This week we’re sharing stories from Nick Bowlin, Rachel Priest and Emily Strasser, Rachel Yoder, Jake Skeets, and Willa Paskin.
Bitter Southerner
Emily Strasser Wrestles with a Family Secret
“Secrets are passed down. And so if we don’t figure shit out, for lack of a better term, then we perpetuate those same harms on the next generation.”
Obituary for a Quiet Life
“A man passes away without a word in the mountains of North Carolina, and his grandson sets out to write about the importance of a seemingly unimportant life.”
I Can Feel God’s Presence in This Portable Toilet
“Harrison Scott Key invites us all to experience the joy, chaos — and, at times, horror — of St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah.”
I Feel Most Southern in the Hip-Hop of My Adolescence
“Joy Priest creates a Southern rap soundtrack of the cars, songs, and forces that sculpted her sense of freedom and confinement coming of age in Louisville, Kentucky, in the early 2000s.”
Goodness, How Delicious, Eating Goober Peas
Is there anything peanuts aren’t good for?
A Mother’s Less-Than-True Story of Being a Child Bride
Getting married in her swimsuit at the age of 12 was something Danny Wallace’s mother would tell anyone she met. It also wasn’t true.
The Successful Startup That Disrupts Using Bees Instead of Code
Fifth-generation beekeeper Leigh-Kathryn Bonner bucks convention in the male-dominated apiary industry.
The Man Behind the Punishing Barkley Marathons
At the Bitter Southerner, Sarah Estes visits the creator of Tennessee’s strangest sporting event.
Good Luck, Morons: Lazarus Lake and His Impossible Race
The Barkley Marathons are famous among extreme athletes. The story of the race is great. The story of the man behind it is even better.