The Official Judges’

Ballot for

The Oxford American’s Southern Literature Poll

Thank you for agreeing to serve as an Official Judge of The Oxford American’s Great Southern Literature Poll. We hope you enjoy voting.

We are asking that you name the 10 Southern novels that speak to you most directly.

Please fill out your ballot and return by 9 AM AUGUST 10. You may send your ballot us by e-mail (), by fax (501-450-3490), or by mail (address below). Hell, if you have to, call Marc’s cell with your votes.

You may also e-mail your final picks to us, without the ballot.

Should you decide to participate, your votes, and any related commentary, will be shared publicly. Transparency at The OA!

THE POLL

Please list the book title and the author’s name for each of your nominations. Not necessary but please feel free to tell us why you selected these particular books.

1. Please list up to ten Southern novels that you consider to be “the best.”

--Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

--William Faulkner, Light in August.

--William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying.

--Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

--Walker Percy, The Moviegoer.

--Robert Penn Warren, All The King’s Men.

--Kate Chopin, The Awakening.

--Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

--Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying.

--Alice Walker, The Color Purple.

Comments:

List could include up to five Faulkner novels, but it was also difficult to chose between Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman—both could be on this list.

2. Please list up to five books of Southern nonfiction that you consider to be “the best.” (Each selection receives one point.)

--Richard Wright, Black Boy.

--Truman Capote, In Cold Blood.

--Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait.

--Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

--Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative.

Comments: James Olney once commented on the South’s lack of tradition in autobiography, but the strength of the African American literary tradition lies in autobiographical narratives by writers in and from the South. That makes the autobiographical form an integral part of Southern non-fiction writing. This list could hae included Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life, Harriett Jacobs’ Incidents of a Slave Girl, and Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, but it seemed doubtful that they would receive much consideration from other judges. In many ways, Wright’s Black Boy continues the tradition of the slave narrative form in the twentieth century. In Cold Blood could also be listed in the novel category since considered to be one of the pioneering works of the non-fiction novel.

3. Please list one Southern book—novel or nonfiction—that you consider vastly underrated. (This selection receives one point.)

Ernest J. Gaines, Of Love and Dust.

Comments:

It is generally considered Gaines’ fourth most important novel, but this is the one that is the most fun—it is a highly enjoyable book to read, just as much as it is terrifying. Marcus Payne is one of the most memorable characters in all of Southern literature, and the novel deserves greater attention than it has received. It is amazing that it has never been made into a major film.

4. OPTIONAL: Please list your all-time, hands down, number-one best book in both (or either) the fiction and nonfiction categories. (Each selection here receives two points.)

Fiction: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Nonfiction: Black Boy

Comments: What would American literature be without Huck Finn, especially the literature of the South? Black Boy epitomizes possibly the most important tradition in Southern writing—the slave narrative—and translates it into a twentieth century form.

JUDGE’S INFORMATION

1. Please provide a short biographical note.

Reggie Scott Young is an associate professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he teaches courses in American literature, ethnic literature, and creative writing. His graduate seminars include courses titled The Blues Aesthetic in American Literature, and Faith, Conjure and Resistance in the African American Tradition. He is a contributor to The Oxford American, and he recently compiled and edited his second book on Ernest J. Gaines, This Louisiana Thing: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines (a book in words and pictures, with Marcia Gaudet and Wiley Cash).

2. Please provide your mailing address. (The issue will be mailed to you at the end of August.)

Reggie Scott Young

139 Parkside Dr.

Lafayette, LA 70501

201 Donaghey Ave., Main 107, Conway, Arkansas (501) 450-5376

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