The Bad Poor : Race, Class, and the Rise of Grit Lit

Mitch Ploskonka

ISBN 10: 0807185884 / ISBN 13: 9780807185889

Published by LSU Press Apr 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - The Bad Poor examines the rise of Grit Lit, a movement in contemporary southern literature written by and about poor southern whites. Examining issues of genre, race, and culture, Mitch Ploskonka traces the emergence of this iconoclastic mode through its major authors to reveal a literary-cultural identity rooted in difference, marked by resistance to respectability and class performance, and shaped by reckoning with the legacies of whiteness and regional memory. For those long dismissed as 'white trash' and denied an active voice in their own representation, Grit Lit confronts the parallel concerns of finding a way to describe themselves and the means to communicate it appropriately. Beginning with Harry Crews and progressing chronologically to the present including discussions of key works by Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Rick Bragg, and Tom Franklin, among others Ploskonka examines how Grit Lit authors forge self-representations by experimenting with genres and engaging with identity politics. Through the ongoing search for a usable, unshameful identity, Grit Lit enacts a painful but heartening narrative of grappling with the realities of people and place by acknowledging difference. As stories about the gritty or rough South proliferate across media, The Bad Poor relates an important story of literary self-fashioning by analyzing a body of literature that speaks to larger cultural discourses regarding racial identity, social justice, disability, and class divisions.

Seller Inventory # 9780807185889

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Bad Poor : Race, Class, and the Rise of Grit Lit
• Publisher: LSU Press Apr 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807185884
• ISBN 13: 9780807185889
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 16D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 16 millimeters depth
• Weight: 472 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The Bad Poor examines the rise of Grit Lit, a movement in contemporary southern literature written by and about poor southern whites. Examining issues of genre, race, and culture, Mitch Ploskonka traces the emergence of this iconoclastic mode through its major authors to reveal a literary-cultural identity rooted in difference, marked by resistance to respectability and class performance, and shaped by reckoning with the legacies of whiteness and regional memory.

For those long dismissed as “white trash” and denied an active voice in their own representation, Grit Lit confronts the parallel concerns of finding a way to describe themselves and the means to communicate it appropriately. Beginning with Harry Crews and progressing chronologically to the present―including discussions of key works by Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Rick Bragg, and Tom Franklin, among others―Ploskonka examines how Grit Lit authors forge self-representations by experimenting with genres and engaging with identity politics. Through the ongoing search for a usable, unshameful identity, Grit Lit enacts a painful but heartening narrative of grappling with the realities of people and place by acknowledging difference.

As stories about the gritty or rough South proliferate across media, The Bad Poor relates an important story of literary self-fashioning by analyzing a body of literature that speaks to larger cultural discourses regarding racial identity, social justice, disability, and class divisions.

About the Author

Mitch Ploskonka is assistant professor of English at the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI). His research focuses on southern literature, disability studies, and popular culture.