John T. Edge

John T. Edge (22 Dec, 1962 –) is a writer, commentator, and, since its founding in 1999, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He has written several books on southern food. He contributes to the Oxford American and the New York Times, and has written for Garden & Gun and Afar. He is currently writing The Potlikker Papers, a personal history of Southern food.

Education

Edge holds a master's degree in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi and an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from Goucher College.

Southern Foodways Alliance

In 1999, Edge co-founded and became the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. Every October, the Southern Foodways Alliance sponsors a symposium in Oxford, Mississippi, on American southern cuisine. Edge is one the primary organizers and the master of ceremonies for the many events, which attract several hundred attendees. The SFA also engages in oral history work, makes films, and stages other events.