This Spring, the OA will focus on food.
Through fresh reporting, in-depth profiles, and daring personal essays, this issue will explore what we eat: people, industries, and tastes that both build and challenge our ideas of Southern food.
Through fresh reporting, in-depth profiles, and daring personal essays, this issue will explore what we eat: people, industries, and tastes that both build and challenge our ideas of Southern food.
“Irony is a secret pleasure.” — Hal Crowther, “Dealer’s Choice”
A Painted House by John Grisham, the finale. Essays by Frank Beacham and Marianne Gingher. Fiction Jean Ross Justice. Poetry by Claude Wilkinson and Ron Rash.
Other contributors include John T. Edge, Edward Larson, John Shelton Reed, Lauren Winner, Roy Blount Jr., Hal Crowther, and more.
Local Fare:
My Heroes Have Always Been Girl Cooks
The fascination of tough philosophers in aprons.
by John T. Edge
Memoir:
Horses and Boys
A girlhood spent in the saddle.
by Marianne Gingher
Sojourns:
Monkey Business
The Scopes Trial Festival re-creates the carnival-like atmosphere of the trial of the century.
by Edward Larson
Book Views:
The Man from New Orleans
New biographies of an artist who worked magic in his silver designs.
by John Shelton Reed
Lost Classics:
The Patriot
The historical novels of James Boyd are worthy books in a maligned genre.
by Bruce Allen
Periodicals:
Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman?
The lost world of Southern Lady magazine.
by Lauren Winner
History:
The Myth of the Great Bear Hunt
What really happened during Theodore Roosevelt’s legendary weekend in Mississippi.
by Douglas Brinkley
Family Life:
Georgia on her Mind
A grandmother in love with her memories of the South.
by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Southern Music:
World Gone Wrong
Frank Hutchison’s blues speak to the ages.
by Tom Piazza
Dealer's Choice
by Hal Crowther
Gone off up North
by Roy Blount Jr.
A Painted House
As the floodwaters rise around the Chandlers’ farm, Luke finally tells his secrets—and learns that his life is about to change irrevocably. Conclusion.
by John Grisham
Charlie's Place
The dangers of interracial dancing in the 1950s South Carolina.
by Frank Beacham
Buried Money
A twice-wed woman discovers the treasure hidden in her past.
by Jean Ross Justice
The Enduring Night, by Claude Wilkinson
Pocketknives, by Ron Rash
Cover: photo by Marry Noble Ours. Courtesy of Hemphill Fine Arts