The Bad Poor by Mitch Ploskonka

The Bad Poor by Mitch Ploskonka

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.

"Mitch Ploskonka's provocative meditation on poor whites and their shape-shifting roles in contemporary culture and politics offers deep insight and understanding for readers of the insurgent literary form known as Grit LitThis is important work, and The Bad Poor does it with style." - Matt Wray, author of Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness

"The Bad Poor provides a fresh exploration of Grit Lit through the intersectional lenses of race, feminism, queerness, and disability studies. In this important contribution to southern studies, Ploskonka examines the evolution of Grit Lit, asking a series of urgent and provocative questions about the genre and its evolving forms." - Sarah Robertson, author of Gothic Appalachian Literature

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780807185889
ISBN 10	0807185884
Title	The Bad Poor
Author	Mitch Ploskonka
Series	Southern Literary Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Louisiana State University Press
Year published	2026-04-06
Number of pages	232
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.