partly by selling enough of my household furniture to satisfy a moiety of their claim, ...

    From literary legends to emerging voices, the acclaimed writers featured in this collection view their hardscrabble South without romanticism or false nostalgia, not through moonlight and magnolia but moonshine and Marlboros. This is the dirty South as captured by those rooted in its land yet able to share its stories with candor and courage. Grit Lit guides readers through tales both tall and true, intoxicating stories of loss, violence, failure, feuds, family, and--above all--survival against the odds. Raw and raucous, Grit Lit gathers some of the most provocative writing to come out of the South in the last thirty years. With a preface by Edgar Award-winning author Tom Franklin and Brian Carpenter's introduction to the genre's origins and influences, this bold anthology lays bare the Rough South in all its battered glory and dares readers not to stare in awe.

    An extraordinary debut collection. —K. L. Cook, Author of Love Songs for the Quarantined and Last Call

    Dan Rawlings, an ambitious young reporter finds in the swamps a missing heir to a fortune, and the story that will make Dan famous. But, more than he bargained for, The Boogeyman is real, and Dan may be his descendant.The longer he stays the more he feels himself changing - and it feels real good. Suddenly Dan is in a battle to the death, ready to defend this place and these people that have stolen his heart. He came here for a story, but who would believe?

    Percy’s whiskey making days are turned upside down by the sudden appearance of a giant naked man, an unsavory job offer from a drug dealer, and a sultry local girl hell-bent on making it as difficult as possible for him to keep his vows to his wife. He wants nothing more than to sell his illegal wares and be left alone. Unfortunately, the whiskey man is about to come to terms with the only way for that to happen: the bad way out.

    One bolts. The other freezes and winds up with a choice: join the man about to die, or begin hustling black support the judge needs to advance in politics. In trade, he will enjoy a life of power and comfort. Decades later, Big Ike is about to become the state's first black congressman since Reconstruction. Instead, he finds himself in the same forest, a long rope in his fist, muttering the hated nickname again and again: Bootlicker.

    The book's sections on New Transcendentalisms, Textual Ecologies, Local Powers, and the Necropastoral indicate the range of work being represented. Featuring some of the most provocative and innovative poets of the current moment, this anthology has been curated not only with an eye to an exhilarating reading experience, but to the literature and creative writing classrooms as well. An accompanying web site with a teachers' guide will make this volume especially valuable for students and teachers.