Where Southern Soul Meets Memphis Magic
Explore our exclusive collaboration with La Panthère Studio, featuring the Memphis Music Issue + Vinyl LP, Limited Edition Southern Music Tee, and the Rhythm & Soul Tarot Deck!
Explore our exclusive collaboration with La Panthère Studio, featuring the Memphis Music Issue + Vinyl LP, Limited Edition Southern Music Tee, and the Rhythm & Soul Tarot Deck!
“Our charge is to share important, moving stories with you, our readers, from a region that is still oft-overlooked and maligned,” writes editor Eliza Borné in an introduction to this issue, which marks the Oxford American’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
Some highlights: An excerpt from Jesmyn Ward’s forthcoming novel; photographs by Jack Spencer; a previously unpublished poem by Margaret Walker, with an introduction by Kiese Laymon; an examination of Guy Davenport by Brian Blanchfield; Rien Fertel on the Mardi Gras flambeaux carriers—and much more.
Editor’s Letter: Truth in Stories, by Eliza Borné
Straighten Up and Fly Right, a story by Glenn Taylor
Black Fences, by Linda B. Blackford
Palm Beach Van Dyck, by Nicole Pasulka
Snarly Pete on the Ramparts, by Ed McClanahan
Witness, three micro-memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly
This Land, photographs by Jack Spencer
Preservation, by C. Morgan Babst
Local Fare: On Crawfish Boats and Taco Baskets, by John T. Edge
BTW, by Peter Cooley
The Confession, by Morri Creech
Breaking, by George Ella Lyon
Darkling, I listen—, by Safiya Sinclair
An Elegiac Valedictory
Celebrating “a dozen wonderful writers”
by Margaret Walker
Introduction by Kiese Laymon
A Town Under Trial
What an unsolved double murder in Kentucky reveals about America’s military-industrial complex
by Nick Tabor
THE YEAR OF THE HEAVY MOON
Seeking joy in a time of despair
by Michelle García
The Keepers of the Light
Mardi Gras’s flambeaux: a complicated history
by Rien Fertel
Flayed
a story by Jesmyn Ward
Excerpted from Sing, Unburied, Sing
Wayne Hall 0.1
Mystic art assembled from Corsicana’s dross
by David Searcy
Coming Up with Guy Davenport
A long-ago letter, a lifelong fascination, a longing appreciation
by Brian Blanchfield
Cooking with Chris:
Chicken Cordon Blue Bloods
by Chris Offutt
Art by: Jack Spencer, Rose Marie Cromwell, Ansen Seale, Rachel Boillot, Ben Nixon, Lee Deigaard, Ralph Wolfe Cowan, Linda Foard Roberts, Guy Mendes, Frank Relle, William Widmer, Carl Van Vechten, Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Tamara Reynolds, Alma Thomas, Vincent Valdez, Skip Bolen, Noel Camardo, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Andy Kropa
Cover: “Starfall,” St. Augustine, Florida (2008), by Jack Spencer, from This Land