Personally, I'd like another Southern Renaissance

I was having a conversation recently about the North -- Shocking, I know -- and I mentioned that the North is intriguing to me because of all the great authors that hail from that region. The names Emerson, Dickinson and Hawthorne come to mind.

But even as I cited New England authors as some of the American greats, the words felt sour on my tongue because the South has produced just as many influential authors. They just don't necessarily receive the same type of recognition.

William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, W.J. Cash -- these were some of the most transcendent writers of their time, and mine for that matter, but for the most unlikely reason.

Crazy guy that William Faulkner.

Robert Penn Warren, he's a funny one.

As my former Southern history professor used to say, these authors burst the Southern bubble of unreality. Meaning that they said the things Southern women had been sweeping under the rug for decades and decades. They exposed the secret that the South wasn't as romantic as it seemed.

Needless to say, things got a little messy. But the ensuing literary movement, the Southern Renaissance, which began in the 1920s and 1930s, helped propel the South from being known as the land of anti-intellectuals to a place that might have some semblance of a brain.

So the next time you hear someone mention the great American authors, you make sure they remember the Southern authors too.

Bless your heart William Faulkner, you did us proud even if you were crazy.