Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore is an online anthology of nonfiction works about beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture over the last fifty years, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. “Groundwork” is the blog of editor Foster Dickson, which features project updates, brief ruminations, commentaries on readings, reviews of documentaries, peripheral bits of interest— and after COVID finally slowed down, periodic travelogues.
January 15, 2026: A Retrospective, Five Years In
December 27, 2025: Review: Alamo Bay (1985)
December 18, 2025: For Teachers: Lesson Plans!
November 15, 2025: In the News, Fall 2025
November 6, 2025: A Road Trip, East: Highway 14
October 14, 2025: Review: Angel Heart (1987)
October 2, 2025: Review: In Search of the Silent South by Morton Sosna (1977)
August 28, 2025: Taking a Little Break in September
August 15, 2025: In the News, Summer 2025
July 26, 2025: Forthcoming— Two New Works!
June 16, 2025: The Open Submissions Period has ended.
May 29, 2025: No more Twitter / X
May 15, 2025: In the News, Spring 2025
April 29, 2025: A Road Trip, Southeast: Russell County, Alabama
April 15, 2025: The Open Submissions Period begins today!
April 1, 2025: Review: Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
March 15, 2025: The Open Submissions Period begins one month from today!
February 15, 2025: In the News, Winter 2025
January 4, 2025: Review: The Americanization of Dixie (1974)
December 15, 2024: The Open Submissions Period begins in April!
December 5, 2024: Stone, A Rock, and Free Posters: A Rumination
November 21, 2024: Reading Getting Right with God by Mark Newman
November 15, 2024: In the News, Fall 2024
October 26, 2024: Review: Lost Child (2017)
*The editor took a break in August and September.
July 30, 2024: Forthcoming in Nobody’s Home— Three New Works!
June 27, 2024: Watching How the Monuments Came Down on PBS
June 15, 2024: The Open Submissions Period ends today.
May 30, 2024: Review: My Cousin Vinny (1992)
May 15, 2024: In the News, Spring 2024
May 9, 2024: Reading Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State by Andrew Gelman
April 15, 2024: The Open Submissions Period begins today!
March 25, 2024: The Open Submissions Period begins in three weeks!
March 12, 2024: Watching The Harvest from American Experience on PBS
February 27, 2024: Reading Southern Politics in the 1990s by Alexander P. Lamis
February 15, 2024: In the News, Winter 2024
January 25, 2024: Hold Steady and Stick Together: A Rumination on School-Choice Vouchers
December 12, 2023: For Teachers: New lesson plans are available!
November 16, 2023: In the News, Fall 2023
November 6, 2023: Review: The Waterboy (1998)
October 19, 2023: Reading Zachary J. Lechner’s The South of the Mind
October 12, 2023: A Road Trip, West: Alabama’s Black Belt
October 3, 2023: Car Trouble and Voodoo: A Rumination on Horror and the South
September 7, 2023: Taking a Quick Break
August 31, 2023: “The degree of civilization . . . “
August 10, 2023: In the News, Summer 2023
August 3, 2023: Forthcoming in “Nobody’s Home”— New Works!
July 11, 2023: Flipping the Script: A Rumination on the Anti-CRT Movement
June 29, 2023: Reading Albert Murray’s South to a Very Old Place
June 15, 2023: The Open Submissions Period ends today!
June 1, 2023: Two weeks left in the Open Submissions Period!
May 18, 2023: In the News, Spring 2023
May 2, 2023: Watching My Louisiana Love on America ReFramed on PBS
April 15, 2023: The Open Submissions Period begins today!
April 11, 2023: A Road Trip, Southwest: The Carolinas in Spring, Part Two
April 6, 2023: A Road Trip, Northeast: The Carolinas in Spring, Part One
March 23, 2023: Reading Chandler Davidson’s Biracial Politics
March 15, 2023: The Open Submissions Period begins one month from today!
February 23, 2023: Watching Conrack on TCM
February 7, 2023: In the News, Winter 2023
January 26, 2023: Coach Bear Bryant, 40 Years Later
January 15, 2023: The Open Submissions Period for 2023
December 29, 2022: A Road Trip, Eastbound: Highway 80
December 13, 2022: Reading Joseph Bagley’s The Politics of White Rights (2018)
November 29, 2022: Watching State of Alabama v Brittany Smith on Netflix
November 8, 2022: In the News, Fall 2022
October 20, 2022: Reading Cathedrals of the Kudzu by Hal Crowther
October 8, 2022: Watching The Downing of a Flag on PBS
September 1, 2022: Taking a Quick Break
August 23, 2022: Watching Sapelo from America ReFramed on PBS
August 9, 2022: In the News, Summer 2002
July 26, 2022: Forthcoming in Nobody’s Home— New Works!
July 6, 2022: Two-Year Anniversary
June 15, 2022: The Open Submission Period is closed.
June 9, 2022: Reading John Shelton Reed’s One South
May 17, 2022: In the News, Spring 2022
April 14, 2022: The Open Submissions Period for 2022
April 5, 2022: A Road Trip, Northeast: Clayton, Georgia
March 31, 2022: Watching Hillbilly (2019)
March 22, 2022: Reading Albert Murray’s The Omni-Americans
March 8, 2022: Some Conversation Starters for International Women’s Day
March 3, 2022: The Editor’s Reading List: Thirteen Done, Thirteen to Go
February 24, 2022: Watching Migratruse from Monograph on PBS
February 10, 2022: In the News, Winter 2022
January 27, 2022: Reading Jack Temple Kirby’s Media-Made Dixie
January 15, 2022: Interviewers, Reviewers, and Writers: Submissions, Continued
January 2, 2022: For Teachers: Lesson plans are available!
December 28, 2021: Watching The Neutral Ground from POV on PBS
December 16, 2021: A Road Trip, Southbound: Highway 31
December 9, 2021: Reading Katie Lamar Jackson’s A Movement of the People
November 30, 2021: A Road Trip, Northwest: Highway 82
November 16, 2021: In the News, Fall 2021
November 2, 2021: Reading Stephen M. Monroe’s Heritage and Hate
September 30, 2021: The Outro: There was never one South.
September 16, 2021: Forthcoming in Nobody’s Home— Twelve New Works
September 4, 2021: Reading Ben Beard’s The South Never Plays Itself
August 31, 2021: Watching Fertile Ground on PBS
August 24, 2021: A Road Trip, Southbound: Highway 331
August 16, 2021: The submission guidelines have changed.
August 14, 2021: Last Call for Submissions
August 5, 2021: People are gon’ do what they’re gon’ do.: A Rumination on COVID in the South
July 22, 2021: Reading Noel Polk’s Outside the Southern Myth
July 15, 2021: The call for submissions is nearing an end.
July 6, 2021: Watching Meltdown in Dixie from America ReFramed on PBS
June 29, 2021: Reading Matthew Lassiter’s The Silent Majority
June 22, 2021: Myths and Facts: LGBTQ in the South
June 12, 2021: Forthcoming in Nobody’s Home— Twelve New Works
June 3, 2021: Watching Far East Deep South from America ReFramed on PBS
May 25, 2021: Reading South to a New Place, edited by Suzanne W. Jones and Sharon Monteith
May 15, 2021: The Fourth (and Final) Reading Period
May 4, 2021: Vox Press’s new Mississippi Prison Writings anthology
April 10, 2021: More Substance than Stereotype: A Rumination on Southerners and Guns
March 25, 2021: Reading Myth and Southern History, Volume 2: The New South
February 23, 2021: Reading Alexander Lamis’ The Two-Party South
February 3, 2021: Five More Historians and Journalists on the Modern South
January 23, 2021: Reading Stephen A Smith’s Myth, Media, and the Southern Mind
January 19, 2021: The call for submissions continues.
January 12, 2021: Forthcoming in Nobody’s Home— Thirteen New Works
December 19, 2020: Reading Jack Temple Kirby’s The Countercultural South
December 8, 2020: The Looming Specter of the Dormant Voter: A Rumination
November 24, 2020: Reading Charles Reagan Wilson’s Judgment & Grace in Dixie
November 12, 2020: Work: A Rumination
November 3, 2020: Reagan at Neshoba, August 1980
October 22, 2020: “I mean, what am I supposed to write about?”
October 13, 2020: Crazy, Wrong Madness: A Rumination on Some Valid Questions
September 29, 2020: A Personal Religion that Goes Public
September 27, 2020: Five Historians and Journalists on the Modern South
September 17, 2020: Narratives, Old and New
August 3, 2020: A Word from the Editor on Submissions
July 6, 2020: On Facebook and Twitter, and just now accepting submissions
Nobody's Home 