Born during the post-Civil Rights era and raised during the swing from the “Solid South” to the “ruby red,” Generation X has seen historic alterations to the fabric of Southern culture and is now making our own alterations to this much-fabled landscape.

Foster Dickson is a life-long Alabamian who grew up in Montgomery in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Like many Generation-Xers in the South, Foster has experienced the changes to this region firsthand and felt the effects personally. In that spirit, one of his current projects is level:deepsouth, a crowdsourced online anthology that collects and documents the experiences of Generation X in the South. The project, which is open to submissions of creative nonfiction, images, and reviews, celebrates its two-year anniversary in March 2022.

Posts about being Generation X and growing up in the South:

Throwback Thursday: The Death of Bear Bryant, 40 Years Later
published January 2023

Happy, Happy
published April 2022

From Judas Priest to the Dalai Lama
published October 2021

One Last Round of GenX Movies You’ve Probably Forgotten (or Never Seen)
published February 2020

10 More GenX Movies You’ve Probably Forgotten (or Never Seen)
published December 2019

“And he said, My name’s Johnny and it might be a sin . . .”
published October 2019

10 GenX Movies You’ve Probably Forgotten (or Never Seen)
published August 2019

“My Source for Some Definitive”: 30 Years since “Closer to Fine”
published April 2019

Alabamiana: The House of Judah, 1991
published February 2019

“Scarred but Smarter”: A Drivin’ N Cryin’ documentary (2012)
published December 2018

The Boxes in the Attic: A Love Story
published January 2018

On the Edgy Edge of Edginess
published May 2017

Alabamiana: Wedowee, 1994
published February 2017

Where did twenty years go?
published December 2016

The Old Agrarian-ness of a New Ethos
published May 2016

“Smokey and the Bandit”: How Cool It Was— Back Then
published January 2013