Arts & Culture
Southern Women
Meet ten fearless, funny, smart, driven, dynamic women in every decade of life
Looking for Southern Women, the new book by Garden & Gun? Read about it and order it here.
For too long, the Southern woman has been synonymous with the Southern belle—a soft gauzy stereotype that personified the “moonlight and magnolias” myth of the region. A romanticized version that gets nowhere close to describing the strong, richly diverse women who have thrived because of—and in some cases, despite of—the South.
Garden & Gun’s August/September issue showcases ten such awe-inspiring, risk-taking, big-dreaming, barrier-breaking, soul-baring, freewheeling Southern women, a preview to Garden & Gun’s forthcoming book on the same topic in 2019. Decade by decade—from six-year-old bookworm Daliyah Arana to ninety-five-year-old legendary chef Leah Chase—these ten women share a lifetime’s worth of triumph, grit, and grace.
Click below to read more about each
of these inspiring Southern women.
The Bookworm:
Daliyah Arana, age 6, from Gainesville, Georgia
The Comeback Kid:
Madeline Jordan, age 14, from Tallahassee, Florida
The Painter:
Dorothy Shain, age 28, from Greenville, South Carolina
The Bandleader:
Amanda Shires, age 36, from Lubbock, Texas
The Wisecracker:
Tig Notaro, age 47, from Pass Christian, Mississippi
The Bon Vivant:
Carla Hall, age 54, from Nashville, Tennessee
The Philanthropist:
Darla Moore, age 64, from Lake City, South Carolina
The Storyteller:
Lee Smith, age 73, from Grundy, Virginia
The Rancher:
Minnie Lou Bradley, age 86, from Hydro, Oklahoma
The Grande Dame:
Leah Chase, age 95, from Madisonville, Louisiana
Related Stories:
Southern Women
The Contagious Optimism of Carla Hall
The Nashville-born chef on hats, heritage, and good old-fashioned hard work
Southern Women
Amanda Shires Raises a Toast to the Future
The singer-songwriter and fiddle player opens up about motherhood, the music industry, and settling into her role as a leader
Southern Women
Lee Smith—Great Southern Storyteller
The prolific author speaks on growing up in the mountains, fiction’s role in society, and why biscuits are something worth celebrating
Trending Stories:
Food & Drink
Forgotten Southern Recipes
From pear salad and tomato pudding to vinegar pie and bacon crackers, we’re more than ready for these old-school classics to make a comeback
Food & Drink
The Ultimate Guide to Grits
Kernels of wisdom about one of the South’s fundamental foods
The Wild South
Shrimp Conundrum: To Devein or Not to Devein?
Do you really need to remove that dark stripe down a shrimp’s back? Getting to the bottom of a Southern debate