Oxford American # 96, Spring 2017

Editor’s Letter: Truth in Stories, by Eliza Borné

POINTS SOUTH

Straighten Up and Fly Right, a story by Glenn Taylor

Black Fences, by Linda B. Blackford

Palm Beach Van Dyck, by Nicole Pasulka

Snarly Pete on the Ramparts, by Ed McClanahan

Witness, three micro-memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly

This Land, photographs by Jack Spencer

Preservation, by C. Morgan Babst

Local Fare: On Crawfish Boats and Taco Baskets, by John T. Edge

POETRY

BTW, by Peter Cooley

The Confession, by Morri Creech

Breaking, by George Ella Lyon

Darkling, I listen—, by Safiya Sinclair

FEATURES

An Elegiac Valedictory
Celebrating “a dozen wonderful writers”
by Margaret Walker
Introduction by Kiese Laymon

A Town Under Trial
What an unsolved double murder in Kentucky reveals about America’s military-industrial complex
by Nick Tabor

THE YEAR OF THE HEAVY MOON
Seeking joy in a time of despair
by Michelle García

The Keepers of the Light
Mardi Gras’s flambeaux: a complicated history
by Rien Fertel

Flayed
a story by Jesmyn Ward
Excerpted from Sing, Unburied, Sing

OMNIVORE

Wayne Hall 0.1
Mystic art assembled from Corsicana’s dross
by David Searcy

Coming Up with Guy Davenport
A long-ago letter, a lifelong fascination, a longing appreciation
by Brian Blanchfield

Cooking with Chris:
Chicken Cordon Blue Bloods
by Chris Offutt



Art by: Jack Spencer, Rose Marie Cromwell, Ansen Seale, Rachel Boillot, Ben Nixon, Lee Deigaard, Ralph Wolfe Cowan, Linda Foard Roberts, Guy Mendes, Frank Relle, William Widmer, Carl Van Vechten, Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Tamara Reynolds, Alma Thomas, Vincent Valdez, Skip Bolen, Noel Camardo, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Andy Kropa

Cover: “Starfall,” St. Augustine, Florida (2008), by Jack Spencer, from This Land