Looking for Southern Women, the new book by Garden & Gun? Read about it and order it here. For too long, the Southern woman has been synonymous with the Southern belle—a soft gauzy stereotype that personified the “moonlight and magnolias” myth of the region. A romanticized version that gets nowhere close to describing the strong, richly diverse women who have thrived because of—and in some cases, despite of—the South.

Garden & Gun’s August/September issue showcases ten such awe-inspiring, risk-taking, big-dreaming, barrier-breaking, soul-baring, freewheeling Southern women, a preview to Garden & Gun’s forthcoming book on the same topic in 2019. Decade by decade—from six-year-old bookworm Daliyah Arana to ninety-five-year-old legendary chef Leah Chase—these ten women share a lifetime’s worth of triumph, grit, and grace.

Click below to read more about each

of these inspiring Southern women.