REDEEMING LITTLE ROCK:

Magazine of Southern writing reborn (CHUCK BARTELS, January 26, 2003, Chicago Sun-Times)

The first edition of the relaunched Oxford American is on newsstands with a previously unpublished essay by James Agee about his experiences with racism.

The Pulitzer Prize winner's ''America, Look at Your Shame!'' was discovered among his poetry manuscripts and was inspired by a 1943 race riot outside a Detroit amusement park. Agee, a novelist, poet, screenwriter, critic and journalist, died in 1955.

Billed as ''The Southern Magazine of Good Writing,'' the Oxford American almost folded last year. It was taken over by At Home Media Group Inc., publishers of an interior decorating magazine. The new owners moved the publication from Oxford, Miss., to its new home in Little Rock.

Now, with the Agee essay and a travel story about motel life from novelist Charles Portis, who wrote the novel that inspired the John Wayne movie ''True Grit,'' the winter 2003 edition is trying to increase its circulation.

Charles Portis is always worth reading. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 26, 2003 2:08 PM