COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff

South Toward Home:
Billy Shakespeare: Southern Man 
by Warwick Sabin

Dealer’s Choice:
Bible Belt Blues
by Hal Crowther

I Don’t Hate It!:
God's Little Wiseacre
by Jack Pendarvis

Local Fare:
Rant with Collards
by John T. Edge

Writers on Dating:
Like (Love!) in Mississippi
by Elizabeth Kaiser

The Sickness, the Dinosaurs, Baby Dan, and the Swollen Hand 
by Mike Powell

Art:
Cruising the Glory Roads
by Diane Roberts

The Best Painter of Anything on Earth
by Steve Almond

Southern Lit:
Kissing the Buddha 
by John Oliver Hodges

Travel:
The Rapture of the Deep
by Bronwen Dickey

After the Storm
by Carolyn Mikulencak

Writing on Writing
by Beth Rudolph

Books

by Alexander Provan
by Eric Reece
by J.B. Slogan
by Kevin Brockmeier
by William Caverlee

POETRY

My Mother Says Tahmarah, by Laura Richardson

What We Call This Frog Hunting, by Jane Springer

Local Weather, by Peter Cooley

Men in Macon, by Jimmy Gieselman

Meeting Karen White, Descendant of Jefferson's Gardener Wormley, by Tess Taylor

FEATURES

The Best Party Ever
But what's wrong with Mama?
a story by Cary Holladay

Last Summer
I had no fantasy life. Maybe I needed one.
a story by John Brandon

We Are Taking Only What We Need 
Our new, white babysitter quickly became the subtext to all of our talks and speculations.
a story by Stephanie Powell Watts

Ridin' Dirty Face
The Train Photography of Mike Brodie
by Wes Enzinna

ODES: BEST OF THE SOUTH 2012

An Old Hot Rod, by Drew Bratcher

The Best Place to Buy a Uniform, by Michael Parker

An Outlandish Gumbo, by Sara Roahen

The Blood Bank Cats, by Megan Mayhew Bergman

An Orange, by Jonathan Rabb

Not Falling, by Kate Sweeney

A Mississippi Patrolman, by Josh Weil

An Outhouse, by Sarah Courteau

Vdeo Crack, by Jennifer S. Davis

Cover: “Double Self Portrait” by Gary Bolding