Marc Smirnoff finds success in unlikely places

'Oxford American' founder and editor's latest project is serialized Grisham novel

Sheree Callahan
dm Staff writer

When Marc Smirnoff became the founding editor of the "Oxford American" seven years ago, he made it clear from the first issue that his was going to be a very different kind of Southern magazine.

He wasn't interested in "family reunions, picturesque porches or recipes;" he wanted to feature good Southern writing.

His staff of nine calls him "the man behind the magic," and he has used the South's only major literary magazine as a showcase for authors like Shelby Foote, Barry Hannah, John Grisham and Larry Brown.

John Grisham became publisher of the "Oxford American" five years ago when Smirnoff needed some help with funding.

Smirnoff and the best-selling Mississippi native have been friends since they met at a book signing at Square Books, where Smirnoff once worked.

After Grisham liked Smirnoff's editing of an article he contributed to the first issue of the "Oxford American," he began paying Smirnoff to edit his novels.

"I'll never forget reading 'The Firm' for the first time and, literally, staying up all night. I think there is a human instinct to crave good stories," Smirnoff said.

Smirnoff hopes the "Oxford American's" upcoming six-part serialization of Grisham's new novel, "A Painted House" will result in increased circulation for the bi-monthly magazine.

Smirnoff grew up with three sisters in a small town outside San Francisco. He describes his childhood as being somewhat unhappy.

"I've found that a lot of those people who tend to end up in the literary business as editors or writers tended to end up having an unhappy childhood," Smirnoff said. "The popular kids weren't at home reading books."

During the turbulence of his childhood, it was the power of good writing that uplifted him. "When I was stumbling through my childhood or being unhappy at times, it was the great writings that could uplift me. I knew what powerful writing can do to me, and I know what it can do to other people."

He held his first job as an editor in high school when he edited the school paper. During his editorship, Smirnoff wrote a column called "Intramural Predictions" in which he would rank lunch-time softball and football teams in the order he thought they would wind up at the end of the season.

After having one particular article on intramural softball approved by his adviser, Smirnoff decided that it needed more "juice." He spent the night rewriting what he thought was a "vastly smarter copy" and snuck it to the printers before the other version went to press.

Smirnoff later recalls that the updated version was "cruel and wrong-spirited."

"In it, I made fun of perfectly decent people," he said. "I thought I was being funny, not mean, but the bottom line was I had been too stupid to see that my ego was out of control."

After the principal got involved with the ensuing debate and a lawsuit was threatened over the column, Smirnoff's dream of being a editor was "ruptured." He quit school just a few months before graduation.

"I realized that anywhere I was to go from here on out was off the beaten track because any hope I had of going to college would be complicated by the fact that I didn't have a high school diploma," he said.

"The great thing about it is that I learned something a lot of people never learn, at least not in the forceful way I did--and that is I had been and had the potential to be, a complete schmuck. I can't pretend that I'm better than who I am."

Smirnoff's first trip to Oxford came during a cross-country trip with friends. He had never read anything by William Faulkner until after he visited Rowan Oak. Now Faulkner is one of his favorite writers.

"Every time you read his work, you're reminded of how good he is," Smirnoff said.

When he returned to San Francisco, he began listening to a tape of Eudora Welty reading her short stories and became enchanted with Welty's voice and literature. He then decided he wanted to go back to the South.

"I wanted to hear more people like this," he said. "I wanted to find out more about this mesmerizing place."

Four years later, he set out for Mississippi in a half broken-down car with some money he had saved from odd jobs.

"I remember I was in Missouri and just saying, 'If you'll just get me to Oxford I'll be happy.' With my car breaking down I like to think that there was a little fate involved," he said.

When he arrived in Oxford, he began working at Square Books, where he saw people buying a great deal of Southern literature and conceived the idea for a Southern literary magazine.

In 1992, with $11,000 in loans from friends, Smirnoff published the first "Oxford American." His goals for the magazine have always been more about inspiring readers than making money. Ironically, he casually admits that he has achieved the latter goal, since the magazine has yet to turn a profit.

"In this day and age, it is easy to go for the flash; but I think people are craving for things that aren't just shrewd, that aren't just meaningless," he said. "When I read a piece and it moves me, to see other people moved in the same way is gratifying."

An attractive, dark-haired 36-year-old, Smirnoff could be described as an unconventional literary editor. He lacks a college education, but he feels one is not necessary for his job.

He has a benevolent, informal manner that would make even the most unscholarly person feel comfortable. His work clothes include cotton button-up shirts, Levi's and boots.

Editorial assistant Farrell Evans describes Smirnoff as an editor who requires complete dedication to detail from his staff. Evans said the editor likes to surround himself with diverse opinions, which the staff provides.

"I've learned from Marc that you can make disarray, complexity and weirdness into something great," Evans said.

Evans said that Smirnoff keeps a rather eccentric schedule.

"The day starts at 8:30, but he may have been up all night or whatever," Evans said. Preferring not to wear a watch, Smirnoff works on "magazine time."

"He fights the whole idea of industrial time," Evans said. "He works in magazine time. His whole day and week is surrounded by the magazine and what stage it's in. If it's in the embryo stage or if it's the third trimester he's a nut."

What seems to be most important to Smirnoff is describes in an essay he wrote, titled "Why I Edit."

"What I have learned is that I edit because there is no greater pleasure or reward than helping to deliver to an eager and intelligent audience a piece of writing (and 'piece' can mean just one sentence, one observation) that lets you perceive sharply--and fully--a circumstance or thing; that gives you, if only impertinently, a generous, unexpected lift ."