Here is a list of writers and subjects I like and/or find kinship with; hopefully this will help submitters decide if Fried Chicken and Coffee is right for their work.
rural literature
working-class literature
Appalachian literature
grit lit
Rough South
rednecks
white trash
flatlanders
ridgerunners
hillbillies
Harry Crews
Larry Brown
Dorothy Allison
Paula K. Gover
Lisa Koger
Chris Offutt
Silas House
Chris Holbrook
Lee Smith
Ron Rash
Richard Ford
Jim Harrison
Donald Ray Pollock
Tom Franklin
Cormac McCarthy
Andre Dubus
William Gay
Charles Frazier
Michael Gills
Tom Cobb
Breece Pancake
Pete Fromm
Nelson Algren
Dorianne Laux
Mary Lee Settle
Mary Hood
Daniel Woodrell
Dagoberto Gilb
James Lee Burke
Isabel Zuber
Willy Vlautin
James Crumley
Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Jayne Ann Phillips
Charlie Smith
Andrew Hudgins
Richard Hugo
James Dickey
Chuck Kinder
Gurney Norman
James Still
Wendell Berry
Mark Richard
Pinckney Benedict
Tim McLaurin
Brad Watson
Steve Yarbrough
Rick Bass
Richard Currey
Bobbie Ann Mason
Dale Ray Phillips
The Submissions:
No word limit/no content guidelines, within the broad categories I've established in my first post to this blogazine. Anything more than 8000 words would have to be done in serial form, I would think, and be exceptional too. Send me rural, funky, dirty stories about churchgoing women who never sin. I'd like to read that. What about the story I lived, the one where the kid moves away and goes to college and becomes a writer, and until he's thirty, his male relatives hitch their drawers and ask him when he's going to be out of school? Except don't write about writing. I don't care much, since I live it. I would love to see more stories about women, though. Get to the grit, get to the love, show me the scars, and take Harry Crews to heart: "Blood, bone, and nerve, that's fiction. Show me the stuff that cuts to the quick."
In case you're coming here cold, I've been editing other writers for over twenty years now, and for the record, I've read hundreds maybe thousands of stories. Your Bukowski knockoffs are not going to make it, son. Sorry. Nor do nostalgic o‑it-was-better-back-then stories stand much of a chance, unless they really, really transcend. To submit, send an email to rusty.barnes@gmail.com with the words FCAC and SUBMISSION in the subject line. I respond quickly.
Hi Ramona–I'm not sure when we'll reopen. I'm still searching for the right person to take over the operation.
When will you be open again to submissions?
We try to run new content every three days all year round.
Hey Rusty,
What's the deadline on the next issue?
They're free to go, Wendy. Sorry I didn't see this till now.
Hey, ho Rusty,
I have this little question:
I sent you five poems. You used one. Are you planning to use the others or may those pups look for another home?
Happy Thanksgiving–
wendy
We have lots in common. I look forward to reading your book!
I traded boot leggin' for booK leggin' myself.
Hard business as you might know.
Grit Lit, Rusty. Grit Lit. Yay-us!
— The Legendary
Hi James. We do accept reprints, and we don't pay for work, sad to say. I wish it were otherwise.
Do you accept reprints? Do you pay for short stories?
Love you tell us what you want… I'm gonna be writing cold.…I am a woman..been through it…and I won't write like this when I submit..Been a long time since I have written. From MS and AL live in Mtns of NC… Happy New Year to ya…
I just wanted to say that I found this site today while googling "fracking in northern Pennsylvania and I put a link to it on the news section of BobDylan.com where I am a member. Mainly because the subject of fracking came up and I live in Bradford County part time, and also, because I love fried chicken and coffee. I'm also a writer, nothing published, in the process with a book of poetry to be called "Junkyard Manifesto." I'm am having one hell of a time trying to register/sign in on this Gravitar thing and have no clue combined with poor short term memory. Oh, well, hello to you and have a nice day. Ms Cosmiccat