#EyesontheSouth | Strange Parallels | José Castrellón In his series “Palindrome,” Panamanian artist José Castrellón explores the connection between Panama City, Florida, and his birth country, 3,400 miles south along the Caribbean Sea. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/QtvAi

“How do I stay present when I’m so worried about what comes next?” @poetmarcuswicker.bsky.social moves through sleepless nights, 4 a.m. dance parties, and new fatherhood, finding grace in music, family, and his infant son’s laughter. 🔗: oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/noctu...

“I got into sports as a way to tell stories that people didn’t necessarily want to hear the first time.” —Frederick McKindra interviews journalist @stevengodfrey.bsky.social and discusses how Southern sports can act as a vessel for broader cultural conversations. 🔗: shorturl.at/YXHOc

As a companion to the upcoming home-themed double issue, we are thrilled to announce the Home Makers series: a collection of eight essays that explore the concept of home through particular aspects of each author’s living space. Tour the first two spaces: https://oxfordamerican.org/home-makers

We’re excited to present the Summer/Fall 2026 double issue dedicated to Home! Pre-order your copy for a late July delivery here: www.oxfordamericangoods.org/products/iss...

“Good hot fish! Come get your good hot fish!” Sheeka Sanahori visits Good Hot Fish in Asheville, North Carolina where chef Ashleigh Shanti’s fried catfish sandwich honors Appalachian fish camps, Black Asheville, and the memory of Southside. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/3pyVT

#EyesontheSouth | Escaping the Sprawl | Matt Bower In this feature from the archive, Atlanta photographer Matt Bower captures life in rural Southern communities that have managed to evade development. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/grO46

“The work was rooted in touch.” Brooks Lamb reflects on his family’s Middle Tennessee farm, where tobacco shaped generations of labor, land, and care. 🔗: https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/educated-by-tobacco

“They were together, kings of the universe.” From “Saint Days,” a new short story by Emily Nemens. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/RJjjZ

We’re thrilled to say the Oxford American just won CLMP’s 2026 Firecracker Award in Magazines/General Excellence. Thanks to CLMP and the judges, and congratulations to all of this year’s winners and finalists! 🔗: https://shorturl.at/kl7CX

“The greatest bites tell a story; some truly excellent bites tell multiple.” Shaan Merchant traces the tomato sandwich through Tennessee summers, Bombay street food, and Tailor chef Vivek Surti’s first-generation South Asian cooking. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/dzrhe

“Being a New Orleans musician means everything to me.” —This past Monday, Leyla McCalla brought three centuries of history and influences from around the world to Conway, Arkansas, to announce the 2026 New Orleans Music Issue. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/s9MxO

“The Ninth was the only blue haven in our very red state.” Zandria F. Robinson traces Tennessee’s congressional districts through family history, redistricting, and the legacy of Black political representation in Memphis. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/w7GnE

The Oxford American is now accepting pitches for our 28th annual music issue dedicated to New Orleans! For full details visit oxfordamerican.org/submissions.

New Orleans, we’re headed your way! The OA’s 28th annual Music Issue will be fully dedicated to the sonic complexities of the city, from jazz to bounce, from cajun fiddle to sludge metal. 🎶 Reserve your copy today at OxfordAmericanGoods.org !

Little Rock- and Conway-area folks, end this rainy Monday on a high note with the OA and singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla. Doors open at 5:30. We can’t wait to see you there!

“The saying goes, ‘eat everything on the pig except the squeal,’ and what began as necessity became its own craft, alchemizing scraps and struggle into something worth craving.” Read Asia Rose Phua’s love letter to Judice’s pork cracklins. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/sJ59H

#EyesontheSouth | For Queer Kids | Peyton Fulford In this feature from the archive, Peyton Fulford captures queer Southern youth through portraits that feel “suffused with the intensity and tenderness of personal experience.” 🔗: https://shorturl.at/XuFvl

“The more songs I listened to, the more wine appeared” @emhilly.bsky.social follows a trail of wine-soaked country songs to uncover a history of class, gender, nostalgia, and the changing face of country music. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/C3t62

“Evil has a boundary, a body, a pair of shoes.” Author T.J. Martinson revisits the crimes of teenage vampire cult leader Rod Ferrell and examines the cultural impulse to turn women into scapegoats long after the guilty have been named. 🔗: shorturl.at/sedhD

“The organization strives to practice Jefferson’s charge to ‘follow truth wherever it may lead.’” —C.J. Bartunek visits Monticello where preparation for America’s 250th birthday centers on the Declaration of Independence. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/xtWPV

“The purpose in coming here, I say, was simply to come.” Author Todd Kliman and his teenage son embark on a trip to New Orleans where they deepen their understanding of the culinary world, each other, and themselves. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/GqUpW

“The ACE Basin stands out as one of the last remaining bastions of traditional Lowcountry landscape, culture, and community.” —Robby Maynor reports on the fight to protect the ACE Basin from becoming the site of a data center complex. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/vkjhB

“She’d tell me I was living in the past. I’d tell her the past was living in me.” —From the archive, Jerald Walker confesses his fear of the South as a first-generation descendant of the Great Migration, sparked by the prospect of his return. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/t7prX

In Issue 132, Kirsten Chervenak follows the foot and hoof prints left by the Pack Horse Librarians, local women from eastern Kentucky who delivered books on horseback to help New Deal goals of literary expansion in the 1930s. Read here: https://shorturl.at/NosnS

#EyesontheSouth | The Crux of June | Isabelle Baldwin In this feature from the archive, Baldwin captures the sun-drenched summer scenes of her Western North Carolina upbringing, alongside other photos of small-town living across the South. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/bf936

“Still, I saw the best of him at the bottom of a pot.” In a new feature, Michael J. Ivory Jr. uses his grandfather’s blueberry cobbler recipe as a lens to trace formative childhood memories and family history. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/IFh2s

#EyesontheSouth | The Best View | Caitlin Peterson In this feature from the archive, Caitlin Peterson captures the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia to explore if “man’s mark on these places [is] a necessary evil in order to preserve them.” 🔗: https://shorturl.at/9eALj

“Imagine what I felt at the time: Walker Percy was concerned about me. What more could I ask for in the world?” In a newly digitized piece from the archive, Nancy Lemann recalls formative encounters with her literary hero, Walker Percy, in Louisiana. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/Rmy9Z

“Were Texans and tourists eating so much delicious barbecue that our hardwood stands were disappearing?” Judson Vail speaks with forester Logan McMillan and chef Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin on the usage of post oaks across Texas. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/AgDOA