“In the News” is published quarterly and provides a sampling of stories, articles, or reviews that reference or relate to beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture since 1970. “If you look up ‘weird laws in Tennessee,’ you’re likely to find a list of truly unusual things that people claim Tennessee legislators have enshrined into law. …

Published in 2018, Zachary J. Lechner’s The South of the Mind: American Imaginings of White Southernness, 1960–1980 carries the reader through a series of well-argued and well-organized propositions about the beliefs, myths, and narratives that have been created, endorsed, and embraced to make sense of white Southern men during and…

Although the teams on the field are certainly important, high school football enjoys mythic status in the South for more reasons than seeing which group of teenage boys will emerge triumphant. When each season begins, school has just gotten back in session after the long summer break, and everyone is…

In many of the films, they’re just driving down the road, usually a two-lane highway. Whether it’s a carload of college students on a road trip or a family of five on vacation, they have for some reason left the interstate and taken backroads. Maybe the place where they want…

As a source of beliefs, myths, and narratives, the family has always been central to Southern culture. So it can be frustrating for those Southerners who either do not fully embrace their family’s traditions or who know little about their family. …

One metaphor for our emergence from childhood is the narrative of the butterfly, whose transformation is mythic. In the South, our own transformations into maturity can include realizing that not everyone can show their true vibrant colors, and that not everyone wants to. …

Whether in the Upper South or the Deep South, storytelling is integral to Southern culture. As children, we are affected in significant ways by not only our experiences and observations, but by the narratives we hear. …

The blues is a mythic aspect of Southern culture. While this important music was created in African-American communities in the South, it has since crossed many boundaries and become part of a wider national narrative. …

For Immediate Release August 3, 2023 Nobody’s Home will publish four new works! On Thursday, August 17, the online anthology Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore is adding four new works of creative nonfiction by writers from the South. With a focus on the beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture…