Issue 114, Fall 2021
The Oxford American’s Southern Literature Issue includes original short fiction by PEN/Faulkner Award winner Deesha Philyaw, as well as stories by Dawnie Walton, Mary Miller, and others. This issue also features five blues poems by the Afro-Futurist writer and Arkansas native, Henry Dumas.
Plus: West Virginia state folklorist Emily Hilliard revisits writer Breece D’J Pancake’s hometown of Milton, while S. J. Kim explores Southern Gothic themes through the poetry of Louisiana native Yusef Komunyakaa.
“This issue aims to reveal the literature of the South as prismatic and dynamic,” Danielle A. Jackson writes in her editor’s letter. “We wanted to reimagine the canon, revisit classics in new and striking ways, and introduce a new vanguard of literary adventurers, soothsayers, and prophets.”
Editor’s Letter: A Belief in Birds, by Danielle A. Jackson
POINTS SOUTH
Finding a Home Behind the Counter, by Frederick McKindra
The Faithful, a story by Allison Light
Dollhouse of Horrors, by Mary Kay McBrayer
Apple Flesh, a story by Andrew Malan Milward
Rum and Pearls, a story by Herbert Girtley Jr.
The Dock, a story by Steve Cushman
FEATURES
Outage,
A story by Mary Miller
The High Shelf,
A story by Dawnie Walton
The Guidebook to the Evaluation of Revelatory Phenomena,
A story by Jeremy Griffin
Dr. Sandman,
A story by Deesha Philyaw
POEMS
Blues Poems by Henry Dumas
Employment Blues
Concentration Camp Blues
Keep the Faith Blues
The Buster
Outer Space Blues
OMNIVORE
Something Deeply Rooted
Breece D’J Pancake’s Milton, West Virginia
by Emily Hilliard
Cutting Across Lines
Teaching Holocaust Literature in Arkansas
by Dorian Stuber
The Second Sight of Henry Dumas
Envisioning Black (Im)possibility in the U.S. South
by Carter Mathes
한년 (WOAMN, WHITE)
On Korean Drama and the New Southern Gothic
by S.J. Kim
Art by: Allison Janae Hamilton, Doron Langberg, Catherine Panebianco, Mary Kay McBrayer, Charlie Engman, Isip Xin, Madeleine Bialke, Artur Wiernicki, Lorna Simpson, Carter/Reddy, Jerrell Gibbs, David Huffman, Blanche Lazzell, Carl Hammoud, Lonnie Holley, GaHee Park