The air conditioning wetted a heavy fog on the window panes. The grass outside was dewed, soggy. I yearned to lie on a beach and let the sun roast the outer layer of my skin, to burn off the last two years of my life and peel away the hope I had for a future life with certain people and certain places, a kind of christening. 

(via Oxford American | The Book of Flowers)

I’m proud that we have fashioned, over the past few years and multiple forms of media, a body of work that has chronicled and illuminated the Black roots, and future, of country. If Black country is having a moment because of Beyoncé, we are here like always to guide and probe and make the necessary connections. To reveal antecedents and carve out a pathway for a future in which we’re all able to shine our brightest, sing our loudest.

(via Oxford American | Black Country: A Love Letter and Living Archive)

At nineteen, Cory Jones moved from New Hampshire to Georgia and found comfort in the punk rock scene. Surrounded by some of the freshest sounds in Southern punk—including bands like Upchuck, Ladrones, and The Sporrs—Jones put his camera to work and, over five years, photographed the misfit musicians inhabiting Atlanta, specifically the East Atlanta area, who provided the soundtrack to his newfound life in the city. At the same time, he also found solace in the quiet, mellower moments afforded by his slow-paced Southern landscape. In his new series “The Kids Will Be All Right,” Jones collects a set of black-and-white photographs that exist on the border of calm and chaos. By pairing stoic portraits and images of neighborhood landmarks with unfiltered rock & roll realism, Jones captures the emotional seesaw of one’s early twenties, with all its noise, beauty, and downbeats in between.

(via Oxford American | Loud Quiet Loud)

Donna Tartt: An OA Retrospective

Oxford American has been a window to the American South for over a quarter-century and has racked up quite a roster of contributing authors and artists. So, why not feature some of our past and present OA contributors whose work has proved foundational to the story of our magazine? First up, Donna Tartt, an audacious literary figure who has found a new generation of ardent readers with the surge of “dark academia” aesthetics on the internet. 

Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, Tartt has always connected intimately to the South. She is perhaps best known for her debut novel, 1992’s The Secret History. Her sophomore effort, The Little Friend (2002), took readers on a journey into the heart of a Southern family grappling with an unsolved murder. Over a decade later, she returned with The Goldfinch (2013), which earned her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Tartt first attended Ole Miss, where her talent caught the eye of Willie Morris, another OA contributor and venerable Southern literary figure. Morris would serve as a friend and mentor for years to come.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what exactly is dark academia? In a 2023 article for English Studies, Prof. Simone Murray concisely defined it as a “vibrant online subculture centered upon readers’ performances of bookishness.” Think leather-bound books, neogothic architecture, and tweed jackets. Tartt’s The Secret History could be considered a sacred text. Although Tartt attended Ole Miss and Bennington College in the 1980s (and writes of that era), the narrative has struck a chord with younger generations over thirty years later. Case in point: #DarkAcademia has over 2.3 million posts on Instagram and over 5.2 billion views on TikTok. 

And yet, some of Tartt’s contemporary fans probably have no idea of the treasure trove that is the OA archives! Here is a list of the various Tartt contributions featured in our issues. Do you have these on your shelf? 

Issue 2: Basketball Season: Requiem of a Mississippi Cheerleader Issue 4: “True Crime” (poem)  Issue 6: In Melbourne Issue 11: Murder & Imagination Issue 26: The Belle and the Lady Issue 29: Tribute: Willie Morris Issue 30: Spirituality in the Modern Novel Issue 41: Spanish Grandeur in Mississippi Issue 72: Tribute: Barry Hannah

“Black artists must routinely contend with the pervasiveness of the white gaze within their works. That gaze seems to require they produce work that tells us something about racism or the legacies of slavery or the violence brought against Black bodies etc., etc.” - Tyler Isaiah Campbell (via Oxford American | Tammie Rubin’s Counter-Cartography)

“Rose Marie Cromwell goes where she is led then lingers. She takes her time.” — Kamille D. Whittaker interviews Cromwell, a photo and video artist whose work explores the effects of globalization on human interaction and social politics, for “Flash of the Spirit” in the 2024 Southern Art Issue.  (via Oxford American | The Threads of Time and Place)

Song Review: Dom Flemons - “The Final Gift”

If Bob Dylan was in the sea-shanty business, the results would likely sound much like Dom Flemons’ “The Final Gift.”

The nearly seven-minute solo-acoustic tells the tale of lovers parted - and reunited by - death.

All verses with no chorus, “The Final Gift” is like a novella in song, but with no happy ending.

It takes a few spins to sink in, but once it does, “The Final Gift” shows off Flemons’ literary skills more than his uncanny musical aptitude.

And that seems to be the point, as the song was commissioned by The Oxford American magazine for its Ballads Issue, on newsstands Dec. 5.

Grade card: Dom Flemons - “The Final Gift” - B

11/4/23

i feel so normal about her

read here: https://oxfordamerican.org/authors/julien-baker

Jason Kyle Howard, "If God Had a Name," (on Joan Osborne's "One of Us") in Oxford American (2020)

Years ago we in the South made our women into ladies. Then the war came and turned them into ghosts. So what else can we do, being gentlemen, but listen to them being ghosts?

Absalom Absalom!  (via thecarmanita)

The Southern writer can out write anybody in the country because he has the Bible and a little history.

Flannery O'Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)

In "Living on the Hyphen," Sarah Menkedick praises the complexity of Spanglish, giving insight into the multifaceted lives of those who are "expert jugglers of contrasting cultures and identities, code-switchers extraordinaire, fluently bilingual and bicultural." You can find the story online or in your Fall 2014 issue! pc: "Recurring Storm," Greely Myatt #oxfordamerican #OAmag #livingonthehyphen #fall2014 #southernlit

Introducing the Spring 2016 issue!! Editor Eliza Borné writes, "The OA has always published vital, important stories—from the borderlands, the Gulf Coast, Appalachia, and many locales in between. Our writers continue to thrill me with their creativity and craft." This issue features poetry by C.D. Wright, Alex Mar's tale of genealogy, the photography of Richard Leo Johnson, and much, much more! Subscribe, visit your local bookstore, or click the link in our bio to purchase a copy online! #OAmag #oxfordamerican #spring2016 (at Oxford American)

Come by for a free glass of wine and listen to our editors' favorite CDs from past music issues & grab a copy of old (& NEW) issues! #oxfordamerican #buylocal #oamag #buylittlerock #soma #somadistrict #4thfriday (at Oxford American)

Mess with Willie Nelson and the next thing you’ll see is the wrong end of a gun held by the devil himself, Robert Paul English. #willienelson Read this one online at OxfordAmerican.org.

Didn't you hear? The OA has a new website! If you share news of the new OxfordAmerican.org using the hashtag #NewOA, you'll be entered to win an OA gift package! Contest ends Feb. 15.