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Magazine


Issue 62, Fall 2008


The New Orleans-Gulf Coast Issue

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.







 

Columns and Departments

 

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 

 


 

Features

 

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

 


 

Fiction

 

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

 


 

Poetry

 

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