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.
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.
This special issue of the Oxford American is devoted to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, three years after Hurricane Katrina, featuring stories from residents and writers of the place.
Features by Lolis Eric Elie, Sarah M. Broom, David Ramsey, and Peter Zinn. Fiction by Nic Pizzolatto.
Other essays by C.D. Wright, William Caverlee, Ernest J. Gaines, Anne Gisleson, Jesmyn Ward, and more.
Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff
Publisher’s Note
by Warwick Sabin
Gone Off Up North
Finding a perfect match for Bill Clinton.
by Roy Blount Jr.
Local Fare
A local mecca for catfish lovers.
by John T. Edge
Food
Remembrance of things past.
by Wright Thompson
Writing on Writing
A dream comes true.
by Constance Adler
Family
Our legacy of not evacuating.
by Jesmyn Ward
Family
Remembering a childhood storm from a long-ago summer.
by Michelle Richmond
Politics
Did Mississippi’s governor do the right things in post-Katrina chaos?
by Ellen Ann Fentress
Place
Local bar can say it all.
by Moira Crone
Community
Love in the ruins.
by C.D. Wright
Place
It’s funny what we hold onto.
by Anne Gisleson
Community
Did all the newcomers to Baton Rouge suddenly make it…cool?
by Alex V. Cook
Meditations
The summer doldrums.
by Ada Liana Bidiuc
Food
A hidden: sausages.
by Sarah Roahen
Lagniappe
A short list of restaurants that survived and are better than ever.
by Brett Anderson
Art
The artist Willie Birch sees the promise and the darkness of New Orleans’ future.
by Bill Sasser
Personalities
Dr. Ben Marble, an unlikely hero, gave Dick Cheney a taste of his own medicine.
by Mark Winegardner
Community
The spirit of a lounge.
by Maura Fitzgerald
Southern Lit
What is the great New Orleans novel? Here are a few suggestions.
by William Caverlee
Writing on Writing
History in the making.
by Ned Sublette
Southern Lit
Here’s an author deserving of a fresh look.
by Clay Risen
Writing on Writing
The two greatest moves in his life were leaving Louisiana and returning to Louisiana.
by Ernest J. Gaines
STILL LIVE, WITH VOICES
Not neat, not linear, and not monosyllabic.
by Lolis Eric Elie
NO DIRECTION KNOWN
Wrong turns, deadends, and all the agony and ecstasy one man can take.
by Chris Rose
LETTING HER GO
Why it’s so hard to leave and also why it’s necessary.
by Sarah M. Brown
WHY I STAYED
It wasn’t an easy decision.
by Jed Horne
I WILL FOREVER REMAIN FAITHFUL
Rap music helps a teacher connect with his students.
by David Ramsey
WANTED MAN
Family drama—with guns, explosions, shoot-outs, and strange creatures—on the Louisiana prairie.
by Nic Pizzolatto
MY SECRET GARDEN
A boy follows a girl to New Orleans and finds himself lost in a garden.
by Peter Zinn
Epithalamium
by Forrest Gander
Honey Behind the Sun
by Greg Brownderville
Invitation to the Gretna Royals
by Alison Pelegrin
Lament
by Ginny Kaczmarek
Thanksgiving on the Gulf
by Wilmer Mills
Cover: “Ally Running” by Samuel Portera