Oxford American

Oxford American A quarterly literary magazine dedicated to exploring the complexity and vitality of the South. For more information, visit OxfordAmerican.org.

The Oxford American is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization and national magazine dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing, while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Billed as “A Magazine of the South,” it has won four National Magazine Awards and other high honors since it began publication in 1992. The magazine has featured the original work of such

literary powerhouses as Charles Portis, Roy Blount, Jr., ZZ Packer, Donald Harington, Donna Tartt, Ernest J. Gaines, and many other distinguished authors, while also discovering and launching the most promising writers in the region. In 2007, The New York Times stated that the Oxford American “may be the liveliest literary magazine in America.” The Oxford American is committed to the development of young individuals aspiring to work in the publishing industry, and to the production and presentation of multidisciplinary arts events in and around Little Rock, Arkansas. The Oxford American is published from the University of Central Arkansas.

“Tired of Being Tired,” by Ari Gabel, focuses on people of the Mississippi Delta. Inspired by his love for the delta blu...
03/29/2025

“Tired of Being Tired,” by Ari Gabel, focuses on people of the Mississippi Delta. Inspired by his love for the delta blues, Gabel traveled throughout the region searching for the source of this powerful genre of American music. This series was originally featured on Eyes on the South in 2013.

See more at: https://oxfordamerican.org/eyes/delta-blues

On this day in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. arrived in Memphis to lead a march through downtown. What began as a pe...
03/28/2025

On this day in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. arrived in Memphis to lead a march through downtown. What began as a peaceful demonstration quickly erupted into violence when police confronted protesters, resulting in the death of sixteen-year-old Larry Payne, injuries to 64 people, and 300 arrests. King returned to Memphis on April 3 and delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address at Mason Temple. The following afternoon, he was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

“He is everywhere,” writes Benjamin Hedin in an essay from Issue 100, “invoked by those on the right and the left to justify seemingly any action, his words pasted on memes we see as we scroll down. But at six o’clock on the evening of April 4, 1968, King was a pariah, ridiculed by black militants as the apostle of a quaint and outdated theory of nonviolence, hounded by the FBI, scorned by white Americans as a hypocrite and agitator. An hour later he was transformed, and became a saint or martyr. The fact that he was a revolutionary, an enemy of the state, was forgotten.”

🔗 https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-100-spring-2018/it-had-to-be-memphis

📷 Sanitation workers assemble in front of Clayborn Temple for a solidarity march, Memphis, TN, March 28, 1968, Ernest C. Withers, © Ernest C. Withers Trust, Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, via Smithsonian (FB); Art by Fabian Marcaccio, Galerie Thomas Schulte.

"The program was dissolved seemingly overnight. Its page on the university website was taken down. Employees were shuffl...
03/27/2025

"The program was dissolved seemingly overnight. Its page on the university website was taken down. Employees were shuffled into new positions. Someone threw everything from the office in the garbage."

—Caroline McCoy writes about Invisible Histories Project 's efforts to archive diversity programs that are rapidly disappearing in America.

🔗 : https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/the-rush-to-archive-america-s-diversity-programs

📷: Invisible Histories Project

“They didn’t care where they dumped, they just dumped.”— In an urgent report from Issue 128, Jordan Blumetti visits Clay...
03/26/2025

“They didn’t care where they dumped, they just dumped.”

— In an urgent report from Issue 128, Jordan Blumetti visits Clay County, Florida, and a former Solite mining facility, which was abandoned overnight in July 1995 after troubling reports emerged about reckless manufacturing habits and toxic chemicals being illegally burned on-site. Now, a Jacksonville developer wants to transform this contaminated land into housing developments to meet Florida's surging population growth. Members of the community have created a task force to demand proper cleanup of the site that has been harming their community since the 1980s.

You can read more at:
https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-128-spring-2025/the-machine-in-the-garden

Presented with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Photos: 1-2. Jordan Blumetti. 3. A partially emerged toxic waste barrel at the abandoned Solite plant, 2023, by Will Huey. Courtesy the Save Russell Landing/Stop Toxic Solite Facebook group.

03/25/2025

Billed as the Food Issue, the new edition “explores the people, industries, and tastes that build and challenge our ideas about Southern food.”

“From the pulpit and the piano, Franklin preached the good news. In those years after the assassinations and the riots, ...
03/25/2025

“From the pulpit and the piano, Franklin preached the good news. In those years after the assassinations and the riots, when the world outside our homes shouted anew that we were not welcome, that we should be in bo***ge in prisons or schools, or else we should be cast out of our neighborhoods or this life altogether, the Amazing Grace album was a cherished reminder that victory would one day be ours.”

—In honor of Aretha Franklin’s birthday today, we are reading Zandria F. Robinson’s “The Watts Miracle” from the Music Issue. Read the full piece at the link below!

https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-115-winter-2021/the-watts-miracle

📷 Film stills, Amazing Grace Movie LLC

Garden Season Sweepstakes!Enter for a chance to win 1 of 3 prize packages from Timber Press, Storey Publishing, and Gard...
03/25/2025

Garden Season Sweepstakes!

Enter for a chance to win 1 of 3 prize packages from Timber Press, Storey Publishing, and Garden Guru: https://ow.ly/p1JA50Vmt2s

“The South and Midwest are locations often spoken of as fly over, cultural monoliths, behind the times, or backwards. Ru...
03/24/2025

“The South and Midwest are locations often spoken of as fly over, cultural monoliths, behind the times, or backwards. Ruckus alchemized even these applied conceptions into a pedestal to speak from, not about.”

— Carstens explores the legacy of Ruckus with communities across the American South and Midwest in a feature article from the Oxford American x publishing initiative: “A Quiet Ruckus: Community Reflections on Now Closed Louisville Publication.”

🔗 https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/a-quiet-ruckus-community-reflections-on-now-closed-louisville-publication

📷: Images by and courtesy of Ian Carstens.

This year the Oxford American editors were invited to the tenth anniversary of Willie Nelson’s Potluck Dinner, a gatheri...
03/24/2025

This year the Oxford American editors were invited to the tenth anniversary of Willie Nelson’s Potluck Dinner, a gathering on the eve of his Luck Reunion at Luck Ranch.

At the dinner, in support of Farm Aid (via the Luck Family Foundation) and the Texas Food & Wine Alliance, attendees were treated to dinner and “a backyard concert with 300 of your closest friends.”

Read more:

Willie Nelson hosts his annual food festival at Luck Ranch, near Austin, Texas.

All of this talk about the Food Issue has us looking back at Jimmy Fike’s photographic depictions of edible botanicals f...
03/23/2025

All of this talk about the Food Issue has us looking back at Jimmy Fike’s photographic depictions of edible botanicals from the Summer 2024 Outside Issue. Fike uses color to highlight which parts of the plant are actually safe to eat.

His decade-long project is memorialized in book form with “Edible Plants: A Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of North America” (Indiana University Press, 2022).

View the feature from Issue 125: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-125-summer-2024/wild-lunch

“[New Orleans] is a place that cares a lot about defining, in inflexible terms, what it means to be from New Orleans. So...
03/21/2025

“[New Orleans] is a place that cares a lot about defining, in inflexible terms, what it means to be from New Orleans. So, yes, Mardi Gras is about community. But it is also about exclusion: who is a part of New Orleans, and who isn’t.”

—In the Spring 2025 Food Issue, E.M. Tran reframes New Orleans by walking with the Krewe of Mung Beans for Mardi Gras, now the Krewe of PhantAsia. Read now at the link below!

Photos: 1. The Woodlawn Lion Dance Team dances with the Lucha Krewe during the Red Beans Parade. 2. E. M. Tran (right) and her friend Melly wear their designs made of mung beans. 3. Southeast Asian representation in the Krewe of Mung Beans. © Dung “Donkey” Nguyen.

https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-128-spring-2025/krewe-of-mung-beans-mardi-gras

Macon Road Show Comes To North Little Rock has been rescheduled (after a snow day fiasco back in February)!We are excite...
03/21/2025

Macon Road Show Comes To North Little Rock has been rescheduled (after a snow day fiasco back in February)!

We are excited to present this special concert at Four Quarter Bar on Monday, April 28, at 7:00 pm, featuring music by Rev. Greg Spradlin & the Delta Soul Singers and Macon Music R***e!

Thank you to our friends at Visit Macon, Argenta Arts District, and North Little Rock Tourism for making this event possible!

Grab your tickets at: bit.ly/MaconRoadShowOA

Spotted: The Food Issue in full bloom for the first day of Spring! 📸Share your own moments with us and show us where ...
03/20/2025

Spotted: The Food Issue in full bloom for the first day of Spring! 📸

Share your own moments with us and show us where you're enjoying the latest edition.

Shirts are ON SALE NOW at OA Goods, plus the NEW Persimmon Dad Cap (see above) and Green Bean mug! Perfect companions for your spring reading. 🍊

Shop OxfordAmericanGoods.org today!

In a brand new feature, Katie Kehoe responds to the growing threat of wildfires through her speculative survival archi...
03/19/2025

In a brand new feature, Katie Kehoe responds to the growing threat of wildfires through her speculative survival architecture series. Since 2023, Kehoe has crafted portable survival structures inspired by firefighter equipment—5 for people, 6 for small animals, and one semi-permanent living space.

View more at: https://oxfordamerican.org/eyes/time-is-of-the-essence

🍊 Our Spring 2025 Food Issue is here! 🍊The latest edition of the Oxford American is a study of the people, traditions, a...
03/18/2025

🍊 Our Spring 2025 Food Issue is here! 🍊

The latest edition of the Oxford American is a study of the people, traditions, and innovations shaping Southern food culture.

Now available online: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-128-spring-2025

Print editions include an exclusive crossword puzzle curated by our Editor-in-Chief Sara A. Lewis! Special thanks to the Julia Child Foundation for their generous support in bringing this issue to life.

PS: Don’t forget to shop our NEW Spring Collection, featuring the Persimmon Dad Cap and Retro Green Bean Mug: https://www.oxfordamericangoods.org/collections/spring-2025-food-collection

Image: Still life with fried chicken, 2021, a photograph by David Alekhuogie, whose monograph “A Reprise” will be published in July 2025 by Aperture © The artist. Courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York.

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Did you know that the heartbreak masterpiece, "I Can't Make You Love Me," was co-written by a two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle? In our 2023 Ballads Issue, Annie Zaleski explores how the song's raw honesty about love's limitations resonated far beyond Bonnie Raitt's definitive 1991 recording. Read here: https://ow.ly/pWNZ50QGRR6 Photo: Bonnie Raitt, 1980 © George Rose/Getty Images

🎵 ONE WEEK AWAY! 🎵 The OA is delighted to bring you Rev. Greg Spradlin & the Delta Soul Singers + Macon Music Revue for an unforgettable night of Southern soul and Delta blues! 📍 Four Quarter Bar 📅 Tuesday, Feb 18 ⏰ 7:00 PM Presented in partnership with our friends at Visit Macon, Argenta Arts District, and North Little Rock Tourism. Get your plans (and your tickets) locked in - this is one you won't want to miss! 🎸 🎟️bit.ly/MaconRoadShow

SELC: Broken Ground Podcast
SELC: Broken Ground Podcast

Check out the new season of Broken Ground, a podcast from SELC uncovering environmental stories across the rural South. From strip mines to wood-pellet mills, polluting industries are burdening small Southern towns with the hidden costs of consumption. This season heads to rural communities across our region to uncover their environmental struggles and hear the voices of the people building a better future. Full season out now at https://bit.ly/4dXqPPj or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support the OA
Support the OA

Remember that OA feature made you pause? Read it twice. Share it immediately. The one that made you whisper, “well, damn.” That’s what we do. For 30+ years, we’ve published stories that expand the narrative. The ones that make you see the South, the world, and yourself differently. Not because it’s easy. Because it’s necessary. We know you get it. You understand the South isn’t just a punchline or a postcard. So yeah, this is another #GivingTuesday ask. As a nonprofit, independent publication, we rely on supporters like you. We are asking you to consider supporting the Oxford American today, so that we can keep publishing these vital stories tomorrow. Because the Oxford American is still here. Still Southern. Still committed to the art of a good story. Support the OA today by donating at: https://oxford.app.neoncrm.com/forms/give-2024

No Tears Project (Full Concert Cut) - Live in Jackson, MS
No Tears Project (Full Concert Cut) - Live in Jackson, MS

We’re thrilled today to share the full concert video of No Tears Project live in Jackson, MS on 9/28/24, where the band premiered The Medgar Evers Suite, written by Rodney Jordan. Thanks to Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, One Voice, and Mississippi NAACP for the partnership. We are so grateful for the support of National Park Foundation, South Arts, #JazzRoad, and Visit Jackson, MS helping make this program a success. Follow No Tears Project on Instagram @parkerhurtnotearsproject and learn more at www.notearsproject.com. Video by Alumni Broadcasting Association.

Broken Ground podcast | SELC
Broken Ground podcast | SELC

Check out the new season of Broken Ground, a podcast from SELC uncovering environmental stories across the rural South. From strip mines to wood-pellet mills, polluting industries are burdening small Southern towns with the hidden costs of consumption. This season heads to rural communities across our region to uncover their environmental struggles and hear the voices of the people building a better future. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or online at: https://bit.ly/4dXqPPj

🎉 Celebrating 50 years of music, culture & good times in Lafayette! 🪗 Festivals Acadiens cet Créoles 2024 📍 October 11-13th in Girard Park – Lafayette #feedyoursoul #explorelouisiana 🎉 Celebrating 50 years of music, culture & good times in Lafayette! 🪗 Festivals Acadiens cet Créoles 2024 📍 October 11-13th in Girard Park – Lafayette #feedyoursoul #explorelouisiana Learn more: festivalsacadiens.com

We Have Overcome: A Conversation on Progress and the Path Forward
We Have Overcome: A Conversation on Progress and the Path Forward

We Have Overcome: A Conversation on Progress and the Path Forward, was recorded at the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument and features civil rights advocates Hezekiah Watkins, activist and the "youngest Freedom Rider;" Nsombi Lambright, executive director of One Voice and Allytra Perryman, deputy director of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP. The conversation was moderated by Dr. Ebony Lumumba, Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Jackson State University. The panel is part of the September 2024 No Tears Project Jackson residency. Thanks to the National Park Foundation's #ParkVentures initiative; Jazz Road, a program of South Arts; Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument; Supporting Partner Visit Jackson, MS; and community partners One Voice, the Mississippi NAACP, Central Mississippi Blues Society, Mississippi Book Festival, Penguin Random House, Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church - Ridgeway St., and Jackson State University Department of Music for helping make the Jackson residency possible.

Check out the new season of Broken Ground, a podcast from SELC uncovering environmental stories across the rural South. From strip mines to wood-pellet mills, polluting industries are burdening small Southern towns with the hidden costs of consumption. This season heads to rural communities across our region to uncover their environmental struggles and hear the voices of the people building a better future. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or online at: https://bit.ly/4dXqPPj

The Oxford American was pleased to partner with Gateway Arch National Park and Jazz St. Louis to present Social Change Through the Arts, a panel discussion featuring artists from the No Tears Project St. Louis concerts, including composer/pianist Christopher Parker, vocalist Kelley Hurt, saxophonist/clarinetist and President & CEO of Jazz St. Louis, Victor Goines; choreographer/dancer Ashley Tate, and singer/songwriter Brian Owens. Poet, educator, and community arts organizer Treasure Shields Redmond moderated the panel.

In 2023, dancer Ashley Tate electrified the stage at Jazz St. Louis, improvising with the No Tears Project ensemble during a stunning performance of new music and poetry by Oliver Lake. This year, we’re excited to bring the powerful experience of the No Tears Project ensemble to Jackson, MS! 📅 Join us from September 27-29, 2024, for the No Tears Project residency presented in partnership with Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Made possible by the National Park Foundation #ParkVentures program, and #JazzRoad, a national initiative of South Arts. Bring your best moves to Myrlie's Garden for a Saturday morning family-friendly sock hop and catch the world premiere of new music by Rodney Jordan that evening! Find tickets and more information at: https://oxfordamerican.org/notearsproject/jackson2024

Join the ranks of Oxford American’s music curators! We want to offer something uniquely Oxford American to our donors this year as a huge thank you for your support and for keeping the Southern stories flowing. For the month of August, your $100 donation could win you the chance to create a Memphis playlist for the 26th Annual Southern Music Issue and get your name in print. Visit OxfordAmerican.org/Give2024 to learn more and donate today!

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