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Oxford American
About
From the editors of the Oxford American.
Articles
Faces of Faulkner
Five artists depict the Southern literature icon William Faulkner.
By Oxford American
Bill Clinton’s Favorite Songs
The former president’s passion for music doesn’t stop at jamming with B.B. King.
By Oxford American
The Best Southern Nonfiction of All Time
By Oxford American
The Best Southern Novels of All Time
By Oxford American
Underrated Books
By Oxford American
Georgia Music Issue CD Track List
By Oxford American
The Music of Georgia
By Oxford American
Travels Through Space and Time
By Oxford American
Visions of the Blues
By Oxford American
Kentucky Music Issue CD Track List
By Oxford American
The Music of Kentucky
By Oxford American
Writing on Writing
By Oxford American
The Music of North Carolina
By Oxford American
A Hometown Kind of Thing
By Oxford American
The Music of South Carolina
By Oxford American
Up South Music Credits
We are grateful to the artists and song rights holders who worked with our fee structures and, with their creativity, enrich our lives daily. We have credited them here.
By Oxford American
Country Roots Music Credits
We are grateful to the artists and song rights holders who worked with our fee structures and, with their creativity, enrich our lives daily. We have credited them here.
By Oxford American
On Jubilee: A Juneteenth Series
A web-first edition of food, film, and visual art on the traditions of jubilee
By Oxford American
2016: THE YEAR IN STORIES
In February 2016, the Oxford American received a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. As we look ahead to 2017—and the OA ’s twenty-fifth anniversary—we are revisiting just a few of many...
By Oxford American
2017: THE YEAR IN STORIES
We celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary year by doing what we’ve always done: publish the groundbreaking fiction—three excerpts from Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award–winning novel, Sing,...
By Oxford American
ALL THAT POSSIBILITY
One evening in Nashville, a man walks down the railroad tracks, singing, and his voice rolls through the heavy air. In Meridian, Mississippi, a child runs barefoot in dry grass, chasing lightning...
By Oxford American
Announcing the Ballads Issue
The 25th annual music issue will celebrate ballads as a vessel for Southern storytelling and sentimentality.
By Oxford American
ANNOUNCING THE KENTUCKY MUSIC ISSUE
Announcing the Oxford American ’s 19th Music Issue. In 2017, we are returning to the state series. And we are thrilled to announce that it’s your turn, Kentucky.
By Oxford American
Auspicious OA Debuts 2021
New and notable bylines from the past year.
By Oxford American
BETTER NOT LOOK DOWN
Remembering B.B. King. Many wonderful anecdotes from King’s long, prolific life have been told in our pages through the years, from the moment in 1948 when he arrived unannounced at Memphis’s WDIA,...
By Oxford American
BRIGHT FIELDS
This fall, two historic exhibitions—and a squirrel recount—have our attention. “I find that people who live close to the earthly, fundamental things usually have more character in their faces,” said...
By Oxford American
CHEERS TO "COOKING WITH CHRIS"
Cue the bourbon toast—the Oxford American is proud to be nominated for a 2015 National Magazine Award: Chris Offutt’s irreverent “cooking” column is a finalist in the Columns...
By Oxford American
Country Roots Recs
Check in weekly for new album recommendations and playlists from OA editors and staff!
By Oxford American
CRAMMING
Lately, the editors have enjoyed the latest issue of VQR, a knockout; listened to the music of Daniel Martin Moore, a Commonwealth of Kentucky Nick Drake; and spoken with Karan Mahajan and Garth...
By Oxford American
Seven Down with Simon Marotte
It is by no means predictable—on some occasions, I spend hours researching to generate ideas; on others, a theme comes to me in my sleep.
By Oxford American
DEFYING THE REGIONAL LABEL
Yesterday, the Washington Post ’s Book World editor, Ron Charles, applauded the Oxford American ’s Spring 2017 issue (which hits newsstands today) and joined us in celebrating...
By Oxford American
ELIZA BORNÉ NAMED EDITOR
We are pleased to announce that Eliza Borné is the new editor of the Oxford American, succeeding Roger D. Hodge, who left the magazine in June.
By Oxford American
Fall Film Issue Cover Reveal
The 122nd issue is a journey through the multifaceted relationships we share with cinema.
By Oxford American
FRENZY TO SOLEMNITY
It’s humid in Alabama. On a makeshift sandlot pitcher’s mound, a lanky kid begins his wind-up to the tune of a song he alone can hear. It’s a lilting number, chaotic and beautiful, clarinets and...
By Oxford American
FROM COUNTRY TO CITY
The Oxford American has been nominated for a 2017 National Magazine Award: Zandria F. Robinson’s essay “ Listening for the Country ” is a finalist in the Essays and Criticism category.
By Oxford American
GLOBES OF QUIET PAIN
It’s nighttime in Mississippi. A bluegrass legend, alone in the hills, rolls into a familiar lick, catches a wrong note, winces, and sighs a hot, whiskey breath. Letters between lost friends float...
By Oxford American
GRANDMAMA, OUTKAST, STANK
Kiese Laymon reads from his essay “Da Art of Storytellin’ (A Prequel)” from the Oxford American ’s Georgia Music Issue.
By Oxford American
HUMANITY OVER STYLE
Fog settles over the Ozarks. A car, winding through the hills, stops short—a mountain lion is slinking across the road, in patient, determined pursuit. Southward, in Little Rock, a group of Southern...
By Oxford American
INFAMOUS ANGEL
In August, Iris DeMent will release her sixth album, The Trackless Woods , a collection of songs based on eighteen poems written by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966). The...
By Oxford American
INTERNALIZING
This week, our departing interns offer their recommendations for our readers, including a book that upends preconceptions, a band that performs rarely, and a story of death, birth, and donkey...
By Oxford American
INTERVALS OF EXPECTATION
It’s raining in the Piedmont. A group of poets clink glasses in mutual congratulation. A father and son listen, with hunched shoulders, around an old phonograph. Pages of a burning journal smolder in...
By Oxford American
Introducing the Country Roots Music Issue
The 24th annual music issue will celebrate the radiant essence of “countrified” sound.
By Oxford American
INTRODUCING THE FALL 2017 ISSUE
The Fall 2017 issue of the Oxford American is on newsstands nationwide today.
By Oxford American
INTRODUCING THE FALL ISSUE
This issue includes “The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy,” a radical libretto by Nikky Finney ; a profile of a transgender drug counselor who lives on the border of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, by...
By Oxford American
JAMIE QUATRO & MEGAN MAYHEW BERGMAN
One of the central themes of Megan Mayhew Bergman’s fiction concerns the varying identities that people—especially women—worry over, the personas they adopt and adapt for their own purposes. In her...
By Oxford American
LEE ANN WOMACK SINGS "CHANCES ARE"
"Some country songs sound like they have simply always existed," Rick Clark wrote of Hayes Carll's "Chances Are" in the liner notes of our Texas Music Issue CD. Lee Ann Womack's version of the song,...
By Oxford American
MARY & FRIENDS 2015
In May, Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson loaded up a tour bus in Nashville with some of their songwriting friends and headed to Little Rock for a night of food and drink and music in the round.
By Oxford American
Top Stories of 2021
As we head into a new year, we’re looking back at the top stories of 2021.
By Oxford American
NORWOOD AT FIFTY
This week the editors are looking ahead at the 50th anniversary of Charles Portis's first novel, Norwood .
By Oxford American
NOW AM FOUND
A video supplement to Once Was Lost , a collaboration between photographer Richard Leo Johnson and poet C. D. Wright from our Spring issue, featuring Forrest Gander.
By Oxford American
OA’s Fall Reading List
This fall, we asked a few of these contributors to share some of their favorite works by Southern writers. We hope these recommendations see you through the change in seasons.
By Oxford American
OBSESSED, UNKNOWN
A collector ambles down to his basement, tripping on boxes packed with rabid miscellany. He hears Julien Baker’s “Blacktop” wilting from the turntable in the living room. Somewhere on the highway, a...
By Oxford American
OMNIVORE
A vibrant literary magazine ought to not only fuel the culture, but should have something to say about it, too.
By Oxford American
OUR 18TH MUSIC ISSUE & CD
Highlights from the Oxford American ’s 18th Music Issue: “Visions of the Blues.” Across the 160-page magazine and 23-song CD compilation, we’re celebrating one of the South’s greatest...
By Oxford American
OUR FALL 2016 ISSUE
Highlights from our Fall 2016 issue.
By Oxford American
OUR SUMMER 2017 ISSUE
Highlights from Issue 97.
By Oxford American
OVERDRESSED, ADRIFT
It’s springtime on the Plains. A group of writers mill nervously around a brightly lit bar. A woman stalks dusty library shelves, scanning names on the canvas spines. Somewhere in Florida, a...
By Oxford American
OXFORD AMERICAN RECEIVES $20,000 ART WORKS GRANT
Today, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $20,000 to the ...
By Oxford American
OXFORD AMERICAN’S 2018 NORTH CAROLINA MUSIC ISSUE CELEBRATION
The Oxford American magazine’s celebration of its twentieth annual Southern Music issue, this year featuring North Carolina , will be held Monday, November 26 –...
By Oxford American
PASS AMONG THE LIVING
Dusk falls in the city. In a small and dimly lit corner bar, a jazz collective tunes up their horns, preparing to combust rhythms into the night. A man, trying to find the club on Google Maps, stops...
By Oxford American
PRE-ORDER THE SOUTH CAROLINA MUSIC ISSUE
NASA astronaut Ronald McNair is the cover star of the 21st Annual Southern Music Issue & Sampler featuring South Carolina!
By Oxford American
Pushcart Prize XLVII Nominations
The Oxford American is thrilled to announce our Pushcart Prize XLVII nominations, representing an electric range of essays, short stories, and experimental works from 2021.
By Oxford American
Remembering Charles Portis
Revisiting the life and work of Charles Portis
By Oxford American
Remembering Cormac McCarthy
McCarthy’s literary contribution is a shorthand and reference point for American fiction of the late 20th century.
By Oxford American
SCATTERED LEGACIES
It’s sunny in California. A thousand poets spin around each other, singing their verses into each others’ ears while spectators, smiling, sip their cocktails. Back in the South, a painter touches up...
By Oxford American
SERVICE AND LABOR
Please join us in congratulating our colleague Rebecca Gayle Howell, whose new collection American Purgatory is a powerful book offering a hope in community that shares struggle and defiance.
By Oxford American
SO HOW WE SEEM
The sun is going down in New Orleans. A man turns onto Frenchman Street, putting out a cigarette on the old brick sidewalk. He hears laughter coming from inside a bar. Nearby, a local bookstore owner...
By Oxford American
SOMETHING’S COMING
The moon shines over the Delta. A poet wanders home in the dark, her shadow extended by a streetlamp that flickers on, then off again. Alone in a bar, a young detective scratches hasty notes. She...
By Oxford American
SOUTHERN JOURNEYS
Roll down the road and the rails and a river this summer with stories of humanity on the move that are summery and light, lyrical and meditative.
By Oxford American
Spring 2023 Issue Hits Newsstands March 28
With new short fiction, literary and musical criticism, and collection of fine art, the spring issue breathes deeply and emerges hopeful.
By Oxford American
Staff Recs: Ballads
Check in weekly for new Ballad recommendations from OA editors and staff!
By Oxford American
SUPPORT THE OXFORD AMERICAN
On April 7, 2016, the Oxford American will participate in ArkansasGives, a twelve-hour online giving event hosted by the Arkansas Community Foundation. We hope that our readers—all you...
By Oxford American
THE BOURBON AND THE THREAD
It’s midnight in Kentucky. A man sits at a desk, pecking at an ancient Apple I computer; the light’s still on in the basement. Somewhere a juke box is playing “A Feather’s Not A Bird,” by Rosanne...
By Oxford American
THE FICTION ISSUE
Our new issue includes ten short stories—and they are all, in their individual ways, love stories. This week we celebrate the release of our Fiction Issue and bid a fond farewell to editor Roger...
By Oxford American
THE GEORGIA MUSIC ISSUE
From the country blues to early jazz to gospel, soul, metal, rock & roll, hip-hop, and beyond—there isn’t a corner of American music the people of this state haven’t made their own.
By Oxford American
THE GEORGIA MUSIC ISSUE IS COMING
From now until December, we’re offering a series of special offers through PledgeMusic : limited-edition Georgia Music issue posters, t-shirts, and more.
By Oxford American
THE HYSTERICAL SOCIETY
An exclusive premiere from Rachel Grimes’s new album, The Way Forth. During the emotional process of moving her parents into nursing homes some years back, Grimes and her brother became the executors...
By Oxford American
THE MAN WITH THE KEYS
Writers reflect on Charles Portis He was the real thing, but he was modest about it. An awestruck fan meeting him by chance in a Little Rock bar named the Faded Rose gushed at him, praising him as a...
By Oxford American
THE MONKEY PALACE AND OTHER ITEMS FROM GEORGIA
Even as we approach deadline for our Spring 2016 issue, we feel we still have one foot back in Georgia, where we spent so much time and energy producing our music issue last year.
By Oxford American
THE OXFORD AMERICAN WELCOMES TWO NEW STAFF MEMBERS
The Oxford American Literary Project is thrilled to welcome two new key staff members: managing editor Danielle A. Jackson and development director Adrienne Anderson .
By Oxford American
THE WORK OF BUILDING AN ALTOGETHER NEW WORLD
Oxford American writers have long chronicled police brutality, racial injustice, and inequality. They have also centered Black excellence and joy. This week, we share a few masterworks that...
By Oxford American
THE YEAR IN STORIES
This year saw numerous milestones for the Oxford American , but nothing stands out more than the stories we were fortunate enough to publish. Here are just a few of many highlights from the...
By Oxford American
THINGS HAVE CHANGED
This week, the editors are listening to Chris Maxwell and Brandy Clark; dreaming of Appalachian cuisine; and remembering The Greatest.
By Oxford American
Introducing the Up South Music Issue
Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin cover the Up South Music Issue
By Oxford American
UP NEAR THE SKY
It’s snowing in the South. A woman rises early, looks out her window at the sheets of ice, and then, smiling, falls back into bed. In an apartment down the hall, Stephen Curry highlights play on TV,...
By Oxford American
Up South Soundtrack
Check in for new album recs and playlists from OA staff and contributors
By Oxford American
WALKING IN THE MIST
The sun rises over the mountains. A young girl wakes up and pads to the kitchen, where a pot of coffee has been left alone to brew. A plane passes close overhead. Out on the deck, a frayed hammock...
By Oxford American
WE DID IT!
For the first time in our 24-year history, the Oxford American brought home a National Magazine Award in General Excellence!
By Oxford American
WELCOME TO OUR NEW ONLINE HOME
The staff of the Oxford American is delighted to welcome you to the new OxfordAmerican.org. The website, built by Little Rock's Pixel Perfect Creative , has been reorganized...
By Oxford American
WHAT IS A MOUND?
Hancock’s universe is so detailed and varied that we had trouble narrowing our selection to just the five pieces we published in the Spring issue. Here, enjoy more of the Austin-based artist’s work,...
By Oxford American
Oxford American Named Whiting Foundation Literary Magazine Prize Recipient
By Oxford American
WIDENING THE FIELD
We now turn the Notebook over to our summer interns, who leave us today. Thank you for all your hard work! May you never again see a straight quote without flinching.
By Oxford American
WRITE TO THE OXFORD AMERICAN
We would like to hear from you. The magazine will begin publishing letters to the editor in the fall issue and going forward. If you would like to respond to a story...
By Oxford American