Oxford American

Faces of Faulkner

Five artists depict the Southern literature icon William Faulkner.

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Is the South Still Gothic?

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Bill Clinton’s Favorite Songs

The former president’s passion for music doesn’t stop at jamming with B.B. King.

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The Best Southern Nonfiction of All Time

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The Best Southern Novels of All Time

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Underrated Books

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Georgia Music Issue CD Track List

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The Music of Georgia

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Travels Through Space and Time

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Visions of the Blues

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Kentucky Music Issue CD Track List

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The Music of Kentucky

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Writing on Writing

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The Music of North Carolina

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A Hometown Kind of Thing

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The Music of South Carolina

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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.

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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.

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Ballads Music Credits

Full credits for the Ballads Issue companion CD.

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The Middle Eight

Misty-eyed dreamers. Reluctant romantics. Doomed antiheroes. Heartbreakers, and the owners of the broken hearts.

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On Jubilee: A Juneteenth Series

A web-first edition of food, film, and visual art on the traditions of jubilee

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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...

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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,...

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Unpacking COWBOY CARTER

“ COWBOY CARTER is a melange of American music, rooted in the old tangle of Southern folkways and inspired by proto-rock & roll and early r&b.”

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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...

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Announcing the Ballads Issue

The 25th annual music issue will celebrate ballads as a vessel for Southern storytelling and sentimentality.

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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.

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Auspicious OA Debuts 2021

New and notable bylines from the past year.

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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,...

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Black Country: A Love Letter and Living Archive

If Black country is having a moment because of Beyoncé, we are here like always to guide and probe and make the necessary connections.

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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...

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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...

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Country Roots Recs

Check in weekly for new album recommendations and playlists from OA editors and staff!

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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...

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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.

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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...

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“Stories of Bounty and Belonging”

Jackson’s editor's letters transcend preamble, each one a short burst of literature unto itself.

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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.

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Fall Film Issue Cover Reveal

The 122nd issue is a journey through the multifaceted relationships we share with cinema.

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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...

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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.

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2024 Mid-Year Giving Campaign

Donate to win the Backyard Bliss Bundle!

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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...

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GRANDMAMA, OUTKAST, STANK

Kiese Laymon reads from his essay “Da Art of Storytellin’ (A Prequel)” from the Oxford American’s Georgia Music Issue.

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Introducing the Country Roots Music Issue

The 24th annual music issue will celebrate the radiant essence of “countrified” sound.

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INTRODUCING THE FALL 2017 ISSUE

The Fall 2017 issue of the  Oxford American is on newsstands nationwide today.

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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...

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Introducing the Memphis Music Issue

The 26th annual music issue and limited-edition vinyl will honor the Bluff City’s endless and ongoing influence on American sound.

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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...

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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,...

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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.

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Top Stories of 2021

As we head into a new year, we’re looking back at the top stories of 2021.

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NORWOOD AT FIFTY

This week the editors are looking ahead at the 50th anniversary of Charles Portis's first novel, Norwood.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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OMNIVORE

A vibrant literary magazine ought to not only fuel the culture, but should have something to say about it, too.

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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...

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OUR FALL 2016 ISSUE

Highlights from our Fall 2016 issue.

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OUR SUMMER 2017 ISSUE

Highlights from Issue 97.

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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...

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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 ...

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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 – Saturday,...

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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...

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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!

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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.

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Remembering Charles Portis

Revisiting the life and work of Charles Portis

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Remembering Cormac McCarthy

McCarthy’s literary contribution is a shorthand and reference point for American fiction of the late 20th century.

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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...

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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.

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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...

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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...

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Announcing the Southern Art Issue

The Spring 2024 Issue features explorations and contemplations on visual and functional art.

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Five Southern Film Programmers Answer Our Questions

Their answers highlight the indispensable role they play in bringing new stories to the South and sharing Southern stories with the world.

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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.

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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.

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Ballad Recs

Check in weekly for new Ballad recommendations from OA editors and staff!

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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. 

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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.

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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 feel...

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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...

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THINGS HAVE CHANGED

This week, the editors are listening to Chris Maxwell and Brandy Clark; dreaming of Appalachian cuisine; and remembering The Greatest. 

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Introducing the Up South Music Issue

Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin cover the Up South Music Issue

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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,...

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Up South Soundtrack

Check in for new album recs and playlists from OA staff and contributors

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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...

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WE DID IT!

For the first time in our 24-year history, the Oxford American brought home a National Magazine Award in General Excellence!

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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 for...

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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,...

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Oxford American Named Whiting Foundation Literary Magazine Prize Recipient

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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.

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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...

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