Happy Friday Folks,
Do you ever cross paths with people and it feels that there is a level of synergy there that feels rare and important? I had this feeling when, a few months back, a message dropped into my Substack inbox. This message came from a writer named Jessie, and it affirmed why I love doing the work we do at Good Folk—even though, yes, I’m aware I’ve been absent for a bit. Blame the PhD (pleased to report I have finished my first semester!), and expect some longer newsletters with life updates soon.
I knew immediately that I wanted to have a longer conversation with Jessie, and that it was a conversation our listeners would benefit from. Jessie and I proceeded to chat over email, and then Instagram, for the next few months, and finally, I am pleased to welcome them to Good Folk for a conversation on legacy, family, roots, and the South.
Jessie McCarty is a Southern, Irish-American writer in Chicago. They have been published in The Minnesota Review, The Documentarian, Don’t Submit Lit, Thick Press, and more. They write the newsletter Poetic Classifications on Substack. Pretty Punks & Other Poems (formerly Yeats Fever), is forthcoming. Previous collections include The Bovine Huff (Track and Field Studios, 2021) and Our Fairy Diary. Their research has been published as chapbooks for the following theatrical productions: The Sarcoma Cycle (2024), Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions: A Homo-Turgy (2024), and Perforated Play (2022).
I love this conversation. Jessie and I unpack the complications of being a Southerner working from afar, what it means to tap into family legacies that aren’t always immediate and readily accessible, and the importance of understanding roots and lineage in approaching your relationship to home and place. It’s conversations like these that make me proud to be Southern and Appalachian and in community with so many people who share a vision for this region that is rooted in love and care and, most of all, hope.
Thank you to Jessie for joining us, and thank you to our listeners for continuing to tune in. I hope you enjoy this conversation.
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