August 31, 2009

The Oxford American releases new 'Southern Lit' issue

Robert Penn Warren once said that there were two chief forms of amusement in the South: "Storytelling and copulation." If you are looking for the latter, well, then perhaps you have the wrong magazine—but storytelling? That we can speak to.

The Oxford American—"the Southern Magazine of Good Writing"—is proud to release its first issue dedicated solely to Southern Literature—a subject as complex, varied, and even controversial as Southern Music.

For this Southern Lit issue, we polled 134 scholars, scribes, and a few mystery guests to determine the Best Southern Books of All Time—fiction and nonfiction. Will you agree with the wisdom of our judges, or will you be left spoiling for a fight? Pull up a seat ringside, pull out a stogie (if only to clench it in your teeth), and watch as Southern literary heavyweights from Agee to Zora duke it out for the "Southern Best" crown.

(We also asked the judges to supply us with the names of the "Most Underrated Southern Books of All Time." In this issue, the brawling never stops!)

Other issue highlights:

• How to Survive: Writer's Block, Rejection by Editors, and Yankee Aunts.
• Editor Marc Smirnoff Declares "The Irrelevancy of Southern Literature."
• Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, & Carson McCullers: Pretenders to the Throne or Short-Story Royalty?
• Is William Faulkner Too Rowdy for the Classroom?
• What's Up with Modern Southern Fiction? Responses by Wendell Berry, Barb Johnson, Jack Pendarvis, and Alex Taylor.
• Much, much more….

P.S. A final surprise—one of America's funniest writers steps up to the plate to replace another one of America's funniest writers, Roy Blount, Jr., as our newest columnist. Catch the hi-jinks within….