Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance

Edited by Sandra Beasley
Welcome by John T. Edge
Foreword by W. Ralph Eubanks
Illustrations by Julie Sola

A rich collection of poetry grown and harvested from foodways studies

University of Georgia Press ~ Paperback, 2018

ISBN-10: 0820354295 / ISBN-13: 978-0820354293

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“Some say opposable thumbs are what make humans people; some say it’s the use of tools; some say it’s that we cook our food; and some say that it’s the fact that we use words. I don’t know much about evolutionary biology and thumbs, but I can tell you that this collection of words about food is also a collection of tools—of useful things for making meaning of our lives and the world and the places we call home. It’s full of what people need.”

—Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table 

Yes, there is barbecue, but that’s just one course of the meal. With Vinegar and Char the Southern Foodways Alliance celebrates twenty years of symposia by offering a collection of poems that are by turns as sophisticated and complex, as vivid and funny, and as buoyant and poignant as any SFA gathering.

The roster of contributors includes Natasha Trethewey, Robert Morgan, Atsuro Riley, Adrienne Su, Richard Blanco, Ed Madden, Nikky Finney, Frank X Walker, Sheryl St. Germain, Molly McCully Brown, and forty-five more. These poets represent past, current, and future conversations about what it means to be southern. Throughout the anthology, region is layered with race, class, sexuality, and other shaping identities.

With an introduction by Sandra Beasley, a thought-provoking foreword by W. Ralph Eubanks, and luminous original artwork by Julie Sola, this collection is an ideal gift. Meant to be savored slowly or devoured at once, these pages are a perfect way to spend the hour before supper, with a glass of iced tea—or the hour after, with a pour of bourbon—and a fitting celebration of the SFA’s focus and community.

Featured as part of “What to Read When: A Holiday Book-Gifting Guide” over at The Rumpus [November 2018]

Listen to a special edition of GRAVY, SFA’s podcast, devoted to the anthology

Read a Q&A with editor Sandra Beasley for #TurnItUp, hosted on University of Georgia Press’s blog

Watch editor Sandra Beasley read from the book, in addition to her own work, at the 2018 SFA Symposium

Read Sara Camp Milam’s “Poetry in Motion: Behind the Scenes of Vinegar and Char” [from the print edition of Gravy]