SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS

Writers from the Worlds of Literature, Music, Film and Television Explore Southern Identity

The American South is known for its boundless creativity, absorbing personalities and evocative landscapes. SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS, a new three-episode series premiering July 18, follows some of the region’s most compelling and influential contemporary creators to the places they call home and explores how these communities have fertilized the stories they tell in books, songs, poems, plays and on screens large and small.

SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS traverses the South, from the mountains of Appalachia to the Gulf of Mexico. The series reveals a vivid patchwork of diverse American stories that celebrate the resilience and joy of Southern people and the innate talents of the region’s writers.

Among the featured creatives are some of the most recognized storytellers from the worlds of literature, music, television and film, including novelists Jesmyn Ward, Angie Thomas and David Joy; country music artist Lyle Lovett; poet and memoirist Natasha Trethewey; poet Jericho Brown; musician/songwriter, screenwriter and actor Billy Bob Thornton; singer-songwriters Brittany Howard, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Thao Nguyen and Adia Victoria; songwriter and actress Mary Steenburgen, screenwriter Qui Nguyen; author and culinary historian Michael Twitty; and Stranger Things series creators, Matt and Ross Duffer.

SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS was created by filmmaker Craig Renaud and Arkansas PBS CEO, Courtney Pledger. “SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS comes from our desire, as native Southerners, to show the South in an authentic light,” says Pledger. “And we can think of no better way to do that than through the experiences of the region’s writers and creators who are able to engage us, move us and take us to a deeper understanding of such a dynamic place and its people.”

SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS featured poet, Jericho Brown, is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing and the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta. He is also the author of the collection, The Tradition (2019), which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award and the winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His poems have appeared in Buzzfeed, The Nation, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic and TIME, among other publications.