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We've just rolled out our editorial calendar for upcoming issues. Following our next issue, BEST OF THE SOUTH (#3), we'll publish a NEW ORLEANS/GULF COAST ISSUE (on newsstands in August 2008), our TENTH ANNIVERSARY MUSIC ISSUE (with double CD!; October/November 2008), and our first-ever RACE ISSUE (February 2009).

We're thrilled to announce that Warwick Sabin has recently become our new publisher! Warwick worked previously at the Clinton Library with Skip Rutherford and Bill Clinton, and as a political columnist and editor at the Arkansas Times, and now he works at UCA with President Lu Hardin. He's also been involved in the Arkansas Literary Festival, which is moving into its fifth year, and in many other worthy crusades.

OXFORD AMERICAN MAGAZINE RECEIVES GRANT FROM KING FAMILY FOUNDATION FOR UPCOMING 2008 DVD

The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation has awarded a grant of $5,000 to the Oxford American Literary project for its upcoming second DVD that focuses on the image of the South on film. The DVD will be issued in conjunction with the third annual Best Of The South issue scheduled for June 2008.

The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation was established in 1988 to support individuals, institutions and organizations committed to educational excellence and professional development and provide scholarships to outstanding U.S. college and university undergraduate students in four-year, degree-granting programs in television and film. To that end, the Foundation has established several ongoing sponsorship, grant and scholarship programs. For more information contact their website at: www.kingfoundation.org

The Oxford American Literary Project receives Walton Family Foundation grant

(December 2007) The Oxford American Literary Project was approved in December for a $5,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation. The funds were for general support. The mission of the Oxford American Literary Project is twofold. Through its quarterly magazine, The Oxford American, it aspires to study, explore and elucidate Southern Culture via writing, music, photography, and art serving both an educational as well as cultural function. The Literary Project itself aspires to encourage young minds to pursue literature and literary journalism through fellowships, educational programs, and other unique projects. The Oxford American Literary Project will take advantage of its unique literary contacts to promote the literary arts in the South and beyond. Cultural programming includes education curriculum utilizing the remarkable archive of The Oxford American magazine, literary events, author/editor visits to schools; as well as a series of awards recognizing the achievements of contributors to Southern culture.

The Oxford American nominated for best Regional Coverage by Utne Reader

(November, 2007) Utne Reader officially announced its nominees for the magazine's 2007 Independent Press Awards in November, which honors the very best in independent media from the pool of more than 1,300 sources Utne uses to cull its content. The Oxford American was nominated for best Regional Coverage.

"At times the Oxford American reads like a slow Sunday-morning drawl on the front porch, lulling you with its beautiful, hypnotic poetry and prose, until you're forced into attention by the images those words evoke, from the still-simmering small-town relations of the "New" South to a rhapsodic paean to the greatest singer you've never heard."

Since 1984, Utne Reader has been a leading voice for independent thinkers, bringing readers an informed point-of-view on issues ranging from the environment to the economy and from politics to pop culture—the kind of stories you'll find in the mainstream media months or years from now. Utne Reader taps into the pulse of what's emerging in the culture by engaging with the most visionary thinkers and doers of our time and by presenting the best articles and ideas from thousands of indie publications, websites, blogs, newly published books, films, and other off-the-beaten-path sources. Other nominees for Regional Coverage include: Alberta Views, East Bay Monthly (Bay Area, CA), The Independent Weekly (Lafayette, LA), New England Watershed, Sacramento News & Review, Urbanite (Baltimore) and Westword (Denver) The Oxford American is past recipient of numerous UTNE awards.

The online music magazine Pitchfork reviews 2007 Music Issue.

In what was a first for The OA the online zine Pitchfork reviewed the 2007 Southern Music issue. As Editor Marc Smirnoff commented "Even a bad reivew from Pitchfork is a good thing."

"Don't think of the Oxford American Music Issue 2007 as a magazine with a free CD. Instead, think of it as an inexpensive CD with really long liner notes. For more than a decade, the magazine has devoted a full issue each year to exploring the darker corners of Southern music, drawing in a phalanx of writers-- including three from the Pitchfork stable this year-- to help determine a tracklist of old and contemporary obscurities. Representing a range of knowledge that is cumulatively broad but personally deep, the Music Issue covers a wide swathe of time, with songs ranging from the earliest days of recorded sound (the oldest on the new CD is Don Redman's "That Blue Eyed Baby from Memphis", from 1932) to the latest releases (the most recent, the Hackensaw Boys' "Look Out Dog, Slow Down Train", was released in June 2007)

For full review:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/46362-the-oxford-american-music-issue-2007

THE OXFORD AMERICAN RELEASES 9TH EDITION OF AWARD-WINNING MUSIC ISSUE.

(Conway, Arkansas) Why are famous acts Dwight Yoakam, Thelonious Monk, and rapper David Banner nestled together with obscurities like the International Submarine Band, Zakary Thaks, Teddy Grace, Karen Dalton, the Parchman Prison Band, and other authentic American originals on one CD together? There can only be one reason: The 2007 Oxford American Music Issue has arrived! The Oxford American celebrates the diversity of American music and storytelling in its 2007 Music Issue now on sale nationwide including a 26-track CD generously underwritten by the country music-oriented cable television network CMT. In addition to the CD abounding with 26 musical surprises, there is also the magazine itself. Sean Wilentz delivers a fly-on-the-wall account of the making of Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde in Nashville. Columnist Roy Blount urges for the return of yodeling. Harper's staffer Bill Wasik writes on the blogosphere phenomenon of Annuals. Acclaimed novelist Fredrick Barthelme writes of his days in the 1960's as the drummer for the cult art-noise band, the Red Crayola. Sam Stephenson writes about Thelonious Monk's final gig in his home state of North Carolina in 1970. And more.... "Every year we try and do something special with the music issue and CD," says Editor Marc Smirnoff. "This year, with the exception of a few big names, we really wanted to get into the undercurrent of celebrating lost and unjustly forgotten musical superstars. If people recognize right off the bat most of the names we're covering in this year's edition, then we kind of failed at our mission." Each artist on the CD is featured in the magazine with insightful commentary from talented music writers and regular OA contributors including William Bowers, Carol Ann Fitzgerald, Kevin Brockmeier, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Warren Zanes, Derek Jenkins, Sven Birkerts, Amanda Petrusich, Bill Friskics-Warren, and Mike Powell. The Oxford American is published by the nonprofit Oxford American Literary Project. The OA is a quarterly magazine based on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1992, it bills itself as "The Southern Magazine of Good Writing." In 2005 the Music Issue was a finalist for a National Magazine Award—an award they won in 1999 and 2003.

THE OA PRAISED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES.

1/28/07, Dwight Garner wrote, "The Oxford American may be the liveliest literary magazine in America... with CDs so smart and eclectic they probably belong in the Smithsonian."

THE OA GETS A PAIR OF NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD NOMINATIONS.
Talk about good company! The American Society of Magazine Editors announced their finalists for the 2006 National Magazine Awards, and The OA has been tapped as a finalist in two categories. Wendy Brenner's "Love and Death in the Cape Fear Serpentarium" (Winter 2005) has been selected as a finalist in the category of Feature Writing, while the Summer 2005 Music Issue has been named as a finalist in the category of Single Topic Issue. The Atlantic Monthly leads all magazines this year with eight nominations, while other publications nominated include The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's, Time, Vanity Fair, and The Virginia Quarterly Review's stunning six nominations (congratulations, guys!). Needless to say, we're thrilled at the honor of being among such elite competition. The award ceremony for the "Ellies" (named after the Alexander Calder Stabile "Elephant") is scheduled for Tuesday, May 9, at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall, in New York City. We'll keep you updated as time progresses. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed and check out the ASME Web site for more details.

Check out John McManus's essay on Ricky Scaggs via Tennessee's WDVX 89.9 FM's.

Listen to OA contributor John Biguenet discuss his essay on the yodeling DeZurik Sisters on NPR's "Morning Edition."

THIRD TIME IS INDEED THE CHARM.
After a very successful Relaunch Issue that generated all kinds of buzz about our partnership with UCA, we've followed up with the much-anticipated Food Issue, which was released in mid-April with a fried-chicken luncheon hosted by guest editor John T. Edge at the Arkansas Literary Festival. The fun continued up North a few weeks later with a Food Issue launch party at KGB Bar in New York. Roy Blount, Lolis Eric Elie, Ben Phelan, and Pete Wells read to a packed house that flowed down the stairwell just to hear 'em give the skinny on Southern food. Our ubiquitous John T. Edge again played host, with several dozen of his peers in town for the James Beard Awards. Allison Vines-Rushing provided her homemade pimento cheese. All in all, with an audience crammed in the room and happily tossing back drinks at the bar, it was fine way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

And the Food Issue seems to have stirred all kinds of excitement online. Bruce Cole gives the curious public a peek at Pete Wells's article on pig farming at Sautewednesday.com, while Jon Valentine details the fun of this "culinary riot" in his Zinestream column. Meanwhile, Maude Newton and David Koon give us a very kind and much appreciated tip of the hat. And if you still doubt about the enthusiasm the issue has inspired among food lovers, check out the thread on us at the eGullet Society for Arts and Letters. Praise abounds, and we're very grateful.

We thought it might also be timely to announce that our internship program is back in full swing. The internship is open to all candidates with at least two years' college credit, but is not restricted to students (in fact, many of our candidates join us after they've completed their degrees). We offer both six-month and semester-long positions.