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

08/26/2026

Our queen of country—and so much more. It’s fair to say that, over our 32 years, we’ve received countless submissions on Dolly. It’s also fair to say that, if we could have, we would have published them all.

Here’s a favorite by Graham Hoppe, author of GONE DOLLYWOOD (link in bio). And here’s one of the many Dolly images from our archive, an iconic illustration by Laura Baisden. Who wouldn’t recognize that hair?

Dolly forever.

07/30/2026

“Moving through the world as a writer is, I think, an experience of moving through the world with your eyes open to observe.”

Read for free: a beautiful conversation with Virginia Evans ( ) and Charlie Lovett, as featured in the new Arts & Letters issue. Link in bio.

Illustration by Julienne Alexander

07/23/2026

“Often what is hidden in [Joseph] Mitchell’s portraits of New York is a reflection of his life in North Carolina.”

Take an excursion to the swamp and read saschomburg’s essay on Joseph Mitchell from the Arts & Letters issue. Link in bio.

Image: Bethesda Road, near Fairmont, North Carolina, 2019. Photograph by the author.

“Often what is hidden in [Joseph] Mitchell’s portraits of New York is a reflection of his life in North Carolina.”

Read saschomburg’s essay on Joseph Mitchell from the Arts & Letters issue via link in bio.

Image: Joseph Mitchell, near Fairmont, North Carolina. Photograph by Therese Mitchell.

07/16/2026

In the Arts & Letters issue, we dive into conversation with the celebrated authors of two bestselling epistolary novels—The Correspondent, with Virginia Evans, and Kin, with Tayari Jones. We visit Joseph Mitchell’s personal Eden and take a tour through Eudora Welty’s personal archive, her home. We get a new read on q***r lives through Carson McCullers’s fan mail and Pauli Murray’s personal photographs. We delight in the drawings in Allan Gurganus’s sketchbook and Daniel Wallace’s diary. And we revel in imagined audiences via Yuri Herrera’s long collaboration with his translator and in Kevin Young’s “saltwater letters.”

Read for FREE on Project Muse and order a print copy from UNC Press (links in bio).

Cover art by

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!

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Chapel Hill, NC

Website

http://www.southerncultures.org/

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