FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas has partnered with the Oxford American magazine to be the presenting sponsor of its current double issue, "The Place Issue."

Since the magazine was founded in 1992, every issue has in one way or another engaged with the theme of "place," said Ryan Harris, executive director of the Oxford American Literary Project, Inc. The 2020 Summer/Fall double issue deepens that tradition.

Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School, suggested partnering with the Oxford American in early 2019.

"Unsurprisingly, he had both the network of professional colleagues, regional knowledge and personal passion for exploring the intersections of built environments within social, economic and historical contexts in the South," Harris said. "In much the same way that Oxford American strives to tell courageous and unexpected stories of the South — a region still often stereotyped as monolithic and backward in popular media — Dean MacKeith recognized similar neglect and under-representation of Southern architecture and design practices in the broader professional discourse, despite the quality and significance of work emanating from the region."

When the magazine's editors started planning "The Place Issue" in fall 2019, they decided to organize it around the "elements" of soil, wood, water and stone. The issue is packed with writers and artists who responded to those four prompts. "When our editors began to conceive of this place-themed issue last December," writes editor Eliza Borné in her introduction to the issue, "we knew we wanted to invite submissions that analyzed, celebrated, and challenged our notions of a place that encompasses a remarkable breadth of difference." For instance, she writes, "Frederick McKindra mines the fiber of cotton as troubled symbol and ubiquitous product — framed through the lens of his family's history and Timothy Hursley's architectural photography series centered on storehouses of cotton seed."       

The editorial content in Oxford American is guided by its top editors: Eliza Borné, editor; Sara A. Lewis, executive editor; Danielle A. Jackson, managing editor; Hannah Saulters, associate editor; Jay Jennings, editor-at-large; and Rebecca Gayle Howell, poetry editor.

"The editors produced this issue during a remarkably difficult and tragic summer, and they were keenly interested in publishing pieces that responded to the moment: memoirs sharing a record of life within this time; dispatches from a protest movement as it gathered steam across the country; essays that process grief and anger — and essays that reach for joy," Harris said.

Examples of those responses include an essay by Mik Awake, "Ways to Keep Breathing," in which he reflects on his inheritance and lived experiences as a Black man navigating the pandemic, racial violence, and the nation's response to police brutality. In "Joyride," Karen Good Marable finds both catharsis and moments of normalcy while driving her young daughter around Atlanta, as anthems blast on the stereo. (Her Joyride playlist can be found here.)

To gather content for this 224-page issue, as with most issues, the editors shared a public call for submissions and solicited work from specific writers they admire. The newest member of the editorial staff, Danielle A. Jackson, reached out to Bryan Washington, who contributed a piece about being a restaurant regular in Houston (and all he's missing during the pandemic). Another writer, Carly Berlin, responded to the call with a pitch about Jewish communities in small Southern towns.

"We were proud to publish both of these writers, and many others, in their OA debuts, along with longtime contributors like Jamie Quatro (who wrote about the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama)," Borné said. "The issue features more than 30 writers and poets, and every piece is unique and special in its way."

There was a complementary opportunity for the Fay Jones School and Oxford American to work together on this project, using the magazine's distribution network and voice toward a shared philosophical goal, Harris said. And, with both the magazine and school based in Arkansas, it was a natural fit for them to partner.

"The presenting sponsorship helped make the issue possible, and specifically enabled us to commission a number of original works, such as Alice Driver's essay about her father building his own tomb in the Ozarks, paired with original photographs by Matt White," Harris said.

As part of this sponsorship, Dean MacKeith authored an essay that appears in the first pages of the magazine, titled "A South Forty: Architecture and Place in the American South."

"The Oxford American's annual 'Southern Music Issue' was the initial inspiration for my outreach to the editors," said Dean MacKeith. "Architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and urban design are all equivalent reflections of the cultural richness and complexity of the region, and we believed that the qualities of this regional 'place' could be brought forward and explored. As the project progressed this spring and summer, that exploration necessarily became more searching and challenged commonly held perceptions and generalities on the history and contemporary character of architecture in the American South. It is clear that architecture and design have work to do in the greater cause of reconciliation, social justice and authentic diversity."

Oxford American is a nonprofit organization, with a small but mighty staff of nine. Harris said it relies on a diversity of revenue streams including sponsorships and special advertisements, such as the Fay Jones School's commitment, to do its work.

"In turn, we provide a beautiful platform and a deeply engaged, culturally attuned audience, thus creating a high visibility opportunity for the Fay Jones School to tell its story and help lead this conversation about Southern place," Harris said.