Columns & Departments

Publisher’s Note
by Ray Wittenberg

Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff

Gone Off Up North
by Roy Blount, Jr.
South Carolina native Kirby Higbe played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, hung out with Hemingway, and opposed the hiring of Jackie Robinson.

Local Fare
by John T. Edge
Do you need to be a rocket scientist to enjoy good food?

Dealer’s Choice
by Hal Crowther
There are worse things than sports scandals happening in this country, aren’t there?

People
by Belle Boggs
A profile of a fierce competitor for Civil War relics.

Essay
by Michael Parker
Sober, divorced, and middle-aged, he wanted to channel his inner athlete.

People
by Farrell Evans
Brian Pope may be the fastest and most enigmatic man in the South—or at least in Oxford, Mississippi.

Crime
by Taylor Bruce
The mysterious death of a baseball player from Georgia.

Writing on Writing
by David Payne
Why are Northern writers “national” and Southern writers “regional”? On economics, media bias, and literary status.

Writing on Writing
by George Singleton
How you, too, can become a millionaire writer!

Southern Scenes
photograph by William Eggleston

Features

15 SECONDS
by Kane Webb
On the powerful compulsion to drive more than 500 miles and sleep on floors for three nights just to join 150,000 people in watching a two-minute horse race.

LEAK
a story by Mary Miller
Her world seems to be coming apart, starting with the hole in her ceiling.

PINS
a story by M.O. Walsh
This is how you play the game: Start with a lover you’ve never met.

ONE LIFE
a story by Mark Edmundson
What happens when you take a strange, 300-pound janitor up on his invitation to come over to his trailer for dinner?

SENSE OF PLACE
James Perry Walker’s 1970’s-‘80s photographs from Mississippi and Tennessee.

The Sports Section

Dog Show
by Mike Powell

Badminton
by Pia Z. Ehrhardt

Mississippi Knockout
by Jim Ruland

Talk Radio
by Melissa King

College Town
by Beth Ann Fennelly

Bareback Riding
by Marianne Gingher

Rainout
by Robert Parham

Fly Fishing
by Ron Rash

Coach Quiz
by Clay Travis

New Orleans Chessman
by William Caverlee

Underdogs
by Any Selsberg

Hunting Dogs
by Jill McCorkle

Arkansas Hogs
by Rainer Sabin

Godly Grub
by Wright Thompson

Quarterbacks
by Brooks Haxton

Cockfight House
by J. David Stevens

Baseball
by John Updike

“Man At The Summit” (2006) by Eric Zener