Issue 48 / Spring 2013
48 / Southern Sin
True tales of lust, lies, and bad behavior
Creative Nonfiction #48 features deliciously degenerate stories about sinning in the South, from cheating at pee-wee football to the murderous jealousy of illicit lovers, the perils of shacking up, and the secret pleasures of arson.
All of that (vicarious) sinning calls for a little redemption. In Writers at Work, three authors explore the intersection of literature and healing. Writing isn’t therapy–but can it be therapeutic?
Plus: Tiny truths, a nonfiction sestina, and some stories we regret not being able to publish.
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What’s the Story #48
What, you might ask, would inspire a magazine based in Pittsburgh to put together a “Southern Sin” issue? A couple of years ago, I went down to Mississippi to brainstorm a Southern issue of the magazine with Neil White.Sin
“Once, for instance, I lit a field on fire. It started with a haystack, and I don’t remember from where I stole the matches.”Prism
I imagine what it would have been like for Danny the day he found his girl, the flesh of his flesh, distorted and cold. He’s looking for Dana, his daughter, who didn’t come home last night.Goddamn Tupelo
As I cruise toward the bend of Highway 78 where, three nights ago, my bluesman boyfriend threw out $150 of homegrown marijuana I didn’t even realize he’d brought into my car, I think: Goddamn Tupelo.The On-Ramp
The heat is always on in New OrleansMad Love: The Ballad of Fred & Allie
The sin was not so much the taking of the throat as the wanting of it in the first place. And what a fine throat it was, the way it captured those who saw it: men loitering at the Customs House; boys down by the river, who stretched their own necks to catch a glimpse of its fine whiteness; eventually the entire nation.The Renters
Renting a room to a couple having an affair seemed like a good idea ... until it wasn’t.Shacked Up
My boyfriend and I had signed the lease together and packed the last of our boxes when I went out to the stoop to call my parents, clutching a full pack of Camels.Harm
"I noticed a swell of voices, looked up to see my father confronting a group of black boys, twelve and thirteen years old. 'Did you throw that rock?' he said, anger rising in his voice"The Wishbone
My father did many things, but he did not cheat. Cheating required skills that Pop did not have, like the ability to whisper and make at least one good friend. Pop didn’t have friends, which he believed were things meant for women and children, as were holidays and happiness—and cheating.Salvage, Salvation, Salve
Exploring the healing potential of telling our own storiesWriting Memoir and Writing for Therapy
An inquiry on the functions of reflection.Managing the Angry Voice: How to Convey Anger in Memoir Without Alienating Readers
In her 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen tells the story of her eighteen-month stay in McLean Hospital, a psychiatric institution. The book later became a movie starring Angelina Jolie, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Redgrave, and Whoopi Goldberg.OC/D
"She thought of his disappearance as a kind of evaporation; she heard that he had gone away to get clean, then she saw him in the hallway, then he was dead."Title Envy
We received nearly six hundred submissions for this “Southern Sin” issue. As they poured in—and before we had read even a single word of a single story—we realized something: Southerners know how to write a title.The Relationship Between Text & Image
"I think it's a rather exciting time to be working in multiple forms. Knowing you may not be taken seriously can offer a certain kind of freedom."The Wonderful Place Where Monkey Metaphors Live
Interview with Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Creative Nonfiction/ Oxford Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference ‘Southern Sin’ Contest Prize.