Submissions

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.