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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.

V McGee drivers choose Mack

When V McGee decided to upgrade its fleet, they knew they wanted equipment that could handle the rigors of the job while still being agreeable to the drivers. Operations manager and truck foreman Kevin Mays obtained five trucks from different manufacturers — and allowed drivers to demo them for a few weeks. “It didn’t take long for us to realize that what the drivers wanted was to operate Mack Granites.”

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Carmen Sisson January 20, 2016 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines content marketing, Mack Trucks, Memphis, Mississippi, Randall-Reilly, Southaven, Tennessee, truckers, trucking industry, V McGee 0

New Orleans takes fight against homelessness to the streets

homeless man and outreach worker

Outreach teams load their vans with granola bars and water and head into the dark, armed with nothing more than flashlights, clipboards, and hand sanitizer. They search the streets in the daytime, looking for signs of life such as bedrolls. At night, they return, hoping to find the owners. Sometimes they are asked to leave; other times, they are hailed as angels of mercy.

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Carmen Sisson December 22, 2015 January 30, 2016Recent Bylines Christian Science Monitor, homelessness, Louisiana, New Orleans, South, UNITY 0

Deck the hauls: JSD Express runs on Mack mDRIVE

Jim De Armond founded JSD Express in April 1990 with one truck and barely made enough money the first year to make the truck payments. Now, however, he expects to close out 2015 with more than $4 million in revenue, and he anticipates growing 45-50 percent per year over the next decade thanks to online retailers like Amazon and big box stores like Wal-Mart.

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Carmen Sisson November 20, 2015 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines content marketing, Jim De Armond, JSD Express, Mack, Mack Trucks, mDrive, Randall-Reilly, trucking industry 0

Superior Transportation CEO born to drive a Mack

Superior Transportation CEO with Mack truck

Superior Transportation CEO Pat Barber has been a Mack enthusiast his entire life, so it was natural for him to choose Mack equipment to power his fleet. He’s proud of his company’s reputation for superior service transporting high profile, challenging cargo and credits his professional drivers and top-of-the-line Mack equipment for this success.

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Carmen Sisson October 14, 2015 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines content marketing, Mack Trucks, North Charleston, Pat Barber, Randall-Reilly, South Carolina, Superior Transportation, trucking industry 0

From blue lines to baked goods, people support police

Armed with little more than blue spray paint, reflective tape, and goodwill, the grassroots Safe Harbor Initiative, which started in Texas, is one of dozens of ways private citizens are showing public support for local law enforcement in an effort to counter negative sentiment.

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Carmen Sisson September 29, 2015 October 11, 2015Recent Bylines Christian Science Monitor, Columbia, Mississippi, police, Safe Harbor Initiative 0

Mack Trucks drive Hollywood Feed’s pet product success

Hollywood Feed focuses exclusively on premium products for dogs and cats, with more than 40 stores in five states – Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. They expect to build 20 new stores in 2016.

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Carmen Sisson September 15, 2015 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines content marketing, Hollywood Feed, Mack Trucks, Memphis, pets, Randall-Reilly, Tennessee 0

Mississippi Gulf Coast: 10 yrs after Katrina

Mary and Thomas Robinson

New condominiums are flanked by vacant lots festooned with faded “For Sale” signs. On some properties, a chimney or staircase tells the story of what was once there, while others hold no clues beyond the concrete slab Katrina left behind. And even these are beginning to disappear as the earth reclaims itself, burying the past beneath impenetrable layers of mud and tangled weeds.

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Carmen Sisson August 29, 2015 October 14, 2018Recent Bylines Bay Saint Louis, Biloxi, Christian Science Monitor, Gulf Coast, hurricane, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, Mississippi, Pass Christian 0

Big M is for Massengill, Mississippi, Mack

At Big M Transportation, everyone from the leadership team to the drivers is smiling lately. The family-owned business is growing rapidly, and they appear to be on track for another profitable year thanks to key investments in new equipment and top-notch personnel.

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Carmen Sisson August 5, 2015 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines content marketing, Mississippi, Randall-Reilly, truckers, trucking industry 0

Can churches lead on racial harmony?

Bob Flayhart and Alton Hardy

“For those on the outside looking in, they’re seeing that the churches can’t even come together,” says Urban Hope member Dion Watts. “That’s something that has been a Goliath – a huge stumbling block. If we can come together on this, the message it will send to the rest of the world will be profound.”

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Carmen Sisson August 1, 2015 July 2, 2016Recent Bylines African-American, Alabama, Birmingham, Christian Science Monitor, Civil Rights, faith, racism, religion 0

Why Southern writers still captivate

The quest for storytelling remains strong in the South. “People grew up with it around them,” Mr. Prunty says. “It’s handed down; it’s a tradition you grow up in. It’s a complex part of the country with many things that have gone quite well and many that have caused thoughtful people to ask questions about themselves. When you start questioning your own backyard, you’re more apt to produce good literature.”

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Carmen Sisson July 5, 2015 July 2, 2016Recent Bylines Christian Science Monitor, Mississippi, Oxford, Southern writers, writing 0

Family pride fuels six decades of growth at Comcar

Mark Bostick always knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. He learned the trucking industry at the knee of his father, who worked long hours building what would eventually become Comcar Industries. By the time Mark was 14, he was washing trucks and trailers and learning the ins and outs of the company he would someday own.

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Carmen Sisson April 16, 2015 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines Comcar, content marketing, Florida, Mack Trucks, Randall-Reilly, trucking industry 0

Hawbaker builds third generation of growth

You’re on a Pennsylvania highway, wheel-to-wheel with muddy, salt-crusted trucks. And then, a pristine, gleaming red Mack dump truck bursts into view. If you’re from the Keystone State, then you know you’ve just spotted one of the Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. trucks.

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Carmen Sisson April 16, 2015 January 6, 2018Content Marketing, Recent Bylines construction, content marketing, Hawbaker, Mack, Mack Trucks, Pennsylvania, Randall-Reilly, State College 0
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