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oxfordamerican.bsky.social
Oxford American
@oxfordamerican.bsky.social
The Oxford American is a national magazine dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the South.

https://linktr.ee/oxfordamerican
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Introducing the Austin Music Issue featuring @willienelsonmusic.bsky.social ! The 27th annual Southern Music Issue takes readers straight into the heart of Austin’s legendary live music scene. Pre-order your print edition + optional limited-edition vinyl LP now: https://rb.gy/m1p6y4
“I think music is one way to show people how much more we all have in common.”

—Adrian Quesada, member of Black Pumas, is profiled by Frederick McKindra in our upcoming Austin Music Issue, which is available for pre-order and will hit newsstands December 9.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/JO61N
December 3, 2025 at 3:30 PM
For Giving Tuesday, we’re giving away a test pressing of the Austin LIVE! Vinyl! Every donation, Austin Music Issue purchase, or merch order made TODAY enters you into a chance to win! Order here: shorturl.at/HlPUu
Pre-Order | Issue 131: Austin Music Issue
The 27th annual Oxford American Southern Music Issue will be devoted to another fascinating and complex American city: Austin, Texas. The magazine will explore the historical context that gave rise to...
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December 2, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Oxford American
This year’s @oxfordamerican.bsky.social Southern Music Issue arrived today along w/ their sampler on vinyl. I’ve only missed 1 issue since ‘98, the 1st not to include a CD but playlists instead. The ‘98 issue, which included an alternate take of a new R.E.M. track is how I 1st heard of the magazine.
December 2, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Oxford American
I’ve held a subscription to @oxfordamerican.bsky.social for over 20 years. Their annual Southern music issues are always well crafted. And it’s worth the extra cash to buy the vinyl accompaniment.
December 2, 2025 at 3:09 AM
“For Moon, para-fiction is a graceful entry point into taking basketball seriously.”

—In this feature article from @burnaway.org, Isabella Marie Garcia profiles conceptual artist Najja Moon, creator of the para-fictional WNBA franchise, the Miami VIS.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/lky5O
December 1, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Make your dollars count this Cyber Monday by supporting the Oxford American! We’re aiming to sell 5,120 copies of the Austin LIVE! Music Issue before the year ends. Grab a copy for yourself and gift one to five of your friends: shorturl.at/HlPUu
Pre-Order | Issue 131: Austin Music Issue
The 27th annual Oxford American Southern Music Issue will be devoted to another fascinating and complex American city: Austin, Texas. The magazine will explore the historical context that gave rise to...
shorturl.at
December 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM
#EyesontheSouth | South Texas Souls | Jenelle Esparza

In this feature from the archive, Esparza explores records of history as she captures “small, intimate glimpses into lived experiences that highlight a complex and under-told history of Texas.”

🔗: https://shorturl.at/R5tsh
November 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
This Small Business Saturday, support Southern voices.
We’re on a mission to sell 5,120 copies of our Austin LIVE! Music Issue to help fund another year of the Oxford American. Show us your support here: shorturl.at/edyHm
Pre-Order | Issue 131: Austin Music Issue
The 27th annual Oxford American Southern Music Issue will be devoted to another fascinating and complex American city: Austin, Texas. The magazine will explore the historical context that gave rise to...
shorturl.at
November 29, 2025 at 1:08 PM
“In popular culture, name dropping the sweet potato conveys a certain downhome specificity.”

—From the archive, @ayanacontreras.bsky.social shares “Sweet Potato Sounds” as she shares its history and appearances in music, movies, and memoirs.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/vuiJ3
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
“As an eighty-nine-year-old, he doesn’t look a day over eighty-eight. Weak lungs or not, he still sings like an angel.”

—From the archive, David Kirby speaks to the longevity of Willie Nelson, citing taekwondo and playing guitar as means of self-care.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/G4faD
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
“This music was the glue that made Austin groove.”

—From the archive, Bill Bentley dives into Charlie Sexton’s career, starting with his debut performance at the Continental Club the day before he turned ten years old.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/KXtl1
November 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
#EyesontheSouth | Ark-La-Tex | Cody Cobb

From the archive, photographer Cody Cobb captures scenes he “discovered while exploring dirt roads, abandonments, swamps, and pine forests of northwest Louisiana, east Texas, and south Arkansas.”

🔗: https://shorturl.at/X53Ib
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The Austin LIVE! Music Issue is shipping out now! We’re excited for you all to experience this special issue, limited-edition LP, and merch collection. Get yours today for delivery straight to your door.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/6v16P
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
“No single disc’s worth of songs can claim to capture the many inflections of the Texas sound.”

—From the archive, Rick Clark compiles a list of 25 tracks containing notes of the American experience and the Texas borderlands.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/e4UPf
November 19, 2025 at 10:30 PM
“I treated each person with an equal measure of respect and dignity, a photographic utopia.”

—Arkansas-based photographer Andrew Kilgore is profiled by @jbesonen.bsky.social as he shares the backstories behind 1970s photographs of Fayetteville and the Ozarks.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/Vhbqj
November 18, 2025 at 11:00 PM
“I cannot help but wonder what stories are not written today—not for a lack of a willing author, but due to an imperiled free press.”

—Lauren Stroh details “The Angolite,” the prison news magazine produced within Louisiana’s State Penitentiary.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/QqC9U
November 17, 2025 at 11:00 PM
#EyesontheSouth | Florida Boys | Josh Aronson

In his five-year photographic project, Florida-based artist Aronson “broadens what boyhood can look like: gentle, vulnerable, and rooted in place.”

🔗: https://shorturl.at/Bhmpl
November 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Oxford American
In this week’s Top 5:

Bear bones (Southlands)
Outstanding Outkast (@oxfordamerican.bsky.social)
Brightline’s brutality (@miamiherald.com)
Lasting lunches (@bittersouth.bsky.social)
Ruin ruminations (@thebaffler.com)

Become a Longreads member and read the Top 5 here:

longreads.com/2025/11/14/t...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
This week we are celebrating stories from Anya Groner; Kiese Laymon; Brittany Wallman, Aaron Leibowitz, Shradha Dinesh, Susan Merriam, Daniel Rivero, and Joshua Ceballos; Jennifer Justus; and Robert…
longreads.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
“The failure of passenger trains was never caused by a lack of demand.”

—Holly Devon takes a trip along @amtrak.com’s new Mardi Gras Service line, detailing the history of the Gulf Coast passenger rail and the riders climbing aboard today.

🔗: shorturl.at/xa2bt
All Aboard the Mardi Gras Line
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November 13, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Oxford American
"Framed this way, the line between 'native' and 'invasive'—whether plant, animal, or human—becomes less about origin and more about behavior: do you exploit, or do you commune?"

Alexandra Martinez for @oxfordamerican.bsky.social: oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/subve...
Subversive Botanicals in Miami’s Art Underground
oxfordamerican.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The Oxford American is excited to announce two consecutive FREE events celebrating the launch of the Austin Live! Music Issue + LP.
November 12, 2025 at 8:48 PM
“It would have been easy enough to beg off, but that wasn’t in the rancher’s nature.”

—From the archive, Bret Anthony Johnston draws from Waylon Jennings’s 1977 classic “Luckenbach, Texas,” featuring Willie Nelson, in his story “The Basics of Love.”

🔗: https://shorturl.at/g0LrJ
November 11, 2025 at 12:00 AM
“Mess with Willie Nelson and the next thing you’ll see is the wrong end of a gun held by the Devil himself, Robert Paul English.”

—From the archive, Joe Nick Patoski dives into the rich friendship between Willie Nelson and his drummer, the late Paul English.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/so1vl
November 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM
“Not only are immigration processes complex, but, under the Trump administration, the rules keep changing.”

—In part four of his ICE in Key West Series, Zack Ford speaks to the mounting anxieties shared in a city impacted by ICE detainments without due process.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/SSQyN
November 7, 2025 at 11:00 PM