Festival toasts multiple milestones at annual gathering themed ‘Anniversaries’ In 1974, a group of William Faulkner enthusiasts decided that the perfect place for a conference celebrating the work of the lauded author was his hometown. Fifty years later, the Oxford-based event is bigger and broader than ever. The 2024 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference is set …
Category: Literature
Oxford Conference for the Book turns 30
The storied Oxford Conference for the Book returns to the University of Mississippi and downtown Oxford venues April 3-5 for its 30th anniversary edition. A group of authors, including Willie Morris, Barry Hannah and Kaye Gibbons, convened April 2, 1993 for the first Oxford Conference for the Book to discuss “the dependence of literary arts …
Free “Desperation Road” screening set for Oct. 13
Join author Michael Farris Smith at the Powerhouse in Oxford for an evening of cinema featuring the film adaptation of his book “Desperation Road.” Smith’s novel was named Indie Next, honored on numerous Best Books lists, and will be his second feature-film adaptation but the first to release. The Southern noir thriller is set in …
Faulkner Fans to Flock to Oxford for 49th Annual Conference
For the 49th consecutive year, writers, scholars and avid fans of Oxford’s Nobel Prize-winning author will gather at the University of Mississippi for the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. This year the conference, themed “Queer Faulkner,” will focus on the diverse genders, sexualities and desires of characters in William Faulkner’s work and people in the noted …
Eubanks Honored in Governor’s Arts Awards
A University of Mississippi professor and a professor emerita will be honored for their literary and community work next month when they receive the Mississippi Arts Commission’s 35th annual Governor’s Arts Awards. The commission is awarding Ann Fisher-Wirth, retired UM English professor, the 2023 Excellence in Literature and Poetry Award, and Ralph Eubanks, Black Power …
Scotts provide gifts to Children’s Book Festival in tribute to mother
OXFORD, Miss. – Elementary school students will be encouraged to love reading, thanks to a University of Mississippi endowment paying tribute to the late Elaine Hoffman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, remembered for her great passion for education and the arts. The Elaine Hoffman Scott Memorial Endowment and Memorial Fund, which will support the Children’s …
Fall SouthTalks Explore Theme of Race in the Classroom
Historically, classrooms have functioned as both intensely local spaces and as broader political stages on which debates about equality, identity and access have played out – nowhere to greater effect than at the University of Mississippi, which marks the 60th anniversary of its integration this fall. With that in mind, programming for 2022-23 academic year …
Percival Everett to give Ann J. Abadie Lecture in Southern Studies
Author Percival Everett gives the second annual Ann J. Abadie Lecture in Southern Studies at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 17 in Nutt Auditorium, located at 542 University Ave., as part of the 48th annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. The lecture is free and open to the public. This year’s conference focuses on Faulkner’s modernisms. Percival …
Oxford Conference for the Book returns as an in-person event
The Oxford Conference for the Book returns to Oxford and the University of Mississippi March 30-April 1 as an in-person event. Conference sessions will be held on the UM campus and in downtown Oxford. “I’m so pleased to hold this conference in person this year,” said Jimmy Thomas, conference director. “We’ve put together an amazing …
‘The Light in the Piazza’ Subject of Nov. 3 SouthTalk
Several events celebrate Elizabeth Spencer’s 100th birthday The beloved characters created by Mississippi author Elizabeth Spencer are returning to the South with a University of Mississippi Opera Theatre production of “The Light in the Piazza,” which is the focus of a SouthTalk sponsored by the UM Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Composer Adam …