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Issue 97, Summer 2017

The Oxford American’s twenty-fifth anniversary continues with the magazine’s 97th issue, presenting a collection of powerful and surprising stories and images by more than thirty-five writers and artists. For the second year in a row, the magazine’s summer issue contains a themed “Southern Journeys” section, with essays and dispatches from across the region.

Contributors include: Jesmyn Ward, Jamie Quatro, Harrison Scott Key, Michael Parker, John O’Connor, and Roger D. Hodge. Plus: short stories from rising fiction writers Van Diamondfinger and Gothataone Moeng—and much more.

Editor’s Letter: Taking Off, by Eliza Borné

POINTS SOUTH

The Hellhound of Boligee, by Harrison Scott Key

Concession, a story by Michael Parker

The Soft Things, by Holly Haworth

Documenting Blodgett Homes, by Sarah Stacke
Photographs by Johanne Rahaman

The Domestic Front, a story by Van Diamondfinger

Local Fare: An Active Authenticity, by John T. Edge

POETRY

Four Poems
by Traci Brimhall

Ecce Homo, He Says, And I Do

If That Diamond Ring Don’t Shine

If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing

Lullaby at 102º

SOUTHERN JOURNEYS

The Beautiful Hunt
Unwalled at the end of the world
by Anne Gisleson

Georgetown One Stop
Searching for no end of fish
by John O’Connor

A Disappearing Pile of Sand
Is it too late for the Outer Banks?
by Molly McArdle

Speed Away
This, too, is holy
by Jamie Quatro

Set Forth
Thumbing with the founder of the Great Hitchhiking Race
by Joel Finsel

FEATURES

Cut
A story by Jesmyn Ward

Cowboys and Indians
An errant boyhood in the Texas borderlands
by Roger D. Hodge

Botalaote Hill
A story by Gothataone Moeng

OMNIVORE

After Oranges
Following John McPhee to Florida
by Wyatt Williams

Cooking with Chris:
Magic Banana
by Chris Offutt

Art by: Cheryl Kelley, Milli Apelgren, Robbie McClaran, Tatum Shaw, Tori Tinsley, Ysabel LeMay, Allison V. Smith, Sally Gall, Johanne Rahaman, David Trautrimas, Mary Parisi, Melissa Bonin, Kristen M. Williams, David Andrews, Maude Clay, Larry Fink, Roger D. Hodge, Meleko Mokgosi, Alex Catt, Lucas Blalock

Cover: “Cutlass with iPod” (2012), by Cheryl Kelley, cherylkelley.com