Our Writers & Photographers
Peter M. Askew
Peter’s an Atlanta, GA native and 1995 graduate of Ole Miss, where he barely proudly achieved a degree in Southern Studies. He’s also the proud owner of OxfordMississippi.com. Long story short, he’s been in the web business since around ‘98, lived through a few dot-com-bombs, and now has his fingers in all aspects of the online world - specifically web publishing, domaining, search advertising, and online analytics. He desperately misses his college home, and decided to launch this alt (and entirely online) publication in April of 2008 to satisfy his desire to re-connect with Oxford.
Kevin W. Frye
Kevin’s a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law. He lives in Oxford, where he has established his own law practice and serves as Adjunct Professor of Trial and Appellate Skills at the University of Mississippi School of Law. In addition, he’s a member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where he teaches Sunday School and sings in the choir. Mr. Frye is also the Founder and Publisher of the Mississippi Criminal Defense Law Blog .
Prior to forming his own law practice, Mr. Frye practiced with established law firms in Ridgeland and Oxford and served as Law Clerk for the Third Judicial District Circuit Court. Before moving to Oxford to attend law school Mr. Frye obtained a Bachelor of Music Education from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
Katherine E. Janssen
Kati’s a native of Mattoon, Illinois, and currently a student at The University of Mississippi. She’s a Criminal Justice Major with an emphasis in Homeland Security and plans to graduate in May of 2009. She’s also a member of the Navy ROTC at Ole Miss and will be commissioned as a United States Navy Officer in May 2009. She has two sisters, Brianna and Jennifer Janssen, and is also engaged to Steven Utroska, with wedding plans scheduled for March 14th, 2009. Kati also enjoy spending time reading, writing, and playing with her German Shepard, Eva.
Derek Moreton
Described as “refreshingly mischievous” and heralded as “America’s Mayor,” Derek Moreton returns to one of his previous professions as a photographer to lend OxfordMississippi.com photographs reflecting his view of a town he’s calling home for the fourth time since 1991. Derek can be found at Proud Larrys, the City Grocery, Two Stick and all points in between.
Rachel G. Smith
Rachel committed the cardinal sin of Mississippi when she moved to Oxford after completing her BA in English from Mississippi State, and is now two semesters (and a thesis) away from an MA in Journalism from Ole Miss. At least she’s not from LSU. She’s two continents shy of going all around the world, and along the way she left her heart, and a few t-shirts for the village, in Africa. Her thesis discusses the media’s neglect of genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, and her future plans include directing Public Relations for a non-profit, or even starting her own. If she does start her own, she will operate her company like Google, where everyone gets free coffee, although she doesn’t like it herself. Rachel enjoys the musical likes of Patty Griffin and U2, as well as the local flavors of Mayhem String Band and Colour Revolt. You can read her here, at Xanga.com, or maybe one day in a newspaper column in Seattle. She thinks everybody should like everybody in an Andy Warhol-ish sorta way.
Carroll Gunn
Carroll is a native of good ol’ Oxford, Mississippi. She graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2007 with a BA in journalism. She then realized that she wanted to make a profession out of education and applied to journalism graduate school at Ole Miss. She is now one semester and a thesis on lynching away from obtaining a MA in journalism. Carroll has written for many different publications and is co-author of the book, “The Life of Mary Shepard, Queen of Club Ebony.” She loves reading southern literature, especially William Faulkner and Larry Brown. She also loves being outdoors with her labradoodle, Edee.
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Phil Balkner
I am Phil Balkner.
You are Phil Balkner.
They are Phil Balkner.
“Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And poof. Just like that, he’s gone.”