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Oxford American

A quarterly literary magazine dedicated to exploring the complexity and vitality of the South. For more information, visit OxfordAmerican.org.

The Oxford American is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization and national magazine dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing, while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Billed as “A Magazine of the South,” it has won four National Magazine Awards and other high honors since it began publication in 1992. The magazine has featured the original work of such

literary powerhouses as Charles Portis, Roy Blount, Jr., ZZ Packer, Donald Harington, Donna Tartt, Ernest J. Gaines, and many other distinguished authors, while also discovering and launching the most promising writers in the region. In 2007, The New York Times stated that the Oxford American “may be the liveliest literary magazine in America.” The Oxford American is committed to the development of young individuals aspiring to work in the publishing industry, and to the production and presentation of multidisciplinary arts events in and around Little Rock, Arkansas. The Oxford American is published from the University of Central Arkansas.

08/01/2026

In this brand new feature, Emmy-nominated photographer and filmmaker Ilie Mitaru captures scenes from the Optimal Performance Academy in Decatur, Texas, which is injecting science-backed training into bull riding, “a sport still very much rooted in old school cowboy tradition.”

View more here: https://oxfordamerican.org/eyes/a-new-school-for-an-old-sport

07/01/2026

“I didn’t know (still don’t) if it was Willie or a Willie soundalike for the purpose of the film, but I found out that Willie Nelson was the writer of ‘Crazy.’ Wrote it all by himself!”

—Grammy award-winner Brandy Clark recalls the hold that the song “Crazy,” which she heard for the first time in Patsy Cline’s biopic “Sweet Dreams,” had over her, and the revelations that came along with finding out it was written by a young Willie Nelson.

This piece appears in the Austin LIVE! Music Issue, available now.

Read more here: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-131-winter-2025/sweet-dreams

Image: Willie Nelson, c. 1965, copyright Archive PL/Alamy

06/01/2026

“The past and the present exist within the frame of a photograph, as well as the photographer’s vision. And so it is with images of the Mississippi Delta, whether it is a photograph of a sign at Parchman or the edge of a levee on the Mississippi River.”

—Author of “When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land” .eubanks utilizes landscape photography centered on the State Penitentiary at Parchman and other landmarks to capture the inequities of the Delta, both past and present.

Read more about the Delta and the history of Parchman here: https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/a-way-of-seeing-the-mississippi-delta

Images courtesy W. Ralph Eubanks

05/01/2026

“Protected by contoured sunglasses, body armor, and Military Police shields stitched to their backs, the National Guard have come to combat crime at the Bass Pro Shop.”

Author Marcus Wicker details Memphis on the day the National Guard arrived, the same day as the Country Blues Festival. Onstage, performers channeled Ralph Ellison’s definition of the blues, “an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.”

Read more: https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/a-bluff-city-blues

Image: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram at the 2025 Country Blues Festival in Memphis. Photograph courtesy Craig Thompson .

02/01/2026

“A ninety-one-year-old’s interpretation of a nine-year-old Texas boy’s recollections of the Hill Country landscape—it literally broke my heart. I cried so hard, a rivulet of snot dripped from my nose onto the studio’s mixing console.”

—Rodney Crowell reflects on the emotional impact of listening to Willie Nelson’s recordings of songs Crowell wrote, including “The Border,” “Many a Long and Lonesome Highway,” “Banks of the Old Bandera,” and “I’ll Love You Until the Day I Die,” which received a Grammy nomination.

This piece appears in the Austin LIVE! Music Issue, available now.

Read more here: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-131-winter-2025/when-it-s-an-honor-to-cry

Image: “Willie Mural, Downtown Hometown, Abbot, 2024,” a photograph by Henry Horenstein from his book “Miles and Miles of Texas,” published in October by H***y Tonk Editions copyright Henry Horenstein/AUGUST

31/12/2025

In 2025 the Oxford American published original reporting, poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, artwork, and photo essays by 147 contributors.

Your continued support keeps access to these pieces and hundreds more paywall free, funds paid internships, distributes thousands of magazines to classrooms and community organizations, and ensures we can continue championing the best writing from across the American South.

Help us carry this work into the new year by making a donation today at oxfordamerican.org/donate

29/12/2025

In this new poem, KB Brookins reflects on an evening at the original North Door in Austin, Texas, when “a Black boy in heels” filled the room with heart-thumping music and the crowd was unapologetically q***r. This piece appears in the Austin LIVE! Music Issue, available now.

Read the full poem here: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-131-winter-2025/ode-to-the-north-door

Photograph courtesy RECSPEC

24/12/2025

“For the next hour-plus, Picher, Oklahoma, exists again. The mining companies never packed up and left. The abandoned mines beneath the crowd aren’t filled with toxic groundwater. The government never had to offer buyouts. The tornado never hit.”

—Ryan Atkinson documents the annual Coming Home for Christmas parade in Picher, Oklahoma, where former residents reunite to bring the ghost town back to life. This story was supported by Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Read more about the history of Picher here: https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/a-ghost-town-revival

Photographs by Ryan Atkinson

23/12/2025

As we prepare to step into 2026, we’re counting down the top five stories that our readers loved most from the past year.

5. Saving a New Orleans Banksy by Ivy Knight
4. The Tangled Past and Unsettled Future of Greyhound Racing in West Virginia by Michelle Orange
3. Waxahatchee: She Lives for the Sake of the Song by Jenn Pelly
2. The Alabama Landline that Keeps Ringing by Emily McCrary
1. Gobsmacked! Supernatural Sightings After a Flood by Lora Eli Smith

Thank you for your continued support and for engaging with these incredible stories—which you can read anytime on our website: https://oxfordamerican.org/

We’re excited to keep bringing you new narratives that capture the complexity and vitality of the American South throughout the year ahead.

Image 2: Banksy’s “Boy on a Life Preserver Swing” was restored by Elise Grenier and is now on display at the International House in New Orleans. Photograph courtesy Oliver Halfin; Image 3: “Two greyhounds at night,” 2019, oil on panel by Clare Menck © The artist. Courtesy 99 Loop Gallery; Image 4: Photograph by Molly Matalon; Image 5: Foy Information Desk at Auburn University, Photograph by Emily McCrary; Image 6: Illustration by Carter/Reddy. Photography by goce risteski via Adobe Stock

22/12/2025

“The Devil’s Backbone is a dance hall, bar, hangout, and community center, loosely tied together. Texas Monthly writer Christian Wallace declared it one of the best honky-tonks in Texas. The place calls itself the oldest dive bar in the state, which isn’t exactly true. It is true it’s haunted, though.”

—Joe Nick Patoski dives into the community and Texas tradition taking place at the ’s Backbone Tavern, which has hosted musical legends Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Marcia Ball, Doug Sahm, and more. This piece appears in the Austin LIVE! Music Issue, available now.

Read more about the Devil’s Backbone community here: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-131-winter-2025/quintessentially-hill-country

Photograph courtesy Devil’s Backbone Tavern. This image:

20/12/2025

“Victory created a cocoon, a haven for artists and patrons—mostly Black but not exclusively so—to take risks, to indulge, to take to the dance floor and grind out their cares against the grain of anti-Blackness and each other.”

—In “Fish Grease & Guitar Riffs,” Ashanté M. Reese traces the legacy of Victory Grill—now Victory East—as a vital Austin haven where Black artists and allies found respite, made music, and claimed freedom. This piece appears in our Austin LIVE! Music Issue, available now.

Read more about Victory here: https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-131-winter-2025/fish-grease-guitar-riffs

Image 1: Victory Grill, 2007, by That Other Paper/Flickr; Image 2: Flyer for the 1987 Texas Blues Reunion at Victory Grill, George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center, Austin; Image 3: Victory Grill, c. 1945, Tary Owens Collection, Texas Music Museum Collection

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