Celebrate 30 years of the OA.
With original work from Imani Perry, Kristen Arnett, Diane Roberts, and so many others, our Spring Issue honors our past and looks into our expansive future.
Magazine
Issue 1, Spring 1992
Our very first issue.
“The Oxford American is a literary magazine, of general interest, established under the idea that it is time for a good general magazine to originate from the South. . . . We will not publish pieces about family reunions, or recipes, or beauty contests, or picturesque porches, or local anchormen, or picnkicking, or interior decorating, or lovely gardens, or Southern soap opera stars. We abandon these concerns to our narcissistic and stagnant competition. Instead, the Oxford American expects to be distinguished and popular for its adherence to what is outstanding in contemporary American culture—not for publishing articles about, or for, its richest subscribers.”
— From the “Declaration of Intent”
FICTION
THE SPY OF LOOG ROOT
A voyeuristic outcast becomes the focus of another.
by Barry Hannah
BECKETT SCHOLARS FALL IN LOVE AT OHIO CONFERENCE
It is never simple to fall in love.
by Jane Mullen
INTERVIEW
Pauline Kael: The Critic Wore Cowboy Boots
Retired or not, one movie reviewer still has more to say.
ESSAY
DANGEROUS INVENTIONS
Lying as a Way of Life
by Lewis Nordan
THE FAULNKER THING
Did Mr. Bill smoke stogies?
by John Grisham
FIRE NOTES
Blood & Fire in a small Mississippi town.
by Larry Brown
TUMBLEWEED DREAMS
Our West is a Southerner Southern
by Dave Southern
FIRST VIEW OF THE BIG CITY
Atlanta as seen through the eyes of a babe
by Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
COMMENTARY
THE OPTIMISM
Why Americans, despite it all, won’t give up.
by William F. Buckley, Jr.
LEARNING TO LOVE MISANTHROPY
The joys of mankindhating are revealed in the excerpt.
by Florence King
WHY JOE SLUSSARSKI THROWS LIKE A GIRL
You would too if your ERA was 5.27.
by Bill James
THE SICK HEART OF SIGMA CHI
Fraternity Lesions—uh—lessons.
by Richard Ford
REVIEW
WORLDS IN VIEW
by Bill McKibben
A MARRIAGE OF SPEAKING AND HEARING
by Donald Kartiganer
POETRY
MADAME OF OXFORD
by Roy Blount, Jr.
AN EPIPHANY
by X.J. Kennedy
THE CENSOR
by Fred Chappell
DOMESTIC INCIDENT
by X. J. Kennedy
THE BEAUTIFUL BOWEL MOVEMENT
by John Updike
A PIANIST PLUMMETS
by Jeanne Steig
ODE ON THE COMMODE
by Jack Butler
A MODEL
by Charles Bukowski
TELEVANGELIST
by Fred Chappell
THE WEDDING
by J.E. Pitts
MISHMASH
by Jeanne Steig
THE SNAKE
by Charles Bukowski