My father spent the afternoons of his childhood in Oxford, Alabama walking the train tracks with his grandfather. Their time together offered him an escape from a difficult homelife and inspired him to see beyond his family’s limited opportunities and expectations of him. His grandfather’s love became even more important to him after a terrible accident intensified the toxic nature of his family dynamics. 

As my father ages, he’s still drawn to train tracks, especially those that travel through the small towns of the South. For him, they symbolize hope and boundless possibility. But the sense of comfort they bring will always be accompanied by memories of conflict. 

The book combines original photographs, reproductions of family photographs, and prose poetry written by Leah Worthy. It examines the way opposing emotions wrestle in our memories of childhood, and how, as adults, we never stop pursuing the resolution of our earliest pain.

Oxford Gothic is a part of the permanent collection of rare books at William & Mary and Jacksonville State University. The book received an Award of Excellence at the 2024 PhotoNOLA Festival.

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Edition of 30
112 Pages
47 Original Photographs
4 Tipped-in Archival Reproduction Photographs
4 Prose Poems

Hand-bound
Published by White Peach Press 
ISBN: 979-8-218-51732-8

Please inquire to purchase