Oxford American
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The Oxford American is a national magazine dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the South.
The American South
Joined January 2009
Our Spring ’25 food issue is coming soon! 🍜. From Vietnamese Mardi Gras to a truly local loaf of bread, the issue explores the people, industries, and tastes that both build and challenge our ideas of Southern food. Pre-order now for March delivery:
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“Nothing sounded like ATLiens. The album instantly changed not just my expectations of music, but my expectations of myself as a young black Southern artist.”. —@KieseLaymon on @Outkast’s ATLiens. The album turns 23 today! Art by Adam Shaw #Issue91
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We are thrilled to formally announce that Danielle A. Jackson (@danielleamir) will serve as editor of the Oxford American. In an interview with @lithub, Jackson shared her multifaceted vision for the magazine’s future. Read the full Q&A below!.
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“It was devastating to find how much I enjoy quiet. For a person whose life is consumed by music, it felt like blasphemy.”. —@julienrbaker contemplates the musician’s dilemma in #TheByAndBy:
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The cover of the Country Roots Music Issue features three country legends: Linda Ronstadt, @EmmylouSongbird, & @DollyParton! Plus, an impressive contributor lineup includes @RissiPalmer, @imaniperry, @ArkDavey, & @RodneyJCrowell. Pre-order your copy + CD:
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“She is a vehicle of musical ecstasy.”. —We revisiting @rosannecash’s reflections on Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who influenced numerous artists ft. in the Up South Music Issue. Plus, catch her song “Didn’t It Rain” on the accompanying CD. Read the piece:
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We’re delighted to share that Brittany Howard (@blkfootwhtfoot) will be guest editing our Music Issue! The Grammy Award-winning singer has so much to add to this project and we can’t wait for you to see what she selects as the OA’s “Greatest Hits.”
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“Musicians come from all over the world to genuflect at the altar of the birthplace of rock & roll.”. —In “Long Way Home,” @rosannecash remembers her father, Johnny Cash, born on this day in 1932. Read the essay below. Photo courtesy of Rosanne Cash.
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Two Queens grace the covers of our Up South music issue! Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Rock & Roll and the Queen of Soul—how could we ever choose? Luckily, we didn’t have to! . Order your copies:
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Hooray! It's the #CoverReveal for #Issue122, featuring artwork by @barryyusufu_art! Guest Editor @tylrmntg says of the image, “The primary colors reflect those that comprise so many of the indelible images we’ve come to love in cinema.” Pre-order today!.
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“I think about the women I know from the generations before mine, their unwillingness to take any shit, their employment of the phrase “’fend for ourselves.’”.— @julienrbaker considers contradictory fables of American achievement in #TheByAndBy
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“Now, of course, for some people not knowing what Stipe’s talking about is the whole point.”. —Elizabeth Wurtzel in “R.E.M. for the People,” an essay from the archive section of our #GreatestHitsMusicIssue. Read the full piece below!. Art by Mike Reddy.
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We were heartbroken to learn tonight of the passing of John Prine. In his memory, we’re revisiting Tom Piazza’s feature from our Fall 2018 issue about an old car, new shoes, and one of America’s greatest songwriters.
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Congrats to contributors @CrystalWilki & @KieseLaymon for their NAACP Image Awards noms! Perfect Black was nominated in the poetry category, & Long Division in the fiction category. Read Laymon in the OA: Read Wilkinson in the OA:
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So y’all want to talk about @Beyonce and #BlackCountry music? Good. Our editors put together a reading list just for you. New from the OA: “Black Country: A Love Letter and Living Archive”. 🧵1/6.
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We’re so excited to unveil the cover of our forthcoming Greatest Hits Music Issue that for a limited time, we’re offering free domestic shipping when you pre-order! Check it out at the link:
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Meet the #Kentucky Music Issue! Includes: 160-page magazine, 27-song CD + free download w/ bonus tracks. Pre-order:
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Don’t miss new fiction from @DeeshaPhilyaw, @dawniewalton, & Mary Miller; poetry from Arkansan Henry Dumas; & @hey_emhilly’s musings on Breece D’J Pancake’s hometown in our Southern Lit Issue, covered by Danielle McKinney’s Blue Room. Pre-order here:.
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The OA bids a fond farewell to @danielleamir, whose transformative tenure as our Editor came to a close last Friday. We invite you all to explore a compilation of her cherished editor’s letters and the curated works that shaped them:
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*drumroll please* It’s our 20th Annual Music Issue! We can’t wait for you to read (and hear) what we’ve been up to with this latest installment, featuring North Carolina. Pre-order your copy today!
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“We are born immersed in our traditions, our communities’ manual for instructing our behavior, for instilling its values.”.—Prompted by a chat with her Uber driver, @julienrbaker meditates on the meaning of sacredness in last week’s #TheByandBy.
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Congratulations to @johntedge, winner of the @beardfoundation’s M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for his essay “My Mother’s Catfish Stew”! Read the full essay here:
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We're excited to explore the South in new ways in our 2021 Music Issue: UP SOUTH. Trace the migration of Southern music beyond our region’s borders at the pre-order link below (which includes a free, exclusive CD!) or on newsstands 12/7.
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Our hearts are with our Kentucky neighbors impacted by recent flooding. From now until 8/31, $10 of every Kentucky Music Issue will go directly to the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund. Order your copy & support our Kentucky community at the link.
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“You always know when a Nina Simone song spills out of a speaker. The temperature changes, the mood and muscles relax, and everyone at the party seems to pause.”. —On Nina Simone's birthday, read @TianaClarkPoet in #Issue103. Art by Angela Franks Wells
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Read @rosannecash's essay on the memories that inspired her Grammy-winning album: http://t.co/HtPpyE9JfJ
http://t.co/mcaD3eSKHQ.
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Guy and Susanna Clark with Townes Van Zandt, Nashville, 1975. Photograph by Jim McGuire
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Congrats @TyehimbaJess ! OLIO wins the 2017 Pulitzer in poetry! Go here to read the OA review by @KavehAkbar :
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(3/5) Congratulations to @AMReese07, whose essay “Tarry with Me” from the #FoodIssue was recognized as a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays 2022! . Read it here: .. Art by: Didier William
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We are SO excited to share that the OA has been selected for the @WhitingFdn’s 2023 Literary Magazine Prizes!. We are recognized for understanding “that as much as the South can be found in the world, one can find the world in the South.” Read more here:
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“Hanusik’s photographs interrogate the commonplace existence of communities touched by South Louisiana’s struggle with sea-level rise.”. —On Earth Day, we’re revisiting @virginiahanusik’s #EyesOnTheSouth piece on human resilience to climate change.
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“With her fiery on-stage energy & vocal style, Tina Turner has entertained audiences around the world.”. —The OA joins the world in mourning the loss of @tinaturner, Queen of Rock & Roll. Read Maureen Mahon’s #UpSouth essay on Tina:. 📸 Walter Iooss/Getty
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Congratulations to OA contributing editor @KieseLaymon! Laymon was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the “genius grant.” We couldn’t be more excited! Read Laymon’s work in the OA at the link below.
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“Prince once said that after seeing Parliament he went into the studio the same night and did ‘Erotic City.’ We only managed to hit up a Krispy Kreme in Raleigh.”. —From Dave Tompkins’s “Can We Get to That,” in the North Carolina Music Issue #Issue103
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Submit your debut fiction! We’re seeking submissions from emerging writers for our Fall 2022 issue. We would love to review work with ties to the South, but quality is our priority. The selected writer will receive an honorarium. Learn more at the link!.
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Our 3 cover designs celebrate 3 generations of musicians: John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, and Adia Victoria.
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Today we release Catherine Venable Moore's #longform #reportage on the 1930's Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster.
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We’re delighted to reveal the cover of our Spring 2021 Food Issue, a celebration of the Southern kitchen guest edited by @MsAliceRandall and featuring a cover image by Frank Frances. Subscribe today or pre-order at the link:
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Congratulations to John T. Edge @johntedge, author of the OA’s food column “Local Fare,” for being named a finalist for the James Beard Foundation award for Columns. Pick up his latest book, The Potlikker Papers, at the Oxford American Store now.
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Congratulations, @jesmimi! We are so proud to have published three excerpts from this extraordinary novel.
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“Mary Lou Williams made devotional music for all of these female archetypes and for herself. ”. —@Harmony_Holiday curated a playlist honoring Mary Lou Williams for this week’s Up South Soundtrack. Read more & listen below. Photo: William P. Gottlieb
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We are proud to announce the release of our 16th Southern Music Issue, featuring #TEXAS! http://t.co/rWcVcKChy2
http://t.co/9LFw48AGIz.
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“We blended those influences into our signature sound, one birthed outside of the constraints of East Coast/West Coast classifications.”. —From @taylorcrumpton’s “Dallas is Different,” from our #GreatestHitsMusicIssue. Illustrations by @funkaldelyfunk.
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For all you guitar geeks, @pattersonhood is playing a Gene Autry guitar reconditioned by luthier Scott Baxendale
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“You always know when a Nina Simone song spills out of a speaker. The temperature changes, the mood and muscles relax, and everyone at the party seems to pause.”. —From @TianaClarkPoet's “Nina Is Everywhere I Go.” Art by Angela Frank Wells #Issue103
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We’re so excited to reveal our Spring 2020 cover! Featuring a stunning photograph by Emerald Arguelles, the issue includes epic features, surprising short stories, and more. Pre-order yours today!
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We're thrilled to reveal our Spring 2022 cover! Art by @xavierasimmons reflects themes of past & present explored by @rebeccabengal, @BadDebutante, @imaniperry, @Kristen_Arnett, & more in this issue, which celebrates our 30th anniversary. Pre-order today!.
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Join us in honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Susan Berger’s Eyes on the South piece “Quiet Streets.” This project documents streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. and the neighborhoods surrounding them. View the full gallery at the link!.
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The OA is currently seeking an assistant editor. This person will have a hand in all aspects of the OA’s production: editing print & web content, soliciting & evaluating submissions, co-producing our podcast, & more. Learn more at the link below!.
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We are delighted to reveal the cover of #BalladsIssue! 🌟 The star of the show? A close-up portrait of the incomparable @Roberta_Flack! Pre-order your copy of #Issue123 today: .
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Get started with some solid groundwork in the often-erased history and legacy of Black country music with @RissiPalmer, @RhiannonGiddens, @MsAliceRandall, @FluentMundo, and @CharlesLHughes2 . 🧵3/6
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(5/5) Congratulations to @CynthiaGreenlee, whose piece “Pimento-cracy” from the #FoodIssue was recognized as Distinguished Food Writing in the Best American Food Writing 2022! . Read it here: .. Art by: Carter/Reddy
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Our Fall 2021 issue will be dedicated to Southern literature in all its bounty and complexity. We’re seeking non-fiction meditations and reconsiderations of key literary figures and texts as well as a range of fiction. Full details at the link:
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“It’s starting to feel like a vaudeville routine—no seatbelt, no coolant in the radiator, illegal plates, a half-blind driver…”. —From “Living in the Present with John Prine,” a feature-length interview by Tom Piazza. Photo by David McClister. #Issue102
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“They be golden, fiery, alluring, entities that are only visible to Black people; they lead us to elsewhere.” .— Darryl DeAngelo Terrell conjures soundscapes & portals through space and time in this brand new #EyesOnTheSouth feature:
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Our Summer 2018 Issue hits newsstands June 12th, and features contributions from @CBeimford, @johntedge, @osayiendolyn, @noahgshannon, @bhagenston, @JustinNobel, @Chris_Offutt, @renee_e_simms, @danielbluetyx, @vurn and many more! Order a copy here!
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In a new addition to #OnJubilee, @cahootenanny writes of Black culinary traditions and the communities that cherish & protect them:. “The same way New Orleans is more than gumbo and Grenada is more than oildown, Memphis is more than barbecue.”. Read here:
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We're celebrating Oxford American's 2018 North Carolina Music Issue! Join us from November 26 - December 1 for concerts and readings from the issue! #RaiseUpNC #OAMusic
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Zora Neale Hurston was born on this day in 1891. Take a moment to revisit Yuval Taylor’s essay on Hurston and Langston Hughes in the South. Image: Jessie Fauset, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston at Tuskegee Institute, 1927. @BeineckeLibrary
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Happy 100th birthday, JOHN LEE HOOKER! Revisit Greil Marcus’s essay on Hooker’s modernist “John Henry” --
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👀 We can’t wait to show you who’s on the cover of our music issue—check in tomorrow for the big reveal! Frankly, this issue is quite a page Turner. 😏. The Up South music issue explores the great migration of Southern sound. We know you'll love our cover as much as we do!
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“I think as long as there’s social unrest in America, there’s gonna be an appetite for the blues.”. —On @adiavictoria's birthday, we're revisiting 2017 interview "A Political Blues" (. Plus, check out her playlist from #Issue111:
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Huge thanks to @NEHgov for awarding the Oxford American a grant in support of Points South, funding a series of feature-length reported segments on the podcast and enabling us, as host Sara A. Lewis says, “to tell more important, underreported stories of and about the South.”.
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Eliza Borné is the new editor of the Oxford American.
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Join our team! The Oxford American is seeking a Development Coordinator, Digital Editor, Junior Account Executive, and Podcast Intern. Learn more about these in-person and remote opportunities at
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"Southern history is about contradiction and contrast, and we see those same forces at play in Southern food." http://t.co/1jeJzl7bbj.
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We are deeply saddened by the loss of artist and OA contributor Radcliffe Bailey. His stunning art was featured in Issues #91 and #107. 📷 by Jared Reeder .🎨 by Radcliffe Bailey courtesy of the artist and @JackShainman
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“The new season speaks to the discipline of healing when we allow every dimensional version of ourselves to come along for the ride.”. —@ClarissaMBrooks reviews season two of @terencenance’s Random Acts of Flyness in a new web feature. 📸 Rog Walker/HBO
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“Every year, around the time of the massacre, the descendants of Jack Conrad gather from across the U.S. in Louisiana to remember the dead.”. —@rosiewestwood on the legacy of the Thibodaux Massacre in “Persons Unknown.” Photo by Nina Robinson. #Issue108.
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We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of our #SummerIssue: an original painting by Michael Berryhill! New work from long-time contributor James Seay, a debut from @theferocity, a set of poems in Spanish & English, & more comprises the issue. Order today!
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In @RhiannonGiddens own words, “You didn’t know you needed a #banjoauntie. Now you know.”. Giddens plays the banjo and viola on @Beyonce’s latest release! Revisit Giddens’s writing on the legacy of Joe Thompson from 2018:.📷 Danielle Osfalg
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In most American cities there is an avenue or boulevard bearing Martin Luther King Jr.’s name, and photographer Susan Berger’s work documents scenes of the neighborhoods surrounding these streets. View this entire series of photos from our #EOTS archive!
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“You see, the South just has a thang. It gets INTO you. And there is no historian like the music created here.”. —Read guest editor @blkfootwhtfoot’s introduction—and listen to her playlist!—at the link. Art by Anthony Harrison #Issue111
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“One afternoon two years ago, I drove to Memphis to see an Eggleston photograph in person . a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling in a room painted a stark, eerie red.” @willstep_ explores the mystery of “The Red Ceiling” in this essay from #OA100
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We’re so excited to share the cover of our jam-packed double edition exploring the theme of place. Featuring @deborah191’s “When you see me” on the cover, the issue is a passionate and essential exploration of our region. Pre-order your copy today:
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The Oxford American joins the literary world in mourning Charles Portis, a beloved contributor and the “unofficial spirit guide” of the magazine. Celebrate his life and work with us by revisiting his contributions to the OA.
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🎥 Announcing the Southern Film Issue! 🎥 Pre-order today for new writing by @jewelwickershow, an exploration of Debbie Allen’s career by @lynne_bias, an experimental piece by Justin Phillip Reed, and more—guest edited by filmmaker Tayler Montague!.
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The Magazine of the South debuts a new look! .Featuring an updated cover design, new fonts, and a higher page count, the magazine has been redesigned to create a more comfortable and enjoyable experience for readers. Shop now. Link in bio. #oxfordamerican #magazine #ofthesouth
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Need more #TracyChapman in your life after last night’s stunning performance? Revisit @Sarah_Smarsh feature on Chapman and the song “For My Lover,” from 2022: . Photo by Steve Jurvetson, 2007, CC 2.0
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“The album instantly changed not just my expectations of music, but my expectations of myself as a young black Southern artist.”. —From @KieseLaymon’s “Archive” essay on #OutKast for our #GreatestHitsMusicIssue. Photos by @janettebeckman .
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The editors of the Oxford American and the Texas Observer have teamed up on an e-newsletter series designed to look more closely at the places we call home, the people who populate them, and the ideas that have in some cases made it all so mythic.
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Listen now to the first episode of Points South, featuring @KenBurns and @RhiannonGiddens discussing the contributions of African-Americans to country music, and a performance by @domflemons recorded live on the Oxford American stage!
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Congratulations to OA contributors @silasdhouse and @JasonKyleHoward for their incredible work on the new @TTChilders video. Check it out ASAP!.
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Don’t forget to send in your pitches for the fall issue, dedicated to Southern literature! We are seeking flash fiction, mid-length stories, and novel excerpts that can stand alone. See full details at the link:
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Delighted to be nominated for a National Magazine Award in General Excellence! Congratulations to @VQR, @StrangersGuide, @QuantaMagazine, and @aperturefnd!.
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The Up South Music Issue features an amazing lineup of contributors. Thank you to everyone who helped us explore the migration of Southern sound!. @lynellgeorge @MsAliceRandall @paranoiacs @rebeccabengal @JasMoneyRecords @zfelice @T_Blanchard @FungaiSJ
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This year’s music issue features pieces from John Jeremiah Sullivan, @LeesaCrossSmith, @amandapetrusich, and more!
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Our Greatest Hits Music Issue, guest edited by @blkfootwhtfoot, features Sister Rosetta Tharpe as our cover star—and the subject of a new essay by @rosannecash! The issue includes stories from the archive alongside many new voices. Check it out here:
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“‘All of a sudden articles are going, ‘This guy’s writing about mortality,’ whereas before they thought I was just joking.’”. —John Prine reflects on life and his new album in Tom Piazza's feature from our fall issue. Photo by David McClister. #Issue102
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We’re thrilled to reveal the cover for the 2024 Summer #OutsideIssue, featuring a photograph by Bahamian portrait and documentary photographer Melissa Alcena! #OA125 #ReadOA. You can have this issue hands before it hits newsstands if you pre-order today:
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REMINDER: We’re looking for an unpublished fiction piece to feature in our Fall 2024 issue. If you’ve never been published in a major print magazine and have a story with Southern ties (or just a great story), we want to see your work. Deadline 4/7.
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The Oxford American is thrilled to announce several transitions on our leadership team! Congratulations to all as we look forward to this new day for the OA.
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"One of the hardest things as a writer to tell yourself is that it's not shit. An easy read is a hard write." @ArmisteadMaupin.
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