NOW READING
Currently serializing on Substack on July 17, 2026
CULVERT COUNTRY
A Southern Noir Mystery
Wade Larkin is found dead in a ditch.
By noon, Hawthorn already has its suspect.
But Cal Mercer saw Wade walk away alive.
Poking Fun at My Pusillanimity
This is not a child narrating fear.
It’s an adult looking back—finally calling the fear by its real name.
Growing up queer in the Deep South meant learning early how to carry yourself.
To survive.
To turn humiliation into style.
It’s tucking chunks of myself away to spare Mama.
In Poking Fun at My Pusillanimity, Kenneth Cupp revisits his 1980s Mississippi childhood through kid’s logic with adult humor, precision, and unflinching honesty. Across a series of interconnected essays he moves through faith, shame, rumor, camp, danger, imagination, and the long work of reclaiming courage in a voice once taught to whisper.
This is a queer Southern becoming.
Not nostalgia.
Not apology.
Just the truth—told with teeth, tenderness, and nerve.
Vengeance don’t ever taste as sweet as you think.
If there’s a Pulitzer for closet drama, I’m a shoo-in.
This is not a child narrating fear.
It’s an adult looking back—finally calling the fear by its real name.
Growing up queer in the Deep South meant learning early how to carry yourself.
To survive.
To turn humiliation into style.
It’s tucking chunks of myself away to spare Mama.
In Poking Fun at My Pusillanimity, Kenneth Cupp revisits his 1980s Mississippi childhood through kid’s logic with adult humor, precision, and unflinching honesty. Across a series of interconnected essays he moves through faith, shame, rumor, camp, danger, imagination, and the long work of reclaiming courage in a voice once taught to whisper.
This is a queer Southern becoming.
Not nostalgia.
Not apology.
Just the truth—told with teeth, tenderness, and nerve.
Vengeance don’t ever taste as sweet as you think.
If there’s a Pulitzer for closet drama, I’m a shoo-in.
About
Kenneth Cupp
Kenneth Cupp is a Southern writer. His work has appeared in Advocate —the world's leading of LGBTQIA+ news and information, covering the political and cultural conversations of the community. His poetry as appeared in Arlington Literary Journal (ArLiJo), which features writers, poets, and artists from around the world whose work encourages readers to contemplate important issues, Short stories have been published in art and literary magazines as Cool Beans Lit. He writes queer Southern stories about family, secrecy, survival, and what happens when private trouble becomes public.
Articles by
Kenneth Cupp
Idaho’s bathroom bill isn’t just about bathrooms. It never was.
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Are You Woman Enough for Idaho?
Ordinary life is where bad law shows its real appetite, because ordinary life is where people are tired, rushed, distracted, underdressed, sick, aging, grieving, coming off a shift, halfway through a road trip, and not performing gender for anybody’s comfort.
Neutrality is Complicity When Trans Lives are on the line
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Neutrality is a Lie
Again, think of yourself at ten or twelve years old. We are adults. We have a responsibility to these kids, because trust me, the conservative movement will not.