I haven't scoured Dixie out of my voice. But I don't think that the books that I have written... have really in any way been Southern in character.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Dixie has just fallen to pieces. There are little patches of Dixie. But even in the heart of Dixie - in Alabama - Dixie is slipping. They've stopped using the word in commercial listings.
Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.
Depending on your political orientation, the Dixie Chicks are either the great defenders of free speech or American traitors.
At first I read mostly books by Southern authors - black and white - because almost all the people I knew were born and raised in the South, starting with my mother. I remember I got a lot of Erskine Caldwell.
It's really rare that you come across a Southern character that's not stereotyped, vilified or aggrandized.
I always had good recognition from the Southern writers, but the publishers never took any notice of that.
Dixie Carter was a goddess. The kind of wife and mother that every mother hopes their daughter will become and the kind of friend that is absolutely irreplaceable. She loved fiercely and was adored in return.
Ever since the Dixie Chicks, the female perspective on country radio has been love songs. I love love songs, but we do have more to talk about, so it's nice that other perspectives are coming back.
The thing that most critics miss about Faulkner is that his famous storytelling voice is, in fact, a standard Southern storytelling voice that is typical of the Gulf Coast - Mississippi, Alabama and so on.
Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.