This second edition has been "resequenced and expanded to include over 40 new photographs made from 2020-2022 with new essays by Beth McKibben and Mike Jordan"--https://www.micahcash.com/wafflehousevistas.

"A lightning bolt of a literary debut." ---Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize winner "Enchanting and so neatly planed they feel made by time, these stories mark the debut of a writer to watch." ---John Freeman, Literary Hub Last One Out Shut Off the Lights is an evocative portrait of the last-chance towns of southwest Louisiana, where oil development, industrial pollution, dying wetlands, and the ever-present threat of devastating hurricanes have eroded their inhabitants' sense of home. These eleven piercing stories feature indelible characters struggling to find a foothold in a world that is forever washing out from under them, people who must reckon with their ambivalence about belonging to a place so continually in flux. In a collection whose resonant echoes abound, we meet a reluctant teenage mother who stows her baby in a closet to steal a night out; a spiteful retiree who sabotages his neighbor in the wake of a hurricane; a Pentecostal singer in a children's theater company who confronts the cultish leader of her troupe; a community of elderly Cajuns who conspire with a family of Sudanese immigrants to hide an escaped cow from the authorities; and a desperate young woman who tries to drag her brother to Mexico for surgery, determined to save his life and her own. As Lauren Groff did for the state of Florida in her recent collection Florida, Stephanie Soileau demonstrates that Louisiana is as much a state of mind as it is a place on the map. A love letter to the Cajun language, life rhythms, and customs that still make the region unique, Last One Out Shut Off the Lights is also a powerful reminder of the treacherous escape routes that bedevil anyone longing to leave home, and the traps that remain for those who desire to return.

Whether you live below the Mason Dixon Line or just wish you did, The Southerner’s Handbook is your guide to living the good life. Curated by the editors of the award-winning Garden & Gun magazine, this compilation of more than 100 instructional and narrative essays offers a comprehensive tutorial to modern-day life in the South. From Food and Drink to Sporting & Adventure; Home & Garden to Style, Arts & Culture, you'll discover essential skills and unique insight from some of the South’s finest writers, chefs, and craftsmen—including the secret to perfect biscuits, how to wear seersucker, and to the right way to fall off of a horse. You'll also find: Roy Blount Jr. on telling a great story; Julia Reed on the secrets of throwing a great party; Jonathan Miles on drinking like a Southerner; Jack Hitt on the beauty of cooking a whole hog; John T Edge on why Southern food matters; and much more. As flavorful, authentic, and irresistible as the land and the people who inspire it, The Southerner's Handbook is the ultimate guide to being a Southerner (no matter where you live).

The author of Smile When You're Lying describes his controversial road trip investigation into the cultural divide of the United States during which he met with possum-hunting conservatives, trailer park lifers and prayer warriors before concluding that both sides might benefit if former Confederacy states seceded.

The author, former editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution, share his impressions of the South and its recent changes

The truth of our history has been lost, but not gone. We MUST learn the truth of our past or we will not understand what's happening-or more importantly, what's coming? Those who suffered implosion all shared a common factor: they did not remember what or who carried them into the present. Times, technology, and generations change?but people do not. Most of us were never taught the truth of our past because they do not want us to know it. Our American History is not presented in context. Where once it was skewed in the overly forgiving patriotic vain-today-it is taught almost entirely and artificially in the negative, damning, and self-loathing perspective. Understanding the present begins by thoroughly understanding the past?in context. When we know what has come before and will be again, those who would seek to subjugate will find it more difficult to deceive the people. False narratives crumble when the truth is discovered. Those in control need it hidden. Its why American slaves were not permitted to read and why bibles were printed in a dead language. I vigorously consumed American History out of a sense of urgency; a genuine pursuit to discover what and who had brought us here, today, and now. What I discovered, will shock you. Rome disintegrated because the people were distracted by the drama in the Colosseum while her leaders sold them out to the highest bidder. They indulged in the present, instead of remembering their past?and it's happening again. Many people are programmed from childhood to believe history is dull and boring. If we refuse to remember, we'll forget we are. In whatever time we have left, you must understand the truth of who we were to comprehend why we're falling apart. Nations rise and fall. And when the flames of destruction sweep through our land, it is not the how that will plague you?it will be the why. To see what's ahead, you must look back. If you want to know America's future, you must study her past. The real context of our history?is forbidden?

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Rick Bragg, comes a poignant and wryly funny collection of essays on life in the south. Keenly observed and written with his insightful and deadpan sense of humor, he explores enduring Southern truths about home, place, spirit, table, and the regions' varied geographies, including his native Alabama, Cajun country, and the Gulf Coast. Everything is explored, from regional obsessions from college football and fishing, to mayonnaise and spoonbread, to the simple beauty of a fish on the hook. Collected from over a decade of his writing, with many never-before-published essays written specifically for this edition, My Southern Journey is an entertaining and engaging read, especially for Southerners (or feel Southern at heart) and anyone who appreciates great writing.