I met Latria Graham last year at a book event I did down in Spartanburg. She was kind and smart and funny. And when I went and looked up her writing, I found out that she was also being modest.
Her voice jumps off the page and pulls you in, even as she’s telling you uncomfortable truths about race and property and what it’s like to be Black in the wilderness.
Graham is a contributing editor for Garden & Gun and she has written for Southern Living, the Oxford American and many others. Her most famous pieces so far are a pair of stories she wrote for Outside magazine about the troubled racial history of outdoor spaces from pools to beaches to national parks.
She has been all over the country and all over the world to tell stories. But she has also circled back home to live in South Carolina -- a place that holds mixed blessings for her. Most every Southerner has those dueling feelings about this place, but Latria helped me think more deeply about the extra layers Black Southerners have to confront every day.
Show notes:
- Her stories about being black in the wilderness for Outside magazine: 2018 story 2020 story
- Her Garden & Gun story about trying to save a piece of her family's farm
- Her profile of former Carolina Panther Josh Norman
- If you want to hear more, here she is on the Longform Podcast
Other music in this episode:
- The Polish Ambassadors, "Forest Funk"
- Release The Long Ships, "The Heart of the Mountain"