The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing

Credits

414 THE OXFORD AMERICAN Lee Durkee was born in Hawaii, raised in South Mississippi, and now lives in Montpelier, Vermont. He has published stories in Harper’s, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Tin House, and is the author of the novel Rides of the Midway. He is currently finishingupaplay,aShakespearianremixoftherapvirtuosoNas,IllWill:Hamlet Post’pocalypsed (a.k.a. KILL ALL VAMPIRES!). John T. Edge, a contributing editor at Gourmet, is a columnist for US Airways Magazine,theAtlantaJournal-Constitution,andTheOxfordAmerican.Hisworkfor Saveur and other magazines has been featured in every edition of the Best Food Writing compilation since 2001. His books include the James Beard Award– nominatedcookbookAGraciousPlenty:RecipesandRecollectionsfromtheAmerican SouthandSouthernBelly:TheUltimateFoodLover’sCompaniontotheSouth.Hehas also published a four-book series with Putnam on iconic American eats (Fried Chicken, Apple Pie, Hamburgers & Fries, and Donuts). Beth Ann Fennellyreceiveda2003NEAAwardanda2006UnitedStatesArtists Grant. She’s published three books of poetry: Open House, which won the 2001 Kenyon Review Prize and the GLCA New Writers Award, Tender Hooks, and Unmentionables. She has three times been included in The Best American Poetry series and is a Pushcart Prize winner. Her book of essays, Great With Child, was published in 2006. Carol Ann Fitzgerald is the managing editor of The Oxford American. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, The Oxford American, and other publications. She lives in Conway, Arkansas. David GatesistheauthorofthenovelsJerniganandPrestonFallsandthecollection of short stories The Wonders of the Invisible World. William Gayistheauthorofthreenovelsandacollectionofshortstories,IHate toSeeThatEveningSunGoDown.HisnovelTwilight waspublishedinwinter2006. His fiction and essays have appeared in various magazines. He lives in rural Tennessee, where he is at work on a novel. Robert Gordon is the author of five books and six films. Most recently, he was producer and director of Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story. His other films include William Eggleston’s Stranded in Canton and Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement’s Home Movies. His books include It Came From Memphis andCan’tBeSatisfied:TheLifeandTimesofMuddyWaters.Hiswritinghas earnedhimaGrammynominationand,forapieceonJeffBuckleythatoriginally appeared in The Oxford American, an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. 1SMIRNOFF_pages.qxd 8/27/08 10:43 AM Page 414 Tom Graves,alifelongMemphian,istheformereditorofthecriticallyacclaimed Rock & Roll Disc magazine and now teaches English and creative writing at LeMoyne-OwenCollegeinMemphis.HeistheauthorofthebiographyCrossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson. He’s written about music for Rolling Stone, Musician, the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World,AmericanHistory,andTheNewLeader.In2003,hesoldhisbelovedLesPaul guitartoacollectorfromPerth,Australia,tofinanceatriptoDakar,Senegal,where he met his wife, Bintou. PeterGuralnickistheauthoroftheprize-winning,two-volumebiographyofElvis Presley,LastTraintoMemphis andCarelessLove.Overtheyearshisworkhasargued passionatelyandpersuasivelyforthevitalityofthiscountry’sintertwinedblackand white musical traditions, as well as for their integral place in mainstream culture. HisotherbooksincludeSearchingforRobertJohnson,NighthawkBlues,anacclaimed trilogyonAmericanrootsmusic:SweetSoulMusic,LostHighway,andFeelLikeGoing Home,andtherecentbiographyDreamBoogie:TheTriumphofSamCooke. Jack Hitt isacontributingwriterfortheNewYorkTimesMagazine,Harper’s,and theradioprogramThisAmericanLife.Mostrecently,hisworkcanbefoundin Best American Travel Writing and Best American Science Writing. Hitt won a Peabody Award in 2006 for the radio program Habeas Schmabeas. He is currently at work on a book about amateurs in America. Bret Anthony Johnstonis the editor ofNamingtheWorld:AndOtherExercises for the Creative Writer, and the author of Corpus Christi: Stories. He is the director of creative writing at Harvard University. Donald Justice(1925–2004)publishedfourteenvolumesofpoetry.His Selected PoemswasrecognizedwithaPulitzerPrizein1980.HealsoreceivedtheBollingen Prize in 1991 and was a fellow and past chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Justice was on faculty at the University of Iowa, Syracuse University, and for ten years until 1992, the University of Florida in Gainesville. His last book was Collected Poems (2004). John LewisistheartsandcultureeditoratBaltimoreMagazine andaU.S.correspondent for Vibrations, the French music magazine. Steve MartinhasstarredinsuchfilmsasFatheroftheBride,Roxanne,Parenthood, L.A.Story,PenniesFromHeaven,andmanyothers.HehasalsowonEmmysforhis television writing and two Grammys for his comedy albums. In addition to his BOOK OF GREAT MUSIC WRITING 415 1SMIRNOFF_pages.qxd 8/27/08 10:43 AM Page 415 416 THE OXFORD AMERICAN bestselling novel, The Pleasure of My Company, and a collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel, he has written a play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. His latest book is his autobiography, Born Standing Up. Robert Palmer(1945–1997),amusician,critic,anddevoteeofDionysianecstasy, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. As a horn player (clarinet, saxophone, flute), heco-foundedtheseminal’60sbandtheInsectTrust,andjammedwithOrnette Coleman,Bono,andtheRollingStones.Hecuthiscriticalteethwritingfor Rolling Stone, then wrote for the New York Times from 1976–1988. Best remembered for his book Deep Blues, Palmer also wrote Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, as well as books on Jerry Lee Lewis, Lieber and Stoller, and a monograph on Memphis and NewOrleansmusic.HewasequallyathomerollingintheDeltadirtoutsideajuke joint, playing with Sufi mystics in...