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Magazine


Issue 48, Winter 2005

“Four years ago in April Christ appeared to me in a dream firmer than a dream. He was not radiant but nevertheless pronounced against a red-brown background of low mountains on the near horizon. A camera would have placed Him on the surface of Mars or in front of a quiet sandstorm in Jerusalem.” — Barry Hannah, “Christ in the Room”

Essays by Charles Portis, Barry Hannah, Wendy Brenner, Kevin Brockmeir, Gary Hawkins, Will Blythe, and more. Fiction by Carol Ann Fitzgerald, Michael Parker, and Judy Budnitz.

Other contributors include Roy Blount Jr., John. T. Edge, Paul Reyes, and more.







COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS


Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff

Messages from the Front 
Delivering the motley South to your doorstep!
with Paul Maliszewski, Emily Witt, Lawrence Wilson

OA Comix:
Sammy's World
by Kristin Gore (writer) and Ellen Forney (artist)

Gone Off Up North:
Where's the Big Idea?
by Roy Blount, Jr.

Saying It:
Don't Try This at Home
by Kaye Gibbons

Local Fare:
Piggly Wiggly Ain't No Hoggly Woggly
by John T. Edge

The Future:
Change in the Delta
by Matt Dellinger

Sense of Place:
Tri-County Fair—Petersburg, West Virginia 
Photographs by Mary Noble Ours

The Moviegoer:
Life Studies
by Gary Hawkins

Guest Music Column:
The Worst Form of Imitation?
by Will Blythe

Writing on Writing:
A Kind of Mystery 
by Kevin Brockmeier

Writing on Writing:
The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth
by Charles Portis

Dealer’s Choice:
Son of a Preacher Man
Marshall Frady (1940–2004)
by Hal Crowther

Books:
Faulkner as Racist
by Marc Smirnoff

Books:
St. Cassius
by Paul Reyes

Southern Reader:
Roughhousing in the Southern Library
by J.B. Slogan

Southern Scenes:
Walnut Glen, West Virginia
Photo by Mary Noble Ours

Poetry:
Brucker Alone
by Rob Griffith

FEATURES


Love and Death in the Cape Fear Serpentarium
Some passions are more dangerous than others.
by Wendy Brenner

The Kindest Cut
A Civil War surgeon carves a place in one family’s history.
A story by Judy Budnitz

Christ in the Room
The author’s life after seeing Jesus.
by Barry Hannah

Are You Ready to be Seen?
What should a frustrated writer do if his main competition is his best friend?
A story by Jennifer S. Davis

Hidden Meanings
A college student turns in a no-holds-barred homework assignment.
A short story by Michael Parker

King Volcano
Intimate encounters on a Hawaiian island.
A short story by Carol Ann Fitzgerald

 

Cover: Photo by Mary Noble Ours