FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Warwick Sabin, (501) 374-0000
A Thrice-Weekly Newspaper for NOLA and a Rare Newly Published Work from True Grit Author
Chris Rose and Charles Portis Featured in the The Oxford American's New South Journalism Issue
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (August 28, 2012) — The Oxford American has released its New
South Journalism issue, which includes a previously unpublished work by acclaimed
writer Charles Portis (of True Grit fame), and a gonzo memoir by Chris Rose of his
twenty-five year career as an "ink-stained wretch" at the New Orleans TimesPicayune. The third issue of The OA's 20th anniversary year is available now at
bookstores and newsstands nationwide.
"When we decided to put together an issue focusing on journalism in the South, we
had no idea the Times-Picayune and its peers in Alabama were going to undergo such
momentous changes," said Warwick Sabin, publisher of The Oxford American.
"Nearly 40 years after (Virginia-born) Tom Wolfe coined the phrase, we wanted to
turn over some of the forgotten rocks of 'New Journalism' and maybe more
importantly, we wanted to provide a forum to some of the most exciting new nonfiction scribes in the South today. We still believe in writing—even in this era of
Twitter feeds. So while other news outlets slash their staffs and word counts, we
offered the South's best journalists 10,000 words and months to stew on whatever
topic they wanted and waited to see what they would produce."
The results can be found in the New South Journalism issue. In addition to the piece
by Chris Rose, the issue includes:
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Kevin Brockmeier's courageous infiltration of one of the oddest subcultures in
America … seventh graders.
A lost (until now) memoir by the late Esquire editor (and North Carolina
native) Harold Hayes on the ups and downs of editing Norman Mailer.
A reconsideration of John Howard Griffin's insane experiment in which he
turned himself "black" and hitchhiked through the Jim Crow South, which later
became his 1957 book Black Like Me.
A stirring descent into the soul of murderer Ricky Langley and an account of
his 1992 killing of a Louisiana child named Jeremy Guillory.
And lots more, too, including dispatches from our favorite novelists and
journalists on potentially poisonous gas drilling in rural Arkansas, obsessive
birdwatchers off the coast of Louisiana, and Sasquatch hunters in North
Carolina.
As a bonus, the New South Journalism issue features a never-before-published play
by Charles Portis called "Delray's New Moon." A play? In an issue devoted to
journalism? (Does it matter that Portis first honed his writing chops as a reporter at
the New York Herald-Tribune where he rubbed elbows with Tom Wolfe, Jimmy
Breslin, and Lewis Lapham?) It’s a fair question. In the end, we rest assured that if
there was any rule of New Journalism, it was that the rules don't apply, and this
masterpiece by Portis was just too good to pass up.
About The Oxford American
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, The Oxford American is a national magazine
dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing, while documenting the
complexity and vitality of the American South. Billed as "The Southern Magazine of
Good Writing," it has won three 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. The
magazine has also published previously unseen work by such Southern masters as
William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, James Agee, Zora Neale Hurston,
James Dickey, and Carson McCullers, to name just a handful. The New York
Times recently stated that The Oxford American "may be the liveliest literary
magazine in America."
For more information, visit oxfordamerican.org.
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