Author Archives: Rusty

James Baker Hall Dead

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Rusty

James Bak­er Hall died on June 25th. I con­fess to not hav­ing read him (yet–only so much time and ener­gy in one life-span) but I had read about him a few times in con­nec­tion with Wen­dell Berry. The poems I'm … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in death, james baker hall | Leave a comment

Interview with Dorothy Allison

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Rusty

This is not my interview–I will have some up one of these days, though–but one by Susanne Diet­zel from Tulane Uni­ver­si­ty, con­duct­ed in 1995. When I taught a writ­ing course using what I called White Trash Lit­er­a­ture maybe ten years ago, … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in bastard out of carolina, dorothy allison, interview, susanne dietzel | 1 Comment

How I Learned To Shut Up And Listen

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Rusty

What to say about Rachel who presse­da dark pis­tol against her chest and gave upin the mid­dle of the day at the lake­front—the hot cut­ting from tit to ass cheek,miss­ing all of the organs except her­mind which to this day … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in how i learned to shut up and listen, kenneth clark, poetry | Leave a comment

A Catfish Skeleton Reminder

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Rusty

I have been away on vaca­tion with the fam. At the Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, I ran into a cat­fish skele­ton, so I had my love­ly bride Heather take a pic­ture, in lieu of break­ing the glass case and com­mit­ting … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in catfish, dc, heather, musuem of natural history, noodling | 2 Comments

That Secret Code: Working Class Literature

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Rusty

I pulled these inter­views by Orman Day from the site of Third Coast sev­er­al months ago mean­ing to add to my col­lec­tion of links on or relat­ed to Lar­ry Brown. While I wouldn't call his por­tion rev­e­la­to­ry, exact­ly, Brown's sto­ry … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in dan chaon, john mcnally, larry brown, orman day, susan straight, third coast, working class literature | Leave a comment

Love Letter by Donna Vitucci

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Rusty

Dear Sam, Once they sprung you loose from the war, why go to a no-name Okla­homa town, among strangers? Why hole up in a board­ing house with a freck­led girl who has no idea the shine and pur­pose you held … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in donna vitucci, Fiction, love letter | 4 Comments

Writers Who Deserve More Attention I: Tim McLaurin

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Rusty

I mean, besides all of them. 🙂 I'd like to cre­ate a ware­house of links occa­sion­al­ly, ref­er­enc­ing writ­ers who may or may not be on your list of pop­u­lar or well-enough-known writ­ers, along with some small com­men­tary. When I do these, they'll … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in harry crews, links, tim mclaurin | 2 Comments

Blind Lemon, by Jim Parks

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Rusty

"[African-Amer­i­­can folk­lore] is like jazz; there's no inher­ent prob­lem which pro­hibits under­stand­ing but the assump­tions brought to it." –Ralph Elli­son, Paris Review No. 8 Inter­view by Alfred Chester & Vil­ma Howard Walk­ing into the uncom­fort­able warmth of the build­ing, the odor … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in Fiction, Jim Parks | 1 Comment

Quick Informational Post–Request for Submissions

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Rusty

If your cre­ative work owes any­thing to or resem­bles the works of the fol­low­ing list of folks, please con­sid­er send­ing me a sto­ry or poem or essay to fea­ture on Fried Chick­en and Cof­fee. Har­ry Crews, Lar­ry Brown, Dorothy Alli­son, … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in submissions, white trash wednesday | 2 Comments

Noodling and River Monsters

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Rusty

Burkhard Bilger's Noodling for Flat­heads is about noodling, obvi­ous­ly, and some oth­er large­ly south­ern pas­times. I'm going to bet, though, that he nev­er caught or saw any­thing near the likes of this bad boy. I have had great fun and … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Posted in burkhard bilger, catfish, noodling for flatheads, river monsters | 2 Comments