Groundwork


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, peripheral bits of interest— and with COVID now slowing down, excerpts from interviews and periodic travelogues.

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 Biracial Politics by Chandler Davidson (1972)

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 One South by John Shelton Reed

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 The Omni-Americans by Albert Murray

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 Media-Made Dixie by Jack Temple Kirby

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 Heritage and Hate by Stephen M. Monroe

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.

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: 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

November 24, 2020: Reading Charles Reagan Wilson’s Judgment & Grace in Dixie

November 12, 2020: Work

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

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