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Issue 78, Fall 2012

New South Journalism Issue

“There’s a lot I learned in journalism school about accuracy and inverted pyramids and the five “W’s”…but when I think of the narrative nonfiction I most enjoy, I have my Southern roots to thank. It was while sitting on a front porch listening to my grandfather that I learned to love a good story.” — Patsy Sims

Includes the first act of Charles Portis’s unpublished play; Kevin Brockmeier returns to seventh grade; a forum of seasoned journalists on what they learned in school; investigating fracking in Arkansas; and much more.

Columns and Departments

South Toward Home
WHAT IS ‘NEW SOUTH JOURNALISM’ ANYWAY?
by Warwick Sabin

I Don’t Hate It!
THE NUTTY REPORTER
by Jack Pendarvis

Local Fare
SAVORING MUTT CITY
by John T. Edge

From the Archives
TAMING THE GORILLA
by Harold Hayes
with an introduction by Marc Weingarten

Report
MORE SEVENTH GRADE
by Kevin Brockmeier

Writers on Dating
THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR AS LOVER
by Steve Almond

Comic
HADITHA/KATRINA
by Jess Ruliffson

Fashion
THE OLD MAN WITH NO PANTS
by Harrison Scott Key

Profile
THE SCISSORMAN
by Joni Tevis

Travel
KARMA BUM
by Joe Freeman

Investigation
BACKYARD BATTLEFIELDS
by J. Malcolm Garcia

Kin
WILD MAN BLUES
by Molly Sentell Haile

Nature
FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS
by Nathaniel Rich

Features

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
A forum with Gay Talese, Patsy Sims, Michael Pollan, James Conaway, Mike Sager, Madeleine Blais, Jon Franklin, Roy Blount, Jr., and Walt Harrington
We asked some of our favorite journalists what they learned in and out of school.

STOP THE PRESSES
by Chris Rose
Life and death at the Times-Picayune.

ORIGINS OF A MURDER
by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Investigating the crimes—and humanity—of a killer.

DIARY OF A MAD FACT-CHECKER
by James Pogue
Precision only gets you so far.

DELRAY’S NEW MOON
a play by Charles Portis
with an introduction by Jay Jennings

Books

FUNNY UNCLE
LD Beghtol on William Alexander Percy

CHEMICALLY DARKENED LIKE ME
Percival Everett on John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me

THE SHIFTING SELF
Thomas Larson on The Untouchable Minutes

FOREIGN SON
Ellen Ann Fentress on Richard Wright

Poetry

SEER-SUCKER
by Andrea Null

[THE MOUTH IS AN ENTRANCE]
by Magdalena Zurawski

Two Poems:
THE BAPTISM and ARKANSAS
by Jesse Nathan

Cover: “I’m a cowboy who never saw a cow” (2012) by Otto Lange