The Oxford American’s spring issue includes a fascinating opus on Afro-Cuban religions in Miami, Ben Fountain’s short story about a woman existing in a bewildering in-between place after the death of her mother, and an epic reported feature by Emily Gogolak with photographs by Gabriella Demczuk on Dilley, Texas, home of the South Texas Family Residential Center.
Plus: a community searches for a mass grave in Thibodaux, Louisiana, KaToya Ellis Fleming resurrects the work of novelist Frank Yerby, and Casey Parks profiles a New Orleans principal who has an innovative plan to prepare black students for college.
Editor’s Letter: The Messy Middle, by Eliza Borné
Career Girl Meets Rock Star, by Malinda Maynor Lowery
The Wild, six love poems by Seth Pennington and Bryan Borland
Jeanie Riess reports on a shrimp boat blessing
The Virgin, a story by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
Wei Tchou finds KMT pride in the ATL
AN INTERSECTION AT THE END OF AMERICA
A portrait of Dilley, Texas, home of the largest immigration detention center in the United States
by Emily Gogolak
photographs by Gabriella Demczuk
CANE CREEK
a story by Ben Fountain
ON SACRED GROUND
Afro-Cuban religions find a home in Florida
by Jordan Blumetti
YOU NEVER CAN TELL ABOUT A RIVER
My search for Frank Yerby and our Augusta, Georgia
by KaToya Ellis Fleming
BUH BLACK SNAKE IN NEW ENGLAND
A prep school teacher, Walker Percy, and the power of Gullah folktales
by Benjamin Anastas
Local Fare:
GETTING THE LOOK
by John T. Edge
Cover: “For Nakeya” (2019), by Emerald Arguelles