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Issue 64, Spring 2009

The Race Issue

This issue is devoted to a deep exploration of the complicated landscape of race in the South, including critical essays, memoir, fiction, poetry, and a publisher’s forum on the subject.

“The Struggle is a literary calling to me, if not a religion. I came of age during the Black Arts Movement and will forever consider literature an act of cultural custodianship—the maintenance and monitoring of the culture through its products, trying to extract the weaknesses and illuminate the strengths.” — Arthur Rickydoc Flowers, “Raceman”

Essays by Arthur Rickydoc Flowers, ZZ Packer, Emily Bernard, Sarah M. Brown, Lolis Eric Elie, and others. Poetry by Rita Dove.

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff

Publisher’s Forum:
A Great Debate
A discussion featuring Julian Bond, Morris Dees, Richard Thompson Ford, Vanessa Siddle Walker, and Juan Williams
by Warwick Sabin

Gone Off Up North:
Preposterous Lengths
by Roy Blount, Jr.

Local Fare:
In Through the Back Door
by John T. Edge

Meditation:
My Fear of the South
by Jerald Walker

Politics:
A Finished Revolution?
by ZZ Packer

Politics:
Obama I: Blood Dread and Hope
by Jesmyn Ward

Politics:
Obama II: Miles Traveled, Miles to Go
by Erin Aubrey Kaplan

Politics
Obama III: Rednecks for Obama
by Emily Bernard

Politics
Obama IV: On War and Election
by Ada Liana Bidiuc

Epistolary:
America's Greatest Hits
by Lolis Eric Elie

Family:
Finding Black Power
by Stephanie Powell Watts

Family:
Missing
by Sarah M. Brown

Education:
A Perfect Test
by Mike Copperman

Education:
The Future of Throwbacks
by Bill Maxwell

Travel:
Progress in the Land of the Cherokees?
by Akiva Freidlin

Dealer’s Choice:
Encounters with Angels
by Hal Crowther

FEATURES

Raceman
by Arthur Rickydoc Flowers

The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Zelwa the Halfie
A story by Randa Jarrar

The Usual Things
A story by Solon Timothy Woodward

Dream Season
A story by James Hatley

The Promise of Love
A story by John Holman

Poems
by Rita Dove

Art Gallery & Poetry
Featuring masterpieces of art and poems by
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Adrienne Su
Sean Hill
Michelle Courtney Berry
Jericho Brown
Kamilah Aisha Moon

Poem
by Ai

Cover: “Who Can Say No to a Gorgeous Brunette? 1970/2007” by Hank Willis Thomas