Sally Mann to give Abadie Lecture July 20

Sally Mann to give Ann J. Abadie Lecture at Faulkner Conference

One of America’s most renowned photographers presents the fifth annual Ann J. Abadie Lecture in Southern Studies as part of this summer’s Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference.

Sally Mann, a large-format photographer known for her black and white photographs of the people and places around her, is also the author of Art Work: On the Creative Life, her long-anticipated follow-up to her New York Times–bestselling memoir Hold Still.

Art Work offers a spellbinding mix of wild and illuminating stories, advice, and life lessons for artists and writers—or anyone interested in the creative path. It is a provocative exploration of creativity by one of America’s most original thinkers.

Mann graduated from the Putney School and attended Bennington College and Friends World College. She earned a BA and MA from Hollins University and has received numerous awards, including NEA, NEH, and Guggenheim Foundation grants, and her work is held by major institutions internationally. Her most recent accolades include the 2021 Prix Pictet, the global award in photography and sustainability for her series Blackwater (2008-2012), and in 2022 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The lecture is set for Sunday, July 20, and is open to the public.

The Ann J. Abadie Lecture in Southern Studies is a collaboration between the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference as a tribute to Ann Abadie, associate director emerita of the Center and a longtime organizer of the Faulkner Conference. The overarching goal of the lecture is to add broad context to Faulkner’s world by connecting it to other writers, places, and movements.

Previous Abadie Lecturers include Natasha Trethewey, Percival Everett, Patrick Johnson, and Ron Rash.

For more information on the conference, go here.