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Carmen K. Sisson
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If you want to find the South, ask directions from a Southerner. If you want to find the people,              meet them where they live. Because the South is more than hurricanes, heat, and humidity ... The South is more than sweet tea, antebellum homes, and the Civil War ... Every story a writer could ever want to tell is here, buried beneath the soil.

If you want to find the South, ask directions from a Southerner.

There is something extravagant and wild about what they have to say — snakes on the roof of a car, swamps, a delta, sweat, the smell of sea, buzz of an air conditioner, Coca-Cola ... ~ Natalie Goldberg

If you want to find the people, meet them where they live.

Being Southern isn't talking with an accent ... or rocking on a porch while drinking sweet tea, or knowing how to tell a good story. It's how you were brought up ... family (blood kin or not) is sacred ... And food, along with college football, is darn near a religion. ~ Jan Norris

Because the South is more than hurricanes, heat, and humidity ...

Summer in the Deep South is not only a season, a climate — it's a dimension. Floating in it, one must be either proud or submerged. ~ Eugene Walter

The South is more than sweet tea, antebellum homes, and the Civil War ...

How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home. ~ William Faulkner

Every story a writer could ever want to tell is here, buried beneath the soil.

And after 30 years of covering the South, I'm just scratching the surface. Faulkner said: "To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." Consider this an introduction.

Engagement is not a buzzword — it's a survival skill.

If you're looking for a writer to aggregate content, regurgitate press releases, or deify pundits, I'm not the one. If you're looking for a writer to spew statistics, quote jargon, and bill by the hour, well, that's not me either.

If you want to connect with people, we should talk.

If you want to know how people feel, what they think, and who they are, I might be your writer. If you want a seasoned journalist who prefers to be in the field instead of behind a desk, someone equally skilled with both pen and camera, someone who keeps a suitcase packed and notebook ready, I might be your writer. If you want a journalist who is a native Southerner — who understands its people, knows its terrain, remembers its past and cares about its future — I might be your writer.


Because if it's people you want to reach, I'm all in. And if you've got a story, you've got my interest. Email me today.

Macks offer clear advantage for Moore Freight

Dan Moore is an innovator as well as a businessman, so when his glass transporting fleet — one of only a few such specialized haulers in the U.S. — ran into a problem, he wasted no time figuring out how to solve it. In his case, the answer was crystal clear: Change his mixed fleet to all Mack. His decision to fill his yard with 140 Mack Pinnacles, saved not only money but, possibly, his business.

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Carmen Sisson November 21, 2017 March 22, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines glass, Mack Trucks, Mascot, Moore Freight, Randall-Reilly, Tennessee, trucking industry 0

Grit and the gridiron rescue Texas town Refugio

Hurricane Harvey left an indelible mark on Refugio and other small communities in what’s called Texas’ Coastal Bend, battering buildings and replacing bucolic bliss with chaos. But the streets in this town of 2,890 people are not empty because of the hurricane – they are empty in spite of it. It’s a brisk nod of Texas defiance in the face of overwhelming loss. A tip of the hat to the unifying roles of faith, family, and football as Texans begin to rebuild a way of life that neither war nor weather has managed to vanquish.

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Carmen Sisson October 17, 2017 May 19, 2019Published Favorites, Recent Bylines Christian Science Monitor, disaster, favorites, football, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Refugio, Texas 1

Waste Masters Solutions teams up with Mack

As more communities pass “green” legislation, more service providers are finding a niche in helping those companies meet their environmental goals while improving their bottom line. Mack trucks power many of those providers, including Waste Masters Solutions, a regional commercial waste and recycling business in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It is a partnership with long bloodlines and deep roots, says owner Brian Simmons.

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Carmen Sisson October 13, 2017 March 22, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines Mack Trucks, Randall-Reilly, trucking industry, waste management, Waste Masters Solutions 0

Houston volunteers put “some legs” on their faith

Shady, tree-lined neighborhoods are a maze of mismatched dinette sets and children’s toys. Stores are de facto shelters, diners and one-stop shops for donations and disaster assistance forms. Times are hard, but one thing has emerged — a wave of community spirit and Christian servanthood as neighbors help neighbors and churches unleash armies of volunteers.

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Carmen Sisson September 18, 2017 May 19, 2019Recent Bylines disaster response, faith-based charities, flood, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Katy, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Texas 0

Three-time flood survivor says “enough”

This was her third flood. I did not ask why she stays, because it is her right to live where she chooses, and she owes neither me nor anyone else an explanation. For her, this yard, this house, this oak tree, is happiness. I see a clever sign. She sees birthday parties and prom date photos in the front yard. She sees her children’s tiny fingers and toes and smells the sweetness of walking in the front door with a brand new, fragile life in her hands. These things are not easy to leave.

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Carmen Sisson September 13, 2017 May 19, 2019Recent Bylines disaster, flood, Harvey, Houston, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Texas 0

Southern Baptist volunteers “sent by God” after Hurricane Harvey

The scope of the devastation is staggering. Houston is the fourth largest city in the nation, bigger than the state of New Jersey with a population of more than 2.3 million within city limits and 6.5 million throughout the metro area. Across the state, Hurricane Harvey affected more than 6.8 million people in 18 counties. As the days pass, the damage and death totals continue to rise. So, too, do the number of volunteers.

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Carmen Sisson September 8, 2017 May 19, 2019Recent Bylines disaster, disaster response, flood, Houston, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Texas 1

Small businesses get back to work after Harvey

Keith Kresta, a Crescent cotton farmer, grew up on a farm and is accustomed to the capriciousness of weather. Already mid-harvest, when he saw the Colorado River rising, he hastened to prepare his crops, move his cattle to higher ground, load his furniture into trailers, and install a pipe ring and pump around his farmhouse. As darkness fell on Texas, there was nothing more Mr. Kresta could do. He had managed to harvest 60 percent of his 800 acres.

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Carmen Sisson September 8, 2017 October 14, 2018Recent Bylines agriculture, cotton, crops, Danevang, disaster, economy, Harvey, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, small business, Texas, weather 1

Houston flood survivors grapple with loss

After Katrina, blue tarpaulins fluttered in the breeze, trying to protect what little was left. In some places, the cheap tarp was the most expensive thing on the property. In Houston, salvation came in the form of white sheets, white t-shirts, white bandanas, white garbage bags — anything that could be tied to a car antenna, a windowsill, a rooftop, a branch. A sign of life. A sign of resignation. A sign of surrender.

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Carmen Sisson September 1, 2017 October 14, 2018Recent Bylines disaster, flood, flood insurance, Harvey, Houston, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Texas 1

Are we asking too much of Houston’s volunteers?

Susan Keays stands at the water’s edge and shades her eyes to better see an approaching boat. As she holds her cellphone, verifying an address, she quickly counts heads. One volunteer is missing. This morning, they were strangers. Now, they are a sort of family. She is on Memorial Boulevard, where kayaks and bass boats bob in a river that shouldn’t be. At first, she came to the edge of the flood to save horses. She is staying to save people.

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Carmen Sisson September 1, 2017 March 24, 2018Recent Bylines Christian Science Monitor, disaster, disaster response, flood, Houston, hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Texas, volunteerism 1

Macks lead the way for container drayage company

Shipping containers fill the yard at Intermodal Cartage Company, with the multicolored steel stacks towering over the heavy-duty Mack® Pinnacles® waiting to carry them to their destinations. Memphis-based IMCG, one of eight businesses operating under the IMC Companies umbrella, has become a leader in container drayage, tapping into more than three decades of experience in international supply chain solutions.

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Carmen Sisson March 22, 2017 March 22, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines drayage, IMCG, Intermodal Cartage Company, Mack Trucks, Memphis, Randall-Reilly, Tennessee, trucking industry 0

Macks power Winters Bros. Waste & Recycling

Nearly three decades ago, two young men posed for a picture together, both beaming as they stood in front of a gleaming 1987 Mack® RD model. Sean Winters, 21, had just bought his first garbage truck, continuing the family legacy that began in the 1950s and continues today. Jimmy Brown, 25, was a salesman at Gabrielli Truck Sales in Hartford, Conn., and that first truck was just one of many Mack models he has since sold to Winters. Partnerships like those with Gabrielli and Mack Trucks are the foundation of Winters Bros. Waste and Recycling, Winters says. And their bond continues today.

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Carmen Sisson November 29, 2016 March 22, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines content marketing, Mack Trucks, recycling, trucking industry, waste management, Winters Bros. 0

S.C. loggers turn to Mack Granite

Every tree has a story, and if that tree is in Steadman, S.C., odds are good that the Gunter family knows its history. Tracy Gunter Jr. and his son, Tracy Gunter III, own and operate Tracy’s Logging and T3 Chipping, continuing a family legacy that began with Tracy Gunter Sr., who worked in a sawmill. The woods are where the Gunters make their living, but it is also where they feel most at home, and they see themselves not only as loggers but also as stewards of the land.

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Carmen Sisson November 16, 2016 March 22, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines logging, Mack Trucks, South Carolina, Steadman, Tracy's Logging, trucking industry 0
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