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 44, March / April 2003
“The alligator’s glory days are over.... For a long time it seemed like the party would never end. The ancient gator was king of the swamp, and the entire world was swampland.” — Sam Anderson, “Our Own Monsters”
Essays by Lewis Nordan, Matt Dellinger, and Sam Anderson. John T. Edge investigates the culinary underground. Criticism by Adam Kirsch. Poetry by Laura Newbern and Benjamin Pryor.
Other contributors include Roy Blount Jr., Hal Crowther, Sarah Wilson, and more.
Columns & Departments
Editor's Box
by Marc Smirnoff
THE FRONT
Dispatches from around the South.
Sense of Place
HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS
photogrpahs by Lucy Capehart
Local Fare
THE CULINARY UNDERGROUND
by John T. Edge
Family
BURNING LOVE
by Linda Sherbert
Art
VISIONS OF FINSTER
by Greg Bottoms
Recollections
MISS WELTY COMES TO TOWN
by Roger Mudd
Law
BETWEEN THE LINES
by Emily Bazelon
Criticism
A LONELY CRUSADE
by Adam Kirsch
FINE PRINT
George Patterson, Percival Everett, and John McManus reviewed.
MUSIC NOTES
Uncle Tupelo, Cat Power, Kenny Brown, Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy, Stephen Malkmus, and more.
Dealer's Choice
TWILIGHT OF THE DRAGONS?
by Hal Crowther
Gone Off Up North
CASTING WATERMELONS
by Roy Blount, Jr.
Southern Scenes
GUEYDAN, LOUISIANA
photgraph by Sarah Wilson
Features
GREYS IN FLIGHT
Dogs in the city usually don’t get into this kind of trouble.
a story by Lewis Nordan
HARDCORE TROUBADOURS
The Old Crow Medicine Show wants to rescue country music—if only Nashville will give them the chance.
by Matt Dellinger
OUR OWN MONSTERS
In a Louisiana swamp, a phobia two hundred million years in the making comes alive.
by Sam Anderson
Poetry
CENTRAL STATE
by Laura Newbern
SHEEP SLAUGHTER IN 75 SYLLABLES
by Benjamin Pryor
Cover: Photograph by Sarah Wilson