Growing Up Mad in the South is set in Atlanta, GA, during the 1950s and '60s, when racism, sexism, and personal salvation were lurking behind "Well bless your heart." Diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 17, the Mad narrator struggles with both her aberrant senses and righteous anger at a society that fails to value everyone. From a toddler learning language to an adolescent trying on love, she flowers into a creative adult who finds grace writing for a literary magazine in an all-girls college. With a widowed Methodist mother and a protective, Hard-Shell Baptist Granny, the narrator's upbringing is shaped by the lyrics of gospel music. Bonnie Schell manages to confront "Should," "Keep Quiet," and "White Only" with lyricism and laughter.