FEATURES

A Painted House, Part 1
The world of a seven-year-old boy growing up in the Arkansas Delta changes with the arrival of the new workers on his family’s cotton farm
by John Grisham

An American Journey Continues: Remarks at Ole Miss
Thirty-seven years after James Meredith integrated Ole Miss, a black writer addresses the university’s honor students
by Anthony Walton

The Bad Seed: A Guide
A cautionary tale for women who always fall for the wrong men
A story by Nicola Mason

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 

Local Fare:
The Welcome Table
Civil Rights heroine Georgia Gilmore brought Montgomery together through her cooking
by John T. Edge

Sojourns:
The Lure of the Mermaids
Florida’s original tourist attractions make the most of the state’s natural resources—women and water
by Diane Roberts

Lost Classics:
The Blond, the Gun, the Heist
Resurrecting the 1953 pulp fiction masterpiece of Mississippian Elliott Chaze
by Barry Gifford

Natural History: 
A Fire That Never Goes Out
The unique history of a Mississippi ghost town is remembered
by Rick Bass

Southern Music: 
South of the South
A documentary and dozens of new albums put Cuban music in the spotlight
by Tom Piazza

Dealer's Choice
The Family of Man
We're all close kin to Klansmen and cannibals
by Hal Crowther

Meditations for Bad Girls 
Women I Kissed
by Vicki Covington

Gone off up North: 
Toe-To-Toe with the Marble Man
by Roy Blount Jr.

Comics
by P. Revess

POETRY

Revival, by Michael Chitwood

Death in New Orleans, a Romance, by Billy Collins

SOUTHERN GALLERY 

Q & A with Tori Murden
A Kentucky woman who rowed solo across the Atlantic speaks from Guadeloupe after landing

Q & A with John Howard
The author of Men Like That: A Southern Queer History discusses his work

Cover: photograph:,“Black Oak, Arkansas. 1999.” by Adam Shemper