The Oxford American was founded in 1992 with a vision that still guides us today: the South—a region so productive of great literature—deserves a great literary magazine. In our Good Reading collection, you will find current and classic issues of the Oxford American magazine, and a few of our favorite books by OA contributors and friends.

The Oxford American is best known for its annual music issue, which includes a gorgeously produced CD of songs selected by our editors. As critic Dwight Garner wrote in the New York Times, “These CDs practically belong in the Smithsonian.” In our Good Listening collection, browse OA music issues, past and present, alongside a selection of albums we think you'll enjoy.

Stunning artwork and design have always been integral to the Oxford American. Every time you read an issue of the magazine, we want you to feel like you're holding an object of beauty. All purchases support the Oxford American's ongoing mission to explore the complexity and vitality of the South through excellent writing, visual art, and events programming.

ESCAPE VELOCITY

Collected here in Escape Velocity, edited by Jay Jennings, is Charles Portis’s "miscellany"—journalism, short fiction, memoir, and even the play Delray's New Moon, published for the first time in this volume. Fans of Portis’s droll Southern humor and quirky characters will be thrilled at this new addition to his library.

Heavy: An American Memoir

Kiese Laymon is a fearless writer. In his essays, personal stories combine with piercing intellect to reflect both on the state of American society and on his experiences with abuse, which conjure conflicted feelings of shame, joy, confusion, and humiliation. Laymon invites us to consider the consequences of growing up in a nation wholly obsessed with progress yet wholly disinterested in the messy work of reckoning with where we’ve been.

The Floating World

Set in New Orleans, this important and powerful novel follows the Boisdore family in the months after Katrina. A profound, moving and authentically detailed picture of the storm’s emotional impact on those who lived through it. People In this dazzling debut about family, home, and grief, C. Morgan Babst takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina and the life of a great city.

Southernmost

In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew—and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle.