This special issue of the Oxford American is devoted to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, three years after Hurricane Katrina, featuring stories from residents and writers of the place.
Features by Lolis Eric Elie, Sarah M. Broom, David Ramsey, and Peter Zinn. Fiction by Nic Pizzolatto.
Other essays by C.D. Wright, William Caverlee, Ernest J. Gaines, Anne Gisleson, Jesmyn Ward, and more.
Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff
Publisher’s Note
by Warwick Sabin
Gone Off Up North
by Roy Blount Jr.
Finding a perfect match for Bill Clinton.
Local Fare
by John T. Edge
A local mecca for catfish lovers.
Food
by Wright Thompson
Remembrance of things past.
Writing on Writing
by Constance Adler
A dream comes true.
Family
by Jesmyn Ward
Our legacy of not evacuating.
Family
by Michelle Richmond
Remembering a childhood storm from a long-ago summer.
Politics
by Ellen Ann Fentress
Did Mississippi’s governor do the right things in post-Katrina chaos?
Place
by Moira Crone
Local bar can say it all.
Community
by C.D. Wright
Love in the ruins.
Place
by Anne Gisleson
It’s funny what we hold onto.
Community
by Alex V. Cook
Did all the newcomers to Baton Rouge suddenly make it…cool?
Meditations
by Ada Liana Bidiuc
The summer doldrums.
Food
by Sarah Roahen
A hidden: sausages.
Lagniappe
by Brett Anderson
A short list of restaurants that survived and are better than ever.
Art
by Bill Sasser
The artist Willie Birch sees the promise and the darkness of New Orleans’ future.
Personalities
by Mark Winegardner
Dr. Ben Marble, an unlikely hero, gave Dick Cheney a taste of his own medicine.
Community
by Maura Fitzgerald
The spirit of a lounge.
Southern Lit
by William Caverlee
What is the great New Orleans novel? Here are a few suggestions.
Writing on Writing
by Ned Sublette
History in the making.
Southern Lit
by Clay Risen
Here’s an author deserving of a fresh look.
Writing on Writing
by Ernest J. Gaines
The two greatest moves in his life were leaving Louisiana and returning to Louisiana.
STILL LIVE, WITH VOICES
by Lolis Eric Elie
Not neat, not linear, and not monosyllabic.
NO DIRECTION KNOWN
by Chris Rose
Wrong turns, deadends, and all the agony and ecstasy one man can take.
LETTING HER GO
by Sarah M. Brown
Why it’s so hard to leave and also why it’s necessary.
WHY I STAYED
by Jed Horne
It wasn’t an easy decision.
I WILL FOREVER REMAIN FAITHFUL
by David Ramsey
Rap music helps a teacher connect with his students.
WANTED MAN
by Nic Pizzolatto
Family drama—with guns, explosions, shoot-outs, and strange creatures—on the Louisiana prairie.
MY SECRET GARDEN
by Peter Zinn
A boy follows a girl to New Orleans and finds himself lost in a garden.
Epithalamium
by Forrest Gander
Honey Behind the Sun
by Greg Brownderville
Invitation to the Gretna Royals
by Alison Pelegrin
Lament
by Ginny Kaczmarek
Thanksgiving on the Gulf
by Wilmer Mills
Cover: “Ally Running” by Samuel Portera