All Hail Regionalism

I went to undergrad in my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and took a Contemporary Southern Lit course, in which we read Bobbie Ann Mason, Dorothy Allison, Jayne Ann Phillips, and Edward P. Jones. Up till then I’d never imagined “Southern Lit” even being a thing. Our professor also taught my very first creative writing workshops, and recommended I read the late Southern Gothic writer William Gay. My friend Garrett turned me onto Harry Crews. My older brother, who’d gone to college at the University of Mississippi, gave me Barry Hannah. He and several of his fraternity brothers worshiped Hannah’s classic 1978 short story collection Airships.