BEST OF THE OXFORD AMERICAN

Ten Years from the Southern Magazine of Good Writing
Marc Smirnoff | Editor
Rick Bragg | Foreword

• $16.95 paperback
• 320 pages
• 1-58818-081-6
• Anthology

The Oxford American is back! Go to www.oxfordamericanmag.com for more information and to see the new issue.

Celebrating Ten Years of the South's Best Writing

“Best of the Oxford American sidesteps the question of what makes a Southerner and deals instead with what a Southerner makes.”—The Onion

the book

Provocative. Opinionated. Irreverent. After ten years of hard work and dedication to succeed The Oxford American proudly presents a comprehensive anthology of its most memorable pieces published during its first decade. From its founding in Faulkner's hometown of Oxford, Mississippi by Marc Smirnoff (and published since 1995 by internationally best-selling author John Grisham), OA has served as incubator and archive for the most promising and most established voices in contemporary Southern letters, offering up an extraordinary range of perspectives on a multitude of subjects, while always avoiding the hackneyed notion of the South as the exclusive province of the gothic or the sentimental dominion of moonlight and magnolias. Gathered in the pages of Best of The Oxford American are the magazine's stellar fiction and poetry alongside its best commentary, profiles, photography, comics, and reportage on politics, history, religion, art, books, film, and humor, as well as selections from the much-celebrated annual music issues. While decidedly Southern in focus, Best of OA appeals to readers of any region looking for intelligent commentary on every facet of the modern world and the life of the mind.

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE

Rick Bass Roy Blount Jr. Wendy Brenner Larry Brown Roseanne Cash Billy Collins Hal Crowther Lee Durkee John T. Edge Tony Earley William Faulkner Tim Gautreaux William Gay Marianne Gingher Barry Hannah Zora Neale Hurston

Donald Justice Andrea Lee Steve Martin Walker Percy Tom Piazza Sister Helen Prejean Mark Richard Cynthia Shearer John Simpkins Susan Sontag John J. Sullivan Donna Tartt Matthew Teague John Updike Steve Yarbrough

the editor

Marc Smirnoff is the founding editor of The Oxford American. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

the praise

"The South's first major, general interest magazine. . . . A tremendous hit."—John Grisham

"I really like the magazine. It's very cool."—Tom Petty

"The editorial content remains impeccable. The artwork is a perfect complement to the magazine's sometimes quirky, never predictable prose."—Mediaweek

"A pleasure to read."—New Orleans Times-Picayune

"An eclectic mix, a welcome fix."—Boston Globe

"Endearing and polished, . . . thoughtful, surprising . . . It vaults into the upper tiers of American magazines."—Washington Post

"Takes you beyond the world of the South. . . . If you're looking for something to curl up with it's just the ticket."—Charlotte Observer

"A wealth of entertaining and engrossing essays, short stories, poems, and personal commentary. . . . Not for Southerners only."—Utne Reader

"Not only has Smirnoff found the Southern voice, but he's provided a wonderful platform to make it heard. . . . Each issue of The Oxford American introduces a roster of eccentric but endearing characters. . . . A sort of Southern version of The New Yorker."—USA Today

"A rambunctious often brilliant literary magazine."—Salon

"An idiosyncratic journal that attracts work from the South's best writers."—Elle

"Faulkner may have put Oxford, Mississippi on the literary map, but he's not the only reason it stayed there.—Book Magazine

"One of the brightest periodicals to appear on the American literary scene. A fabulous . . . magazine of passionate, quirky writing about the South."—Los Angeles Times

also of interest:  www.oxfordamericanmag.com