Writing about the US South at the end of the twentieth century is our focus. Most of the writers in this course see ‘the South’ less as a bounded region, captured by the all too familiar literary trope of gothic agrarianism, than as a complex cultural experience far more impacted by the catalogue of recent global events than we might otherwise realize: the traumatic conflicts of the Cold War era; the growth of corporate agriculture; the twinned politics of migrant and working poor labor exploitation. The connections they make should compel us to ask what’s ‘new’ about the US South in contemporary writing. Works include a mix of short stories, novels and non-fiction, and voices as dissimilar as: Stephanie Soileau; Jayne Anne Phillips; Rahul Mehta; Annie Proulx; and Dave Eggers. Students will write two short papers (5-7 pages), and they will be expected to participate vigorously in class discussions and group work. Some required reading will be collected in a packet of Xeroxed short stories and essays available from The Ave Copy Center. The remaining reading, all book-length works, is available from the UW Bookstore. It may include: Lark and Termite; That Old Ace in the Hole; and Zeitoun.