Southern Women: More Than 100 Stories of Innovators, Artists, and Icons

Written by Editors of Garden and Gun

Narrated by Megan Tusing, Coleen Marlo, Janina Edwards and 3 more

From the award-winning Southern lifestyle magazine Garden & Gun comes this rich collection of some of the South’s most notable women.

For too long, the Southern woman has been synonymous with the Southern belle, a “moonlight and magnolias” myth that gets nowhere close to describing the strong, richly diverse women who have thrived because of—and in some cases, despite of—the South. No more. Garden & Gun’s Southern Women: More than 100 Stories of Trail Blazers, Visionaries, and Icons obliterates that stereotype by sharing the stories of more than 100 of the region’s brilliant women, groundbreakers who have by turns embraced the South’s proud traditions and overcome its equally pervasive barriers and challenges.

Through interviews and essays, these remarkable chefs, musicians, actors, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, designers, and public servants will offer a dynamic portrait of who the Southern woman is now. The voices of bona fide icons such as Sissy Spacek, Leah Chase, and Loretta Lynn join those whose stories for too long have been overlooked or underestimated, from the pioneering Texas rancher Minnie Lou Bradley to the Gee’s Bend, Alabama, quilter Mary Margaret Pettway—all visionaries who have left their indelible mark not just on Southern culture, but on America itself.

By experiencing these stories of triumph, grit, and grace, the ties that bind the sisterhood of Southern women emerge: an unflinching resilience and resourcefulness, an inherent love of the land, a singular style and wit. And while the wisdom shared may be rooted in the Southern experience, the universal themes are sure to resonate beyond the Mason-Dixon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Oct 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9780062898463

Editors of Garden and Gun

Garden & Gun is a national magazine that covers the best of the South, including its sporting culture, food, music, art, and literature, and its people and their ideas. The magazine has won numerous awards for journalism, design, and overall excellence, and its two previous books, The Southerner's Handbook and Good Dog, were New York Times bestsellers.

Reviews for Southern Women

[tluneau_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is a book on “Innovators, Artists, and Icons” of Southern Women? Oh, please. Then where is Alice Walton, founder of Crystal Bridges? What happened to Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, the creator and writer of “Designing Women”? And who chose to omit Roseanne Cash, whose musical legacy far surpasses that of Lucinda Williams and can sing without sounding as if she’s gargling rocks? These are only three unforgivable “oversights” in this quirky, overpriced production that isn’t even heavy enough to use as a doorstop. I am embarrassed to see the paltry list of writers included in this book—it’s a miracle that Eudora and Flannery made the cut into this aleatoric collection of almost unrelated nonsense.Perhaps a section on Fictional Characters would have improved the book somewhat, or at least livened it up a bit. As it stands, Southern Women is one of the most over-hyped, over promised, and underwhelming books to be published in the 21st century, and Garden & Gun owes its women readers both an apology and a far better effort.I do not recommend this book, after anticipating its publication for months. It could have been so good.