportions of clay, sand, and silt, is one expression of this interdependence. Clay retains water but drains slowly, sand allows flow but doesn’t cohere, and silt accumulates as evidence of what has moved through. We’re interested in these and other material qualities of ground as openings for thought, practice, rebellion, and form. Ground can be fertile or depleted, stable or shifting, witness or accomplice. We consider southern groundedness—what it is to be grounded in this place, literally and imaginatively—in our relationship to dirt, and welcome visual art, poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction that engage these tensions and possibilities.

03/11/2026

Join us MARCH 25 at 5:30 PM for an edit-a-thon on Country Music’s Mythology, featuring Rissi Palmer.

Are you WikiCurious? Bring a laptop and help deepen Wikipedia’s coverage of country artists featured in the special country music issue of Southern Cultures—especially up-and-coming and underrepresented artists. The SC editors and North Carolina Wikipedians will be on hand to show you everything you need to know. No experience needed!

Co-sponsored by the University Library and the North Carolina Wikipedians. Refreshments provided. CLE credit. Details at link in bio.

Also, free sticker sheets will be available featuring illustrations (pictured above) by Laura Baisden.

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Chapel Hill, NC

Website

http://www.southerncultures.org/

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