Sean Dietrich

Sean Dietrich is a columnist, and novelist, known for his commentary on life in the American South. His work has appeared in Southern Living, The Tallahassee Democrat, Good Grit, South Magazine, Alabama Living, the Birmingham News, Thom Magazine, The Mobile Press Register, and he has authored seven books.

Memphis Belle: Somewhere in Bluff City

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Memphis, Tennessee. A cafe. The kind with vinyl booth cushions, all patched up with duct tape. I’m in town to make a speech.

She is my waitress. Her name is on her nametag. She smiles at me after she asks how I want my eggs.

Her teeth are bad. Real bad. There’s probably a story here. I’d wish I knew the rest of it.

Angels

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Birmingham. I met the old woman for coffee. She was small and slight, with a mane of white. She spoke with a thick Latin accent.

“I have a story for you,” she said.

I’m a sucker for a good story.

Start Together, Finish Together: Love Is Easy, Everything Else is Hard.

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3:42 a.m.—Three hours before sunrise. Sarah and I are awake. Sort of. We begin our marathon route in the hamlet of Manitou Springs, a town where everything is organic, even the Subaru exhaust.

We start our journey alone, in front of the little courthouse, the official starting line of the Pikes Peak Marathon. Before we begin running, we hug each other tightly.

“We’re doing this,” we say before we sprint off into the silent streets.

Artisan Forgiveness: Running Up Dad’s Mountain

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Morning in Manitou Springs, Colorado. My sister and I have a rental cabin located near the base of Pikes Peak. I am sitting on a picnic table outside our cabin, drinking crappy instant coffee, finishing my third chocolate bar.

My sister brought the chocolate. It’s artisan chocolate. She is asleep in the cabin right now. She’s not going to be happy when she awakes and finds out I’ve eaten all her fancy chocolate. I will undergo one of her famous improvised gender reassignment operations.

My Pikes Peak Diary: Day One

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This is a big trip for me and my sister. We are visiting Pikes Peak to see my dad. And it’s going to be big.

The first thing you should know about my sister Sarah and me is that we like people. It’s just who we are. She and I are both what you’d call extreme “people people.” My father was a people person. And we definitely got his genes.

Bad Gramer

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I get a lot of comments about grammar. And after having studied the subject for years—mainly by reading thousands of critically acclaimed cereal boxes—I’ve decided to answer questions from readers who inquire about various errors in my work.

Here We Go

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Columnist and musician, Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South, and his sister are setting out to climb Pikes Peak in honor of their father. The man became a runner overnight and frequently ran the Pikes Peak Marathon. His ashes are scattered atop this “fourteener,” as hikers call it, or mountain with an elevation over 14,000 feet. Sadly, the Dietrich patriarch died by his own hand when Sean was just 10. Sean writes eloquently and honestly about his struggles with with forgiving his father. We wish him and his sister a successful climb, good fellowship and peace and healing as they remember their father and his impact on their lives.

My Favorite Trees: The strength of a tree

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I have a thing for trees. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’ve always been a nerd.

I think it all dates back to my days in Boy Scouts. My cousin Ed Lee and I were second-class Scouts, and we earned our forestry merit badges one summer. Actually, I earned both his badge and mine. He mainly read Archie comic books while I did all the fieldwork.

I’ve been obsessed with trees ever since. Namely, beca