In presenting our eleven poets, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature has produced yet another contrasting pair.  I’m talking about Carter Monroe and Steve Miller.

 

Carter Monroe is a story-teller and a bit of a fixture at the Mule.  He’s been published so many times Val stopped counting.  Valerie MacEwan, by the way, is the Mule editor and publisher.  She’s the Mule heart and the Mule soul.  And to hear her tell the story a few other Mule parts, too.  She also posts to a couple of blogs.  She was blogging hurricanes from her home near the North Carolina coast back in the day (before we all had blogs), and she writes the literary blog, “Mental Kudzu.”  But back to Monroe.

 

Carter Monroe is a character.  He’s one of those bigger-than-life local legends that the south is famous for.  Monroe doesn’t claim to be a poet (but he is); he claims he’s a story teller.  His Southern Legitimacy Statement (scroll down and click to finish) is as good a read as his poems.  The Mule likes to publish Carter Monroe.  (Now if he’d just remember to send me his book.)

 

The Mule also likes to keep its word.  We are southern and polite and, when we had to shut down a couple of years ago, felt awfully bad about those folks whose work we’d accepted but weren’t going to be able to publish.  But then the Second Edition Mule started up this week.  And we were able to publish “Spanish Town Porch” by Steve Miller that we’d accepted back in 2005.  We don’t really know that much about Miller, but boy does the Mule feel good about publishing his fine poem.

 

The Mule is a labor of love.  And if you aren’t reading The Dead Mule, why not?