The Bitter Southerner is a digital publication that was created on August 6, 2013, by Chuck Reece, Dave Whitling, Kyle Tibbs Jones, and Butler Raines.
[1][2] The website publishes feature length stories and photographic essays about an often-overlooked aspect of Southern culture: the progressive South.
Their invitation-only Facebook Group (The Bitter Southerner Family) for contributors, who refer to each other as Cousins, provides a space to gather and discuss everything from their affinity for Duke's Mayonnaise to regional music, literature, and art.
[4] The publication has been supported by prominent Southerners like Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, and chef Hugh Acheson.
In this article, Reece describes a "Bitter Southerner," their reader base as "… somebody who loves this region but also is willing to acknowledge and not gloss over the many difficult pieces of its history.
It feels like we tapped into something that was latent out there, which was that people in the South were hoping to find some kind of medium that would portray the good stuff in a smart way."