Tell Us Your Southerly Gothic Story

Some stories refuse to stay buried.

They live in old houses, empty roads, churchyards, family legends, and places everyone knows but no one fully understands. They are passed down at kitchen tables, whispered on porches, and remembered long after the people who first told them are gone.

Some are documented. Some are unexplained. Some may be folklore. And some are simply too strange to forget.

For Southerly Gothic, The Southerly Way is collecting true stories, local legends, unexplained encounters, and family accounts from across the South.

What We’re Looking For

We welcome original stories connected to Southern places, people, or traditions. Your story can be:

• A ghost story or unexplained encounter
• A local legend tied to a specific town, road, house, church, cemetery, or landscape
• A family story that has been passed down through generations
• A mystery with historical roots
• A place that carries a reputation no one can quite explain
• A strange event you witnessed yourself

Stories do not have to prove that something supernatural occurred. We are interested in the way stories live in communities: what they reveal about memory, place, belief, and the Southern imagination.

What to Send

Please include:

• Your name
• Your city and state
• The story, in your own words
• Any photographs, documents, or references that help provide context
• Whether the story may be published with your name or should be considered for anonymous attribution

A Few Important Details

• All submitted work remains the property of its author.
• Submission does not guarantee publication.
• Selected submissions may be edited for clarity, length, and style, with the contributor’s approval.
• The Southerly Way may contact contributors for follow-up questions or additional reporting.
• Southerly Gothic is an online editorial series; there is no print publication planned at this time.
• Not every story must be supernatural, but every story should be rooted in a real place and honestly told.

We’re looking for the stories that linger, the ones a place keeps telling, whether anyone believes them or not.