Type of site | Literary |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | August 13, 2013 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Founder(s) | Chuck Reece, Dave Whitling, Kyle Tibbs Jones, and Butler Raines[1] |
| Editors | Dave Whitling, Valerie Boyd, Josina Guess, Rachel Priest |
| Key people | Eric NeSmith, Publisher |
| URL | bittersoutherner.com |
The Bitter Southerner is a digital publication that was created on August 6, 2013, by Chuck Reece, Dave Whitling, Kyle Tibbs Jones, and Butler Raines. The publication is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.[1][2] The website publishes feature length stories and photographic essays about an often-overlooked aspect of Southern culture: the progressive South. In addition to its magazine-style content, the organization also produces a podcast, compiles videos, and curates a folklore project. It has been described in the New York Times as a kind of "kitchen-sink New Yorker."[3] The Bitter Southerner also maintains a social media presence. Their invitation-only Facebook Group (The Bitter Southerner Family) for contributors, who refer to each other as Cousins, provides a space to gather and discuss everything from their affinity for Duke's Mayonnaise to regional music, literature, and art.
After one year of operations in 2014, The Bitter Southerner web page had an average of 50,000 unique visitors and 12,000 subscribers to its newsletter.[2] In 2020, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution stated that The Bitter Southerner averages 138,000 pageviews a month from 90,000 unique visitors.[4] In the same article, it was announced that Reece would be leaving the publication after 7 years.[4] The publication describes its two major reader bases as Southerners who have since moved elsewhere and non-Southerners who have moved to the South.[4] The publication has been supported by prominent Southerners like Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, and chef Hugh Acheson.
For his work with The Bitter Southerner, TIME Magazine named Chuck Reece as one of their 31 people changing the South in 2018. In this article, Reece describes a "Bitter Southerner," their reader base as "… somebody who loves this region but also is willing to acknowledge and not gloss over the many difficult pieces of its history."[5]
During their 2021 Membership Drive, the publication announced the creation of The B.S. Magazine: a print magazine with stories, poetry, and art from across the South.[6]
"Really, what drove it more than anything else is seeing the media stereotypes. With most media, you get one of two versions of the South: You sort of get the polite tea party — and I don't mean that in the political sense — genteel, hospitable South, or you get the "redneck" stereotypes. You never get anything in between. That's what bothered us. We've got all the great stories in the middle. It feels like we tapped into something that was latent out there, which was that people in the South were hoping to find some kind of medium that would portray the good stuff in a smart way."
- Chuck Reece[1]