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.
Magazine
Issue 52, Winter 2006
Winter Reading Issue
“And this, dear readers, is where [we] failed you. If we had designated ‘Coal Miner Mother’ a fiction, our ‘only’ blunder would have been that we were duped by a pen name—a fate shared by so many other publications.” — Marc Smirnoff, in an apology for publishing J.T. Leroy
Fiction Daniel Alarcón, John Holman, Chris Bachelder, and Stephanie Powell Watts. Profiles of Kevin Brockmeier, Natasha Trethewey, Ron Rash, and others emerging writers.
Contributors include Paul Reyes, Will Blythe, Susan Straight, Diane Roberts, Melissa King, and others.
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS
Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff
Gone Off Up North:
Infinite Juice
by Roy Blount, Jr.
Local Fare:
Let Us Now Praise Fabulous Cooks
by John T. Edge
OA Gallery:
The paintings of Stan Rice, poet
Obsessions:
Unmentionable
by Andrew Hudgins
Work:
The Interview Queen
by Melissa King
In Florida:
The Pleasure Domes of Florida
by Diane Roberts
OA Comix:
Confessions of a Hardened Book Festival Attendee
by James Whorton, Jr. & Peter Bagge
Family:
The Secret of Secrets
by Beth Ann Fennelly
Sports:
The Art of Hatred
by Will Blythe
Private History:
THE NOT-SO-GENTLE LADY OF VIRGINIA
by Roger L. Tarr
Books
Amid the Swirling Ghosts
by William Caverlee
Writing on Writing:
The Rebellion Continues, at least in the Southern Short Story
by Alan Gurganus
Writing on Writing:
Hearing Voices
by Susan Straight
Dealer’s Choice:
A City of the Mind
by Hal Crowther
Southern Scenes:
Shelby Foote (1916-2005)
FEATURES
OA Forum:
Emerging Writers
According to some mighty Southern writers, the future of Dixie fiction looks bright.
Blue Yodel of a Wayfaring Stranger
Poems that evoke the “great quiet bumming of the soul at night” and dreamlike visions.
poetry by Frank Stanford, with an introduction by C.D. Wright
Secondhand Sublime
Touring Tennessee with artist Wayne White, whose landscape paintings are wordier than any you’ve seen before.
by Paul Reyes
WINTER FICTION
Mattress: A Timeline
Can a used mattress topple a relationship?
a story by Chris Bachelder
Unassigned Territory
In the rural South, some folks don’t appreciate a Jehovah’s Witness at the door.
A story by Stephanie Powell Watts
The Naked Eye
Families will both disappoint and rescue you.
A story by John Holman
Nancy
After she abandons you, is there anything left?
A story by Daniel Alarcón
POETRY
The Ineffable, by Thom Ward
Destination, by Benjamin Pryor
Barber St., by Jeff Fallis
The Russian Novel, by Billy Collins
Cover: Abigail Vona, author of Bad Girl. Photograph by Amy Guip.