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 26, Spring 1999
Double Issue on Southern Women
“The metaphysical inhabiting of another soul, of another gender, and of such an alien order to herself, the artist…Beyond mere empathy…these acts of art were simply genius.” — Barry Hannah on Eudora Welty
Featuring Donna Tartt, Bobbie Ann Mason, Nanci Kincaid, and Cynthia Shearer. Jonathan Van Meter goes looking for Oprah. Poetry by Memye Curtis Tucker, Katherine Soniat, and A.E. Stallings.
Other contributors include Chris Offutt, Wendy Brenner, Lorian Hemingway, Elizabeth Cox, Janice Daugharty, and more.
REPORT
LOOKING FOR OPRAH
by Jonathan Van Meter
SOUTHERN WOMEN WE LOVE
ASHLEY JUDD AND HER ATTITUDE
by Chris Offutt
SHANNON RAVENEL
by Larry Brown
EMMYLOU HARRIS
by Steve Earle
EUDORA WELTY
by Barry Hannah
MAVYNE BETSCH
by Russ Rymer
CHELSEA CLINTON
by Paul Zabynski
HUMOR
WINE OF THE WEEK
by Wendy Brenner
SHEROES
by Jeff Baker
FAMILY
THE MYSTERY OF MY GRANDMOTHER'S MIND
by Bobbie Ann Mason
OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN
by Adam Shemper
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO FREDA
by Lorian Hemingway
ESSAY
HOW I LEARNED I WAS SOUTHERN
by Nancy Kincaid
BABY
by Vicki Covington
WARPAINT AND ORCHIDS
by Blanche McCrary Boyd
ODE TO CRONES
by Elizabeth Cox
ULYSSES SAILS INTO PORT
by Amy Blackmarr
SHORT STORY
STILL LIFE WITH SHOTGUN AND ORANGES
by Cynthia Shearer
ONCE UPON A SUMMER
by Janice Daugharty
BUT YOU CA'NT BLAME EVERYTHING ON THE BABY
by A. Manette Ansay
POETRY
MOVING SALE
by A. E. Stallings
ALLUVIAL
by Katherine Soniat
POSING FOR DEGAS
by Memye Curtis Tucker
SIDEBARS
by Marianne Gingher
THE DEBUTANTE BUTCHER
by Clifton Dowell
by Alan Jacobs
by Diane Roberts
by John Shelton Reed
RECONSIDERATIONS
FINDING SOUTHERN COMFORT
by Valerie Boyd
SOUTHERN GALLERY
THE LADY CHABLIS
by Joel Stein
SALLY MANN
by Maude Schuyler Clay
PHOTO ESSAY
FASHION
RUMMAGING FOR PEACE
by Shannon Magness
ANALYSIS
THE BELLE AND THE LADY
by Donna Tartt
BOOK REVIEW
OUTSIDE, LOOKING IN
by Florence King
SHORT BOOK REVIEWS
CUISINE
A TASTE OF HELL
by John T. Edge
MUSIC
TRUST THE SONG
by Tom Piazza
SHORT MUSIC REVIEWS
EDITOR'S BOX
DEAR OA
COLUMNS
WAVING NOT DROWNING
Fools for love
by Julia Reed
DEALER'S CHOICE
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
by Hal Crowther
GONE OFF UP NORTH
True lit
by Roy Blount Jr.
SOUTHERN SCENES
ALICE, BREAUX BRIDGE, LOUISIANA
Photograph by Debbie Fleming Caffrey
On the Cover: "Dream" (1990), by Karekin Goekjian