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THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE •WINTER 2006 THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI The 13th Oxford Conference for the Book The University of Mississippi Oxford, Mississippi March 30–April 1, 2006
otable authors, editors, publishers, and others in the trade as well as educators, literacy advocates, readers, and book lovers will gather for the 13th Oxford Conference for the Book, set for March 30–April 1, 2006. Beginning on Thursday with exhibitions and lunchN at the John Davis Williams Library, followed by two sessions and a special conference edition of Thacker Mountain Radio, the program will continue through Saturday afternoon with addresses, panels, and readings. A fiction and poetry jam, an Elderhostel program, a marathon book signing at Square Books, and an optional literary tour of the Mississippi Delta (March 27–30) are also part of the festivities. The 2006 conference is dedicated to novelist and historian Shelby Foote (1916–2005), a native of Greenville, Mississippi, and a longtime resident of Memphis, Tennessee. A respected but not widely known author of six novels published between 1949 and 1977, Foote gained national prominence for his role as commentator in the 11-hour television documentary on the Civil War, produced and directed by Ken Burns and first shown on the Public Broadcasting Service in 1990. The production Illustrating 2006 Oxford Conference for the Book materials is made Foote a cultural icon and helped him attract many readers. Baxter Knowlton’s portrait of Shelby Foote. The portrait is Ellen Douglas, novelist and friend of Foote’s since their reproduced on posters and T-shirts will be available from the days in Greenville, will open the conference with a talk about Center by calling 800-390-3527. Foote as a fiction writer. Gary W. Gallagher, professor of history at the University of Virginia, will discuss Foote’s three-volume history of the Civil War. A filmed tribute by The slate of speakers includes impressive lists of fiction Ken Burns will be shown. There will also be a panel with writers—Brian Keith Jackson, Tyembia Jess, Michael Knight, members of the Memphis book club in which the author Starling Lawrence, James Meek, Lewis Nordan, Jack participated for more than a quarter of a century. Pendarvis, George Saunders, Olympia Vernon—and poets Beth Ann Fennelly, John Kinsella, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, See page 4 of this issue of the Register for the Aleda Shirley, and Natasha Trethewey. Delta Literary Tour itinerary and page 7 for
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the D IRECTOR’ S C OLUMN
Encyclopedia making is a slow, deliberate process. Observers have Published Quarterly by pointed out that it took twice as long to complete the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture as it The Center for the Study of Southern Culture took to fight the Civil War. When that volume came out in 1989 it was indeed the The University of Mississippi culmination of a long effort to bring together hundreds of contributors and produce a volume Telephone: 662-915-5993 that would help define the emerging field of Southern Studies—the interdisciplinary study of Fax: 662-915-5814 the American South. It was also one of the defining projects in the Center’s early history, E-mail: [email protected] establishing its leadership role in regional studies. Internet: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/south The South has changed enormously in the years since that volume appeared, and IN THIS ISSUE Southern Studies is a thriving academic enterprise. Thus, the time is ripe for a new edition of Winter 2006 the encyclopedia, which will begin appearing in separate volumes later this spring. We’ve been planning The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture for years, working with consultants, 1 2006 Oxford Conference for the Book renewing our productive relationship with the University of North Carolina Press, and 2 Director’s Column putting in place our resources to once again assess the current state of the South and its academic study. 3 Bob Stone Exhibition A key decision was to produce the New Encyclopedia as a series of separate volumes instead 3 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Schedule of one big hardback, as in the previous edition. We believe that this format will provide 4 Mississippi Delta Literary Tour readers interested in one topic, such as music or politics, the opportunity to buy the 7 Book Conference Schedule encyclopedia’s authoritative compilation in that area. Teachers will be able to assign a 8 Brown Bag Schedule—Spring 2006 relevant book on such subjects for classroom adoption. Together, the 20-plus volumes will make up the New Encyclopedia, which one day will make a hefty shelf full of knowledge and 9 Living Blues Going Strong at 35 insight. 10 2006 F&Y: “Global Faulkner” Producing the reference book as a series of volumes enables us significantly to expand the 12 Eudora Welty Awards coverage of relevant topics. Of course, we are editing entries through updating statistical 12 Call for Music Papers information, adding new bibliographies, and reassigning some articles to new authors who have worked recently with their topics. With more space, we are adding more entries and 12 Square Table: Oxford’s New Cookbook more visual documentation. This is appropriate, given the expansion of scholarly work 13 Mississippi Encyclopedia Report related to the South. Historians have continued their engagement with the region and its 13 Mississippi Institute of Arts and role in national history, and today historians are increasingly interested in the international Letters role of the South, going back to its founding as part of the expansion of the Atlantic world of 14 Studies Graduate Students Abroad the early modern period and continuing into this age of globalization. Literature has always 15 2005 Tennessee Williams Festival been a major area of scholarship on the South, and that remains true. Postmodern theory has Report led to interest in post-Southern writing, including comparison of the American South with other “global Souths.” Other disciplines have shown new interest in the region, including 15 2006 Tennessee Williams Festival anthropologists who increasingly consider Native Americans of the South as integral parts of Dates early Southern history and who place many of their contemporary participant-observer 16 Katrina Conference Report projects not overseas but in the South. Gender, African American, and Southern Studies 17 Reading the South: Reviews & Notes often overlap, and topics such as foodways, folk art, collective memory, and space and place 20 Joe York’s Film Whole Hog have seen significant new work that will be a part of our new survey of Southern culture. The first two volumes to appear will be Religion and Geography. Religion continues to be 21 Southern Foodways Alliance News a central social force in making the South an identifiable place, and the new volume will 26 Notes on Contributors chart the changes in religion’s role in the recent South, including new attention to groups 26 Regional Roundup such as Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, New Age devotees, and Latinos, as well as attention to 26 2006 Events Calendar religion’s dramatic role in politics and public culture. Geography is a foundational topic for 27 Southern Culture Catalog Items the study of any region, and it is appropriate that we publish that volume before proceeding to other topics. Our consultants in those areas, Samuel Hill and Richard Pillsbury, were with 28 Address Section/Mailing List Form/ us in the first edition, and they have sensitively overseen the updating of their volumes. Friends Information and Form We are building on the work of the first edition, which Bill Ferris and I coedited, along with the crucial contributions of Ann Abadie and Mary “Sue” Hart. Bill and Sue’s work will REGISTER STAFF always be a part of any new edition of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, and we look back fondly on our “team.” Bill has gone on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Editor: Ann J. Abadie and Sue has retired. Ann remains an integral part of the production team for the new Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee edition, and we have been blessed with the energetic and intelligent work of Jimmy Thomas, Mailing List Manager: Mary Hartwell Howorth our managing editor. Jimmy was an experienced editor when he came to the Center a few Editorial Assistant: Sally Cassady Lyon years ago, and it has been a pleasure to work with him in producing these first two volumes. The production of the complete New Encyclopedia will take four more years, and we look Lithographer: RR Donnelley Magazine Group forward to a productive collaboration with our many generous contributors who write for us. The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity in all its activities and programs and does not discriminate CHARLES REAGAN WILSON against anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran.
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Sacred Steel Robert Stone
Currently on exhibit in the Gammill Gallery is Sacred Steel, a collection of 23 black-and-white photographs by Florida folklorist Robert Stone. The images are of musicians and worshipers in the House of God and the Church of the Living God, two related Holiness- Pentecostal churches in which steel guitar music is a fundamental part of the worship service. In his position as outreach coordinator for the Florida Folklife Program, Stone documents and presents the folk arts and folklife of one of the nation’s most culturally diverse states. He first became aware of these Eddie Harmon, steel guitar, Jay Caver, rhythm guitar, and master of ceremonies Keith churches’ steel guitar tradition in 1992 Robinson at the House of God Musicfest, Pompano Beach, Florida, 2003 through a friend who owned a music store in Hollywood, Florida, where some of the musicians did business. Soon thereafter, he secured a grant The compelling, passionate music was God Churches for the Arhoolie from the National Endowment for the heralded by folklorists, music Foundation, and worked for the House Arts’ Folk and Traditional Arts journalists, and lovers of American of God to help them document their Program to support a survey of the music as a significant vernacular music musical tradition. He is presently tradition in the state and to produce a discovery. Stone has since produced finishing the manuscript for a book to cassette tape and accompanying eight CD albums of the music for be published by the University of booklet entitled Sacred Steel: Arhoolie Records, directed the Illinois Press. Traditional Sacred African-American documentary video Sacred Steel: The “The tradition is rooted in the Steel Guitar Music in Florida (1995). Steel Guitar Tradition of the House of Hawaiian music fad of the 1930s,” Stone writes, “but the sound is distinctly African American, often closely approximating the moans, cries, shouts and ornaments of gospel singing.” Between the two denominations, there are currently about 250 congregations, totaling about 10,000 members, in 26 states, most of them in the eastern United States. Ten of the churches are located Exhibition Schedule in northeast Mississippi. Stone’s photographs present the musicians, clergy, congregations, and families of January 15–March 22, March 23–May 31, the two churches in a variety of 2006 2006 settings. As they meditate, grieve, Sacred Steel: The Music Bruce Newman make joyful noises, dance with and Culture of the House Authors at the Yellow abandon, testify, become filled with the Holy Ghost, speak in tongues, and of God and Church of the Wall, and Then Some even “fall out,” the passionate voice of Living God the steel guitar is ever-present. Robert Stone Stone was in Oxford for the 2006 Living Blues Symposium as a panelist on the Blues Photography Panel. A The Gammill Gallery, located in Barnard Observatory, is open Monday reception honoring him took place in through Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., except for University holidays. the Gammill Gallery. Telephone: 662-915-5993.
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MISSISSIPPI DELTA LITERARY TOUR Experience the place, the people, the food, and the music that inspired Mississippi writers March 27–30, 2006 The Mississippi Delta is the site of a spring tour organized by Also scheduled are meals at Lusco’s, Giardina’s, and other the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Focusing on notable Delta restaurants as well as live blues and gospel the area’s legendary blues, writers, and food—along with its performances. On March 30, after breakfast at the Alluvian— tumultuous history—the program is based in Greenwood, Viking Range Corporation’s boutique hotel—participants home of playwright Endesha Ida Mae Holland and memoirist will be free to travel on their own to Oxford, arriving in time Mildred Topp, and will include day trips to three other towns. to visit Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak, tour the town, have Scheduled for Monday, March 27, is a bus trip to the historic lunch on the courthouse square, and attend the Oxford town of Carrollton, ancestral and early home of novelist, story Conference for the Book, which will begin that afternoon. writer, and memoirist Elizabeth Spencer, whose best seller Light in The Delta tour is $475 per person for all program activities, the Piazza was made into a movie by MGM and is now a Tony eight meals, and local transportation. The fee does not Award–winning musical in New York. On Tuesday, March 28, include lodging. To register, visit the Center’s Web site the group will travel to Greenville, home of William Alexander www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/. Remember to sign up early. Percy, Ellen Douglas, Shelby Foote, Bern Keating, Walker Percy, Only 35 spots are available, and they will go fast. Julia Reed, Ben Wasson, and many other writers—so many that Group accommodations have been arranged at the Greenville is known for having “more writers per square foot than Alluvian, in downtown Greenwood, www.thealluvian.com. any other city of its size.” On Wednesday, March 29, the group Rooms at the Alluvian require a separate registration and will go to Sumner, the setting for Lewis Nordan’s novel Wolf are priced at a discounted rate of $145. Rooms may be Whistle, based on the Emmett Till case, and where the Till murder reserved by calling 866-600-5201 and asking for the special trial took place. Sumner is the home of Langdon Clay and Maude “Literary Tour” rate. In the event that the Alluvian sells out Schuyler Clay, and has been the subject of many photographs by before you get a chance to book a room, call the Greenwood William Eggleston, who often stayed with his grandparents there. Best Western, 662-455-5777.
MONDAY, MARCH 27 CARROLLTON LITERARY TOUR SCHEDULE Noon Registration—Alluvian Lobby 1:00 p.m. Depart for Carrollton—Marion Barnwell, tour guide WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29 SUMNER 2:30 p.m. “Creativity in the Mississippi Delta,” talk by 8:00 a.m. Alluvian Breakfast Charles Reagan Wilson 9:00 a.m. Depart for Sumner—talks by Luther Brown and 3:30 p.m. “Landscapes of the Soul: Elizabeth Spencer and Henry Outlaw Endesha Ida Mae Holland,” talk by Marion Barnwell Visit Little Zion Church and Robert Johnson’s 5:00 p.m. Cocktails and Dinner at historic Tuttle House Money Road Grave Site 7:00 p.m. Depart Carrollton, arrive back in Greenwood by 10:00 a.m. Talk and Reading by Patti Carr Black 7:15 p.m. 11:00 a.m. Slide Presentation by Maude Schuyler Clay 8:00 p.m. Reception, Readings, and Music at Jamie Noon Lunch at the Sumner Country Club Kornegay’s Turnrow Book Company Gospel Music/Blues Music TUESDAY, MARCH 28 GREENVILLE 2:00 p.m. “Civil Rights in the Delta,” Curtis Wilkie in 8:00 a.m. Alluvian Breakfast conversation with Patti Carr Black, Frank Mitchner, 9:00 a.m. Depart for Greenville—Jimmy Thomas, tour guide Wheeler Parker, Betty Pearson, Bill Pearson, (Drive by Nordan home in Itta Bena on the way) William F. Winter 10:30 a.m. Greetings, Franke Keating 3:30 p.m. Readings from The Celestial Jukebox by Cynthia “Shelby Foote’s Novels,” talk by W. Kenneth Holditch, Shearer, A Killing in This Town by Olympia Vernon, program at the William Alexander Percy Library and Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan Noon Lunch at Doe’s Eat Place 4:30 p.m. Depart for Greenwood “The History of Greenville,” talk by 7:00 p.m. Tour of Delta art at the Alluvian, led by Hugh McCormick William Dunlap 1:30 p.m. Greenville Tour led by Mary Dayle McCormick 7:30 p.m. Dinner at Giardina’s in Greenwood 2:00 p.m. Greenville Cemetery Tour led by THURSDAY, MARCH 30 CONFERENCE FOR THE BOOK Princella Wilkerson Nowell 8:00 a.m. Alluvian Breakfast 3:00 p.m. Reception at McCormick Book Inn 9:00 a.m. Depart for Oxford (1.5 hours) Readings by Lewis Nordan and Cynthia Shearer Oxford Conference for the Book, dedicated to 5:00 p.m. Depart for Greenwood Shelby Foote, on the University of Mississippi 6:30 p.m. Free Time campus, March 30–April 1 7:30 p.m. Dinner at Lusco’s in Greenwood “The Cefalu Connection,” talk by Amy Evans *All events subject to change.
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PEOPLE AND PLACES TO KNOW The Alluvian is a luxury boutique family in 1936, is a local favorite for Together they own and operate hotel in Greenwood, Mississippi, set Italian-inflected Delta dishes like Gulf McCormick Book Inn, the premier within walking distance of Viking Pompano. The restaurant’s new home Delta bookseller. Range Corporation, the Yazoo River, as part of the Alluvian hotel is a unique Frank Mitchner is a lifelong resident of and historic Cotton Row. Original art blend of old family charm and modern Sumner, Mississippi. He vividly by Delta artists and a lively lobby scene elegance. remembers the Emmett Till trial, which make the Alluvian the epicenter of Greenville is known as the home of took place in his hometown during his contemporary Delta culture. many Delta bluesmen and as Mississippi’s youth. Marion Barnwell taught English at literary center. It has been said that Lewis Nordan is the author of four Delta State University for many years. Greenville has produced more authors novels and Sugar among the Freaks, She is editor of the anthology A Place per capita than any other city its size in selected stories from his collections Called Mississippi and coauthor of the country. Among the more than 100 Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair and Touring Literary Mississippi. writers who made this city on the The All-Girl Football Team. The setting Patti Carr Black has written and edited Mississippi River their home during the for his fiction is Arrow Catcher, a place many books, including Art in 20th century are poet and biographer similar to his hometown of Itta Bena in Mississippi, 1720–1980 and Agnes Williams Alexander Percy; novelist, the Mississippi Delta. He has also written Grinstead Anderson’s Approaching the historian, and Pulitzer Prize-winning a memoir, Boy with Loaded Gun. author Shelby Foote; Delta Democrat Magic Hour: Memories of Walter Princella Wilkerson Nowell, a Anderson. Her most recent publications Times publisher Hodding Carter Jr. and his son, Hodding Carter III; historian and journalist and local history buff, is the are Eudora Welty’s World and Eudora author of A Closer Look: A History and Welty: Early Escapades. author Bern Keating; memoirist Clifton Taulbert; and novelists Ellen Douglas, Guide to the Greenville Cemetery. Luther Brown is founding director of Beverly Lowery, and Walker Percy. Henry Outlaw is professor of chemistry the Delta Center for Culture and W. Kenneth Holditch, a prominent and program manager of the Delta Learning at Delta State University in Center for Culture and Learning at Cleveland, Mississippi. literary scholar who is professor emeritus at the University of New Delta State University in Cleveland, Carrollton, built around a courthouse Orleans, is the author of numerous Mississippi. square, is one of two seats in Carroll short stories, poems, and essays on Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Emmett County. Many of Carrollton’s downtown major Southern writers. He is the Till, accompanied him to Mississippi buildings and houses were built in the author of Tennessee Williams and the from Chicago to visit relatives and was 19th century, including a house used in South and, with New York Times drama with him at the Bryant Grocery and the 1969 film The Reivers, adapted from critic Mel Gussow, edited the Library of Meat Market the night that Till allegedly the William Faulkner novel. Carrollton America’s two-volume edition of the whistled at Carolyn Bryant. Parker was is the home of a writer with an works of Tennessee Williams. in the home of Moses and Elizabeth international reputation, Elizabeth Wright the night that his cousin was Spencer. She is the author of nine novels, Franke Keating and her late husband, Bern, traveled the world taking abducted. Born in Mississippi in 1939, seven collections of short fiction, and a Parker moved with his parents and two memoir, Landscapes of the Heart. photographs and writing about the places they visited. Featured in the siblings to Argo, Illinois, in 1947. As an Maude Schuyler Clay is a fifth- New Yorker, the New York Times, and adult, he worked as a barber and became generation native of the Delta town of countless other prominent newspapers a minister in 1977. In 1993 be became Sumner, Mississippi. Her book of and magazines, their work brought pastor of the Argo Temple Church of photographs, Delta Land, is a beautiful attention to their hometown of God in Christ, the church Alma homage to her home. Greenville and helped put the Delta on Spearman, Emmett Till’s grandmother, William Dunlap is an artist, arts the map throughout the world. helped to found. commentator, and educator. His work Lusco’s has been in business since 1933 Betty Pearson, a lifelong resident of the can be found at museums across the and is owned and operated by a fourth- Mississippi Delta except for a stint in nation and at United States embassies generation Lusco, Andy Pinkston, and California serving in the Marine Corps throughout the world. his wife, Karen. This legendary during World War II, attended the Amy Evans is a special projects restaurant has long been the haunt of Emmett Till trial in Sumner with a press consultant for Viking Range and leads Delta folks who revel in the restaurant’s pass from the town’s Sun Sentinel. The the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Oral down-at-the-heels gentility. trial kicked off the civil rights History Initiative. She is also a movement, she said, and led to her Hugh and Mary Dayle McCormick becoming a member of advisory photographer and painter. are natives of Greenville, Mississippi, Giardina’s, opened by the Giardina and founts of local Greenville history. (continued on page 25)
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(continued from page 1 Book Conference Keating Collection, Southern Media Archive, J. D. Williams Library
Novelist, journalist, and playwright Larry L. King will be here to unveil his memoir of Willie Morris, to be published in March 2006. Also joining King to talk about “Writing Literary Lives” will be Suzanne Marrs, author of a new biography of Eudora Welty, and Darlene Harbour Unrue, whose latest book is on the life and works of Katherine Anne Porter. Artist and arts commentator William Dunlap will bring together art historians Patti Carr Black, Mary Lynn Kotz, and Annalyn Swan for a discussion of “Writing about Art and Artists.” Once again, the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, the Lafayette County Literacy Council, Square Books Jr., and other collaborators will bring local fifth graders to the campus to meet an author of books for young readers. The 2006 author is T. A. Barron, author of The Lost Years of Merlin series, The Great Tree of Avalon trilogy, and numerous other celebrated publications for young and not-so-young readers. This program is part of the Young Authors Fair, in Shelby Foote which all fifth graders in Lafayette County will read one of Barron’s books and write, illustrate, and bind a book of all students will receive their very own library in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and their own before attending the session. copy of one her books and read and write a board member of the Mississippi The students’ books will be on display about it before the conference. Library Commission. Following the during the week of the conference. Following the young readers sessions session, the Lafayette County Literacy The program is being expanded this on Friday morning Elaine H. Scott will Council will offer box lunches for year to include a session for ninth graders moderate “The Endangered Species: participants. Proceeds will benefit local with Sharon M. Draper, a professional Readers Today and Tomorrow,” a panel literacy projects. educator as well as an accomplished with Claiborne Barksdale, director of Author Barry Hannah, director of the author. She has been honored as a the Barksdale Reading Institute at the MFA program at the University of National Teacher of the Year, is a three- University of Mississippi; Sarah Combs, Mississippi, will return as moderator of time winner of the Coretta Scott King teen specialist in the collection his regular “Finding a Voice/Reaching an Literary Award, and is a New York Times department of BWI Books in Audience” session. Talking with him bestselling author. Her new novel, Copper Lexington, Kentucky; Cindy Dach, will be author T. A. Barron, agent Alex Sun, due out in March 2006, portrays the marketing director of Changing Hands Glass, author and editor Starling horrible reality of the slave trade. As with Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; and Lawrence, and two representatives of the fifth-grade program at the conference, Pamela Pridgen, director of the public Sarabande Books, editor in chief Sarah Gorham and marketing director Nickole An easy way to attend the Oxford Conference for the Book is Brown. Sarabande Books, a nonprofit through Elderhostel, an international program of educational travel for adults literary press founded in March 1994, in 55 and older. For $444 per person, everything is provided: the conference, Louisville, Kentucky, focuses on poetry three nights’ lodging at the newly renovated Downtown Oxford Inn and and short fiction, genres that in the Suites, all meals from dinner March 30 through breakfast April 2, and local recent past have received less than transportation to and from conference activities. To register, call toll-free, 877- generous attention from the mainstream 426-8056, or visit www.elderhostel.org and refer to “So You Love Books? Get publishing industry. between the Pages at the Oxford Conference for the Book,” program number Ole Miss journalism professor Curtis 12317-033006. For information, call Center Advisory Committee member and Wilkie will moderate a session on longtime Elderhostel provider Carolyn Vance Smith in Natchez, 601-446- “Writing about Politics” with panelists 1208, or e-mail her at [email protected]. James Gill, a columnist for the New
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Orleans Times-Picayune; Trent Lott, without charge. To assure seating space, Education, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, U.S. Senator from Mississippi whose those interested in attending should Lafayette County-Oxford Public memoir, Herding Cats: A Life in Politics, preregister by contacting the Center for Library, Lafayette County Literacy was recently published; and Thomas the Study of Southern Culture. Council, Oxford Middle School PTA, Oliphant, longtime Washington Reservations and advance payment are Mississippi Library Commission, correspondent for the Boston Globe and required for three optional events: a Mississippi Hills Heritage Area a nationally syndicated columnist. cocktail buffet at Isom Place ($50), a box Alliance, and Square Books. During the conference, the lunch offered by the Lafayette County The 2006 conference is partially Department of Archives and Special Literary Council ($10), and a country funded by the University of Mississippi, Collections at the John Davis Williams dinner at Taylor Grocery ($25). a contribution from the R&B Feder Library will feature an exhibition Conference sponsors include the Foundation for the Beaux Arts, and devoted to the life and work of Shelby Center for the Study of Southern grants from the Mississippi Humanities Foote. The department will also feature a Culture, Department of English, Council, the National Endowment for new exhibition entitled Mississippi Department of History, Department of the Arts, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Matinée: An Exhibition of the State and the Journalism, John Davis Williams Council. Silver Screen. Conference participants are Library, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Detailed information about the invited to visit the exhibitions on Honors College, John and Renée program, speakers, and registration is Thursday and enjoy a lunch hosted by Grisham Visiting Writers Fund, available on the Center’s Web site, Julia Rholes, dean of libraries. Barksdale Reading Institute, Sarah www.olemiss.edu/depts/south. The conference is open to the public Isom Center for Women, School of PRELIMINARY PROGRAM 13th Oxford Conference for the Book The University of Mississippi • Oxford, Mississippi • March 30–April 1, 2006 Program sessions will be at the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
THURSDAY, MARCH 30 9:00 p.m. Open Mike Poetry Month 10:00 a.m. Registration Begins Poetry & Fiction Jam Beth Ann Fennelly, 11:30 a.m. Exhibitions David Galef, moderator moderator Shelby Foote: His Life and Bouré John Kinsella, Aimee Work Mississippi Matinée: An FRIDAY, MARCH 31 Nezhukumatathil, Exhibition of the State and the 9:00 a.m. Welcome Aleda Shirley Silver Screen Carolyn Ellis Staton, Provost 7:00 p.m. Country Dinner John Davis Williams Library Literature for Young Readers 1 Taylor Grocery Light Lunch Mississippi Hall of Writers Rosemary Oliphant-Ingham, Taylor Grocery Band Hosted by Julia Rholes moderator Taylor, Mississippi Dean of University Libraries Readings/Remarks (reservations required) 1:30 p.m. Welcome T. A. Barron SATURDAY, APRIL 1 Richard Howorth, Mayor 10:30 a.m. Literature for Young Readers 2 9:00 a.m. Writing about Politics Shelby Foote: His Work and Barbara Lowe, moderator Curtis Wilkie, moderator Legacy Readings/Remarks James Gill, Trent Lott, Charles Reagan Wilson, Sharon M. Draper Thomas Oliphant moderator 11:30 a.m. The Endangered Species: 10:30 a.m. Finding a Voice/ Ellen Douglas, Gary W. Readers Today and Tomorrow Reaching an Audience Gallagher Elaine H. Scott, moderator Barry Hannah, moderator Film Clip with a Ken Burns Claiborne Barksdale, T. A. Barron, Nickole Brown, tribute and Foote Sarah Combs, Cindy Dach, Alex Glass, Sarah Gorham, commentaries Pamela Pridgen Starling Lawrence 3:00 p.m. Remembering Shelby Foote 1:30 p.m. Readings and Remarks 1:30 p.m. Writing about Art and Artists Richard Howorth, moderator Jamie Kornegay, moderator William Dunlap, moderator Michael McDonnell, William Tad Floridis, Starling Patti Carr Black, Mary Lynn Pearson, William Reed Lawrence, James Meek Kotz, Annalyn Swan 5:30 p.m. Thacker Mountain Radio 2:30 p.m. Readings and Remarks 2:30 p.m. Readings/Remarks Jim Dees, host Ethel Young-Minor, Tom Franklin, moderator The Yalobushwhackers, moderator Michael Knight, Lewis house band Brian Keith Jackson, Nordan, Natasha Trethewey Visiting Authors, Visiting Tyehimba Jess, 3:30 p.m. Writing Literary Lives Musicians Olympia Vernon Ted Ownby, moderator 7:00 p.m. Dinner 3:30 p.m. Readings and Remarks Larry L. King, Suzanne Marrs, Meet the Speakers David Galef, moderator Darlene Harbour Unrue Isom Place Jack Pendarvis, 5:00 p.m. Book Signing (reservations required) George Saunders Off Square Books 4:30 p.m. Poetry: Readings and Remarks Celebration of National
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Center for the Study of Southern Culture Indispensable. Ò The University of Mississippi ...One of a kind, a masterpiece. Brown Bag 8 “Lady Preacher: Women and —Pat ConroyÓ Ordination in the South” Lunch and Katherine Cooke Assistant Pastor Lecture First Presbyterian Church Series Oxford, Mississippi 22 “They Dance and Shout It into 2006 Spring Semester Obscurity: The Early History of The Brown Bag Luncheon Series takes the Church of God in Christ” place each Wednesday at noon in the Calvin White, History Barnard Observatory Lecture Hall Graduate Student during the regular academic year. 29 “Portraits of Writers, Oxford, Mississippi: A Gammill Gallery January Talk” 18 “Winter in the Garden: Bruce Newman, Photographer Preparing for What’s to Grow” “A Reading” Barry Whitehouse Michael Knight, Grisham Lafayette County Master Writer in Residence The Provincials Gardeners A Personal History of April Jews in the South 25 “Alex Haley’s Roots and the 5 “Making America Safe for Civil 1970s” Rights: Lynching and the ELI N EVANS Ted Ownby, Professor of Changing Meaning of With photographs and a new History and Southern Studies Community in the World War introduction by the author. II Era” February ±!ßMULTILAYEREDßBOOKßOFßGREAT WARMTHß Chris Waldrep 1 “The University of Mississippi’s ANDßFEELING!NßENDURINGßCLASSIC² Professor of History School of Law and the °7ILLIEß-ORRIS FROMßTHEß&OREWORD San Francisco State University Children’s Advocacy Clinic” Debbie Bell, Professor of Law ±.OT ONLYßFIRST RATEß!MERICANßHISTORY 12 “‘Daddy, Tell Me Another IT´SßALSOßAßFIRST RATEßCOMING OF AGEß Story’: The Drive-By Truckers 8 “A Rose by Any Other Name: MEMOIR %LIß%VANSßKNOWSßEVERYTHINGß and the Search for Southern The Origins, Rise, and Current THEREßISßTOßKNOWßABOUT GROWINGßUPß Identity” State of Soul-Blues Music” SOUTHERNßANDß*EWISHßAT THEßSAMEß Elllie Campbell, Southern Mark Camarigg, Publications TIME²°!LFREDß5HRY 0ULITZERß0RIZE¯ Studies Graduate Student Manager, Living Blues Magazine WINNINGßAUTHORßOFß$RIVINGß-ISSß$AISY and History Graduate Student 19 “The Nashville Christian ±3UCHßAßFINEßANDßVALUABLEßBOOK° Institute: Pioneers in the 15 “Just Beneath the Surface: A THOUGHTFUL INFORMATIVE REVEALING² Pursuit of Christian Education Story of Race Relations in a °*ONATHANß9ARDLEY 0ULITZERß among African American Small Southern Town” Members of the Church of 0RIZE WINNINGßCOLUMNIST Mary Battle, Southern Studies Christ, 1905–1967” Graduate Student ±4HEß*EWSßOFßTHEß3OUTHßHAVEßFOUNDß J. R. Duke THEIRßPOET LAUREATE%VANS´Sß History Graduate Student 22 “A Badge of a Man: Gender PROSEßISßLIKEßHIMSELF°STYLISH SERENE and Fraternity in a North 26 “Packaging History for Public REFLECTIVE ANDßRELENTLESSLYßCANDIDß Carolina Secret Society” Consumption” ABOUT THEßISSUESßTHAT MOVEDßHISß Angela Hornsby, Assistant Willie Bearden, Writer and GENERATION²°!BBAß%BAN Professor of History Filmmaker 440 pp., 32 photographs Memphis, Tennessee $34.95 hardcover / $21.95 paperback March 1 “Irish in the American Rural May The University of South” 3 “May Flowers: An Irish North Carolina Press Rankin Sherling, History Musical Celebration of Spring” Graduate Student Greg Johnson AT BOOKSTORES OR Curator, Blues Archives WWWUNCPRESSUNCEDU
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Living Blues Magazine Still Going Strong after 35 Years
Living Blues magazine—the country’s longest-running blues surprises me that there are younger generations playing the publication—is celebrating its 35th year. And with six four- blues because in some ways it would seem logical that it would color, 100-plus-page issues a year and an annual Blues Today die out, but it’s so strong at the roots and the community that it Symposium each February, it’s come a long way from the one- keeps going.” room apartment where it began. The magazine, like the music it reports on, seems to be just Now housed at the University of Mississippi, the magazine as strong at the roots. With its continued mission to celebrate was born in uptown Chicago, the result of a couple of living African American blues artists, Living Blues has grown Northwestern University students and a young businessman from a sort of homemade black-and-white fanzine circulated wondering why no blues magazines were published in the around Chicago to one of the world’s most respected blues United States. Although there was plenty about the blues publications. being written in Great Britain and on the Continent, few “I’m really happy that Ole Miss has kept the magazine people were paying attention to it in this country. Students going and has stayed close to the Jim O’Neal and Amy van Singel, editorial policy we started with,” along with future Alligator O’Neal said recently from his Kansas Records founder, Bruce Iglauer, City home. “Living Blues still provides and several friends, aimed to a service to the blues world that no remedy the situation. other magazine does. An artist doesn’t The name Living Blues was the have to have a hit record or any obvious choice: Unlike the record at all to be in Living Blues. It’s European publications, this new more about the culture that the music magazine would focus only on comes from.” the music and backgrounds of Besides documenting the blues, living artists. The strength of the Living Blues has set out to celebrate the magazine, which has a circulation genre in a manner true to form for the of nearly 20,000, comes from “very magazine. Rather than doing what’s careful and focused in-depth been done in the past, focusing on writing,” according to editor Brett either academic discourse or bringing Bonner. “Since the beginning, that in entertainers, the annual Blues hasn’t changed.” Today Symposium on the Ole Miss One thing that has changed is the campus each February combines the magazine’s location. In 1982, best of both worlds. O’Neal and van Singel decided “I wish that the symposium had Living Blues had outgrown their happened a long time ago,” said ability to oversee it. They also O’Neal, who still reads the believed that University of magazine’s copy before it goes to Mississippi’s Center for the Study of press. “It’s not like any other blues Southern Culture would make the gathering. It’s a gathering of people who love the music, from best home for their publication. Just 75 miles from Memphis academics, to people in the business, to entertainers. It’s a great and 60 miles from the Mississippi Delta, the university is event, and I’ve never quite had the feeling at any other event.” arguably the ideal home for a publication dedicated to the The blues symposium exemplifies the same effort that has blues culture. won the magazine praise not only from critics and people “The University of Mississippi is a natural home for Living who hand out awards, such as the W. C. Handy Keeping the Blues,” said Charles Reagan Wilson, director of the Center. Blues Alive award, but also from true fans of the music. “Mississippi is the source and heart of the blues, and this “We have an extremely devoted subscriber base,” Bonner university has a mission of examining and preserving humanities said. “In fact many of them have been subscribing since the and the arts. Living Blues is part of an interconnected series of first issue.” No wonder then that B. B. King himself calls resources at the Center from the Blues Archive to Highway 61, Living Blues his “Number one source for blues news, reviews, the radio show that’s produced here. It’s right in the middle of and in-depth stories.” Or that he returned to Ole Miss in both, with a high caliber of writers and photographers 2004 to be a part of Blues Today. documenting the blues for generations to come.” Living Blues is available on newsstands and by subscription. “To give the blues its own voice from its own home source To subscribe for $23.95 a year in the United States, $29.95 in was one of the main points of starting the magazine, and also to Canada, and $35.95 overseas, call 1-800-390-3527 or visit counter the notion that the blues was dead or dying,” said Jim www.livingblues.com. O’Neal in a September 2000 Living Blues interview. “It always TOBIE BAKER
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Global Faulkner Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference • July 23–27, 2006
When Sherwood Anderson advised Literatures in the Americas: Family Faulkner to write about “that little patch Portraits in Black and White and a up there in Mississippi where you started coedited volume, Caribbean Literature from,” he justified it by adding: “But and the Environment: Between Culture that’s all right too. It’s America too.” By and Nature. Alfred J. Lopez is the author “America” Anderson meant the United of Posts and Pasts: A Theory of States, but in the 80 years or so since he Postcolonialism and a forthcoming assured Faulkner of the potential volume, José Martí, the United States, significance of what would become and the Future of Cuban Nationalism, Yoknapatawpha, the resulting Saga has and is the editor of Postcolonial acquired resonances and ramifications Whiteness: A Critical Reader on Race and neither Anderson nor Faulkner ever Empire. Mario Materassi has published dreamed of. The “postage stamp of native extensively on Faulkner, including two soil”—Faulkner’s imaginary South and books in Italian, Faulkner’s Novels and that larger South that is both source and Faulkner, Again, as well as translations product of his apocrypha—has become a of Soldiers’ Pay, As I Lay Dying, Privacy: kind of mirror in which countries and The American Dream: What Happened cultures around the world have seen to It?, and a forthcoming volume, themselves reflected. Sanctuary. Takako Tanaka has written Throughout its history the South has 20 essays on Faulkner and a volume in been regarded, and has regarded itself, Japanese, A Study of Faulkner’s Fiction as exceptional, and yet, as a plantation George Handley 1919–1931: Body and Language. economy, as the victim and practitioner Returning to the Faulkner of forms of imperialism, as a culture conference are Leigh Anne Duck, characterized by racial suspicion and assistant professor of English at the assistant professor of English at the racial intimacy, the South shares University of Mississippi; Mario University of Memphis, author of essays significant common ground with the Materassi, professor of American on Faulkner, Zora Neal Hurston, and V. United States as a whole and with the Literature at the University of S. Naipaul and a forthcoming book, rest of the hemisphere. Moreover, the Florence, Italy; and Takako Tanaka, The Nation’s Region: Southern perennial fascination with the United professor of English at Nagoya City Modernism, Segregation, and U.S. States South demonstrated outside University, Japan. Nationalism; and John T. Matthews, North and South America suggests a Manuel Broncano has published author of The Play of Faulkner’s larger global dimension, the several books in Spanish on American Language and The Sound and the Fury: recognition of a representativeness literature, including Brief Worlds, Faulkner and the Lost Cause, as well as even wider than we have imagined. Infinite Worlds: Flannery O’Connor and numerous essays on Faulkner, literary The 33rd annual Faulkner and the American Short Story, The Frontier: theory, and cultural studies. Additional Yoknapatawpha Conference—“Global Myth and Reality of the New World, and speakers and panelists will be selected Faulkner”—will explore during five a forthcoming volume, Multicultural from the Call for Papers competition. days of lectures, panel discussions, Societies: Artistic Discourse and Identity, Among the topics that will be taken up tours, and social gatherings the as well as translations of Willa Cather, at the conference will be Broncano’s connections between Faulkner’s South Washington Irving, Edgar Alan Poe, exploration of significant parallels in and the cultures that it illuminates and and Flannery O’Connor. Keith the U.S. South and Spain, including is illuminated by. Appearing at the Cartwright has published on African the issues of race, an inherited social conference for the first time will be and Caribbean literature, highlighted structure in the process of radical and Manuel Broncano, associate professor by his volume Reading Africa into irreversible transformation, and above of American Literature at the American Literature: Epics, Fables, all the Spanish Civil War, that led University of Leon, Spain; Keith Gothic Tales, selected as a Choice Best Spaniards, “at least those on the Cartwright, assistant professor of American Book of the year, 2003. defeated side, to rediscover the U.S. English at the University of North George Handley has written South and its literature”; Cartwright’s Florida; George Handley, associate extensively of the Caribbean and Latin study of Faulkner and the West African professor of Humanities at Brigham America and their relationship to the writer Wole Soyinka, and the Young University; Alfred Lopez, South, including his Postslavery treatment of the endangered
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wilderness, the hunt, ritual, tradition manuscripts, photographs, and evening at the Southside Gallery; and authority; and Handley’s memorabilia at the John Davis guided daylong tours of Northeast comparison of Caribbean conceptions Williams Library. Mississippi, including, for the first time, of history and Faulkner’s: a shared The conference will begin on a tour of Memphis; a picnic served at poetics of memory that may uncover Sunday, July 23, with a reception at the Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak; and a fresh implications in Faulkner’s University Museum, and a special closing party at Off Square Books. generally tragic vision. Lopez will exhibition of Jackson, Mississippi, Films relating to Faulkner’s life and examine the way in which certain artist Gwendolyn Magee’s Journey of the work will be available during the week. “Third World” writers have translated Spirit, a fiber-quilt show inspired by the For more information on the Faulknerian understanding of racial spiritual “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” conference contact the Office of hierarchy into their own social and After the Museum reception, the Outreach and Continuing Education, cultural contexts, such as India’s caste opening papers of the conference will P.O. Box 879, The University of system and Latin America’s racial take place at the Johnson Commons Mississippi, University, MS 38677-0879; distinction between whites and Auditorium and will be followed by a telephone: 662-915-7283; e-mail: indigenous populations. buffet supper at the home of Dr. Beckett [email protected]. For information on Materassi will focus on Faulkner’s Howorth Jr. and the late Mary Hartwell the conference program, course, credit, treatment of the Pygmalion image in his Bishop Howorth. A Sunday evening and all other inquiries, contact the early novel Mosquitoes and how that program will feature the announcement Department of English, P.O. Box 1848, image participates in an extraordinary of the winner of the 17th Faux Faulkner Bondurant Hall, The University of number of European traditions and texts, Context, coordinated by the author’s Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848; suggesting an exchange, an interaction niece, Dean Faulkner Wells, a showing telephone: 662-915-7439; e-mail: that links Faulkner with a larger cultural of a short film, Faulkner in Japan (1955), [email protected]. For on-line context; Tanaka will discuss the and a presentation of dramatic readings registration, visit us on the Web at global/local nexus in Faulkner’s fiction in from Faulkner’s work. www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner/. relation to his treatment of patriarchal Other events will include “Faulkner DONALD M. KARTIGANER power, with particular attention to that on the Fringe”—an “open mike” treatment by Japanese writers in Japanese society. Duck, addressing Requiem for a Nun and Absalom, Absalom!, will discuss Southern Writers, Southern Writing Faulkner’s prescient understanding of a shift in the political economies of Graduate Student Conference imperialism/colonization in the South of the early part of the 20th century to a The 12th annual Southern Writers, Southern Writing Graduate Student form of globalization scholars have only Conference will be held at the University of Mississippi on Thursday, July 20, recently come to recognize. Matthews through Saturday, July 22, 2006. Creative and critical readings will address will investigate late Faulkner fiction, various topics on particularly The Mansion, in terms of its or about the concern with aspects of global South. Critical modernity, such as migration, electronic topics are not mass culture, and the conceptualization restricted to of region in a global context. literature; we Evident in all these topics is a welcome Faulkner whose multilayered depiction submissions from of the South (however geographically other disciplines limited its imagery) has become truly are welcomed and global, not only in its influence, which particularly those has often been studied, but in its with dynamic interaction with the rest of interdisciplinary the world: illuminating cultures to perspectives. The themselves, being illuminated by conference will cultures, whose parallels with Faulkner include an MFA reading night on the Square, a luncheon on Saturday during are only now being recognized. which two best paper awards will be presented. Several travel awards, new this Other program events will include a year, are being offered. Students whose papers are accepted may register for the panel of Faulkner friends and family, 33rd annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference for a reduced registration moderated by Elizabeth Shiver, sessions fee. For more information, visit either the graduate conference Web site at on “Teaching Faulkner,” a discussion of www.olemiss.edu/conf/swsw or www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner/. “Collecting Faulkner” by Seth Berner, and an exhibition of Faulkner books,
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Eudora Welty Awards for Call for Music Papers
Creative Writing The Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Office of Outreach at the University of Mississippi are Do you have a nephew who just may be the next Wendell sponsoring the second annual Music of the South Berry? A granddaughter who can channel her inner O’Connor Conference on the Oxford campus June 2–3, 2006. The with a flick of a pen? Or does the neighborhood paperboy aim conference focuses on a wide range of music that is for Richard Wright-like greatness? If so, encourage these young rooted in the American South, either having origins in people to enter stories and poems for consideration in the the region or making use of regional themes and Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s annual Eudora context. Country, bluegrass, blues, gospel, jazz, rock ’n’ Welty Awards. Schools may submit one entry per category. roll, rap/hip-hop, and art music that came out of the Students should be Mississippi resident ninth-through-twelfth- South will all be covered in lectures, workshops, and graders and must submit writing through their high schools. musical performances. We hope to explore the Maximum length of short stories is 3,000 words and of poetry, connections among particular genres and understand 100 lines. Winners and nominating schools will be notified in the refined context that has produced such musical the spring. First place carries a $500 prize and second place, creativity. Papers should draw from academic research, $250, plus recognition by Center director Charles Reagan but be presented for a general audience interested in Wilson at the opening of the 2006 Faulkner and the American South and its culture. For one special Yoknapatawpha Conference on campus in August. Entries are panel discussion, the conference welcomes papers that due by April 15, 2006, and are judged by University of address Louisiana music. Submissions should be e- Mississippi English professors. Applications and submission mailed to [email protected] by March 1. requirements have been sent to all Mississippi public and Acceptance notifications will be e-mailed before April private high schools, but if you know a Mississippi student 1. Call 662-915-5993 with questions. currently enrolled in high school outside the state, e-mail [email protected] or call 662-915-5993 for a copy.
Oxford’s finest new cookbook sold out in two months and is available again! Cover art by Jason Bouldin A collection of recipes, original artwork, and personal accounts of Southern cooking by Oxford’s most distinguished literary figures, Square Table is the perfect gift—for yourself and everyone on your holiday list. A beautiful book—a perfect gift. All proceeds benefit the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. Many thanks to our primary sponsors, Baptist Memorial Hospital and First National Bank.
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E-mail ______Order Total ______Mississippi residents Daytime Telephone ______add 7% sales tax ______Shipping and handling costs: Add $5.95 for one book and $2.00 for each additional book sent to a single address. A half case of six books can be delivered to a single address for a Shipping & Handling ______shipping cost of $9.00 and $16.00 for a full case of 12 books. Send check or money order to Square Table Cookbooks, P.O. Box 544, Oxford, MS 38655. Orders may also be made by e-mailing [email protected] or calling 662-236-6429. TOTAL ______
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Mississippi Encyclopedia Report Work on the Mississippi Encyclopedia has moved into a new topics ranging from Agriculture to Politics to the Press to Myths phase that should help it continue toward completion. and Representations. Planning began on the project in 2001, and numerous scholars The first 10 sections will be complete by March 1, 2006, and have been writing entries since 2003. New entries from a six others by May 1. That will leave 14 sections for the summer variety of authors arrive at the Center almost every day. For and fall, along with the numerous other jobs associated with example, in a three-day period in December, we received entries completing a large book project. Anyone still wanting to on the Education Reform Act of 1982, antebellum lumberman volunteer to write entries should consult the project’s Web site Andrew Brown, Reverend C. L. Franklin, Prohibition, and the at www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/ms_encyclopedia/. Lisa Herdahl court case. Charles Reagan Wilson, editor in The Mississippi Encyclopedia will be published by the University chief; Andrea Odom, managing editor; and Ted Ownby and Press of Mississippi. Other partners on the project include the Ann Abadie, consulting editors, are working with 30 section Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi editors from across the country on the content of individual Humanities Council, and the Mississippi Arts Commission. Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters 2006 Annual Awards Events to Be in Oxford The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) will www.ms-arts-letters.org for complete instructions about present awards to outstanding artists in the categories of joining and about nominating an artist for an award. Fiction, Music Composition (Concert and Popular), A day of tours and other events will precede the annual Nonfiction, Photography, Poetry, and Visual Arts during an awards gala at the Oxford Conference Center. A tour of annual gala scheduled for June 10, 2006, in Oxford. Rowan Oak and an exhibition at the University Museum by The awards honor the achievements of living Gwen Magee, a former MIAL award winner and current Mississippians (current residents or former ones with member of the MIAL Board of Governors, are two of the continuing, significant ties to the state). Artists are special highlights being planned. Magee’s exhibition is called nominated on the basis of work shown, published, or Journey of the Spirit and draws its inspiration from the hymn performed in 2005. “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Ann Abadie, of Oxford, is chair MIAL, now in its 27th year, was established in to support, of the program committee planning the gala. Other program nurture, and recognize one of Mississippi’s most important committee members are Bonnie Davidson, Tupelo; Sandra resources, her artists. Recipients are awarded cash prizes and Shellnut, Pass Christian; Patty Lewis, Oxford; Jan Taylor and Mississippi-made gifts. The competition is a juried one, with Mark Wiggs, Jackson. judges, prominent in their fields, chosen from out of state. For additional information, contact Margaret Anne Mitchell MIAL is privately funded, self-perpetuating, and nonprofit. at 601-366-0761 or write to MIAL, P.O. Box 2346, Jackson, MS Anyone may join; membership dues start at $35 for an 39225-2346. You may also visit www.ms-arts-letters.org. individual ($15 for students). Visit MIAL’s Web site at
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Check membership dues category: ❏ Student ...... $15 ❏ Individual ...... $35 ❏ Contributing (couples) ...... $60 ❏ Sustaining ...... $125 ❏ Institutional...... $150 ❏ Patron ...... $1,000 Make checks payable to MIAL. Send to Margaret Anne Mitchell, Executive Secretary, P.O. Box 2346, Jackson, MS 39225-2346.
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SST Graduate Students in South Africa
During the Christmas holidays, three Southern Studies graduate students completed a three-week photojournalism program in South Africa exploring the parallels and contrasts of the country’s racial environment to that of the American South. Georgeanna Milam, Kate Medley, and Mary Margaret Miller studied in South Africa with 15 other University of Mississippi graduate and undergraduate students as part of a pilot program hosted by the Ole Miss Office of Study Abroad and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. The Southern Studies graduate student Mary students spent two weeks in Port Margaret Miller shows pictures from her Kate Medley Elizabeth and one week in Cape Town, digital camera to local kids while visiting a with day trips to Jeffriesbai, Robben shebeen near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Island, and the South African Karoo. Medley spent a day working as a Southern Studies photojournalist for the Herald, Port graduate students Elizabeth’s oldest newspaper. Medley Georgeanna Milam shadowed a full-time photographer for (left) and Kate the newspaper, taking photos and Medley travel along discussing the role of photojournalism South Africa’s scenic in South Africa after apartheid. Medley Garden Route from Port Elizabeth to says that she was able to explore diverse Cape Town. areas of the city with the photographer and experienced aspects of city life that she would have not been able to as a student or tourist. Miller spent time reporting on and investigating the culture of fear within the urban areas of South Africa. She interviewed individuals from various backgrounds specifically about the noticeable number of security fences,
Mary Margaret Miller electric and razor wire, and alarm systems In addition to attending lectures by opportunity to break away from the group installed on homes and around South African journalist and freedom and explore their specific areas of interest. neighborhoods. This fixation on security fighter Simphiwe Sesanti, the students Milam, who holds an assistantship is often referred to as “gate syndrome” took part in excursions to several of with the Southern Foodways Alliance, and is increasingly commonplace within Port Elizabeth’s townships including spent an afternoon in the home of residential areas of South Africa. Uitenhage and the Red Location. Andiswa Sesanti, wife of Simphiwe The trip helped the students to better Throughout such excursions, Sesanti Sesanti, where she observed the comprehend the globalized issue of described the violence and rioting that preparation of traditional South racism and reconciliation. By exploring took place in each area during the African dishes. Milam said that the race issues in South Africa of similar country’s severe social unrest from the primary ingredients were maize and context to those of the American early 1980s to end of apartheid in 1994. framp, which is similar to cornmeal. South, they have gained new Students also enjoyed an afternoon at a The African salad was composed of perspectives on the progress and future local shebeen, much like a juke joint, maize, water, butter, and sour milk and of race relations at home. talking with and photographing locals. resembles grits. Umpqusho, a recipe of While in Port Elizabeth, Milam, sugar peas and samp, was reputed as MARY MARGARET MILLER Medley, and Miller also took the Nelson Mandela’s favorite food.
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13th Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival October 2005 Event a Great Success Stories, food, and music have long dramatization of Confessions of a manager for New Directions Publishing, been significant traditions in the Nightingale written by Charlotte who played a key role from 2000 to 2005 South. This fall’s October 14th and Chandler and Ray Stricklyn. in the publication of 14 new and old plays 15th Mississippi Delta Tennessee Composed entirely of the words of by Tennessee Williams. Williams Festival is living proof that all Tennessee Williams, this event gives The stories were seasoned by gourmet three work successfully together to the illusion of bringing Williams home meals and a premiere Delta blues band. create a uniquely memorable Southern to Clarksdale to be a part of the festival Panny Mayfield’s opening buffet at her literary festival. in his honor. Creative writer Ann home, 415 Clark Street, brought The stories come from the plays of Fisher-Wirth continued the storytelling everyone together in a historic Tennessee Williams, from Delta folks tradition of the Mississippi Delta neighborhood of Clarksdale. The next and invited guests who knew Tennessee Williams Festival by reading from her street over is St. George’s Episcopal Williams, and from scholars and fans 2003 volume of poetry, The Trinket Church and Rectory, where Tennessee who talk about his literary achievement. Poems. Each poem in his volume came Williams lived for some time as his Once again, the highlight of the program to life while Ann was playing the grandfather, the Reverend Walter was the high school acting competition character of Trinket in Tennessee Dakin, was parish priest there for many with a “Stella!” screaming contest as the Williams’s play The Mutilated. years. (A prayer service was held at St. grand finale. With 65 students from Always a cornerstone of the festival, George’s the first evening of the seven Mississippi high schools and one Kenneth Holditch introduced the film festival.) The concluding event was a Missouri high school participating, this version of Williams’s The Eccentricities of a classically Southern barbecue, with dynamic part of the program is Nightingale by giving a history of the play. music by the Wesley Jefferson Band characterized by high energy, unlimited Following Holditch and the showing of and performances by winners of the enthusiasm, and quality acting and the movie version, scholars Dorothy drama competition. direction. Over $3,000 in prize money is Shawhan Vera Griffin, William Spenser, Clarksdale is to be applauded for the awarded annually in monologues and and Ralph Voss provided a commentary restoration of the Cutrer Mansion in the scene competition. Although The Glass and discussion of Eccentricities of a historic district. For the first time, this Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Nightingale for an enthusiastic audience. 1916 Italian Renaissance villa, which is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are favorites, the Travis Montgomery presented a paper on significant in Williams’s life and work and students often delve into the less familiar “Shaping Her Old Course in Country is now the Coahoma Higher Education one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. News: Habitus, Nostalgia, Victimization, Center, was used for many festival events. The stories taken from the world of and Alienation in Williams’s A Streetcar Its presence is a testimony to the life, Tennessee Williams continued into the Named Desire”; and Meron Langsner energy, and leadership of the Mississippi afternoon of the second day in the form of spoke on “The Evolutions of Adaptations: delta. What a perfect setting for a porch plays. Johnny McPhail and Alice Tennessee Williams’s The Notebook of celebration of Clarksdale’s “native son” Walker brought Big Daddy and Maggie Trigorin and Chekhov’s The Seagull.” The Tennessee Williams. the Cat to life in a skillfully edited latter fit in well with comments made by selection of monologues, Clarksdale High Thomas Keith, editor and production COLBY H. KULLMAN School students performed a 25-minute version of The Glass Menagerie by 14th Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival highlighting approximately a dozen The 14th annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival is scheduled to scenes from the play, and Janna take place in Clarksdale on October 13-14, 2006. Williams’s 1959 play Sweet Bird Montgomery focused attention on St. of Youth will be a focus of the festival. As in the past, the program will include Louis and New Orleans with a dramatic presentations by Williams authorities and friends, several performances, a session reading of selected statements by Williams with papers by scholars, and tours of the house and neighborhood where the and his characters about the nature of playwright lived as a child. Also scheduled in conjunction with the festival are both places. workshops for teachers and for student actors and a drama competition, with Joe Bonelli, actor and retired prizes totaling $2,500 for the winners. producer and announcer for Mississippi For information on the 2006 festival and drama competition, write Tennessee Public Broadcasting, impersonated Williams Festival, P.O. Box 1565, Clarksdale, MS 38614-1565; telephone 662- Tennessee Williams in a one-man 627-7337.
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Center Hosts Katrina Conference
The Center, in conjunction with the resources for local communities. He Department of Political Science, insisted that we have to recognize the hosted the “Katrina: Future of the Gulf “high responsibility of the government Cost Conference,” December 2–3, to assist those who have lost 2005, at Barnard Observatory. The everything.” Winter expressed conference, which was a project of the confidence that the Coast would create Center’s Future of the South initiative, a new community structure in the next funded by the Phil Hardin Foundation few years but expressed his concern and matching contributions from about people there surviving the next Center friends, assessed the state of six months. recovery on the coast and provided a Much of the conference focused on forum for the exchange of ideas about a cultural institutions. Malcolm White, new Coast. executive director of the Mississippi Marie Antoon, executive director of Arts Commission, lamented the Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB), conflict for attention between the opened the conference with remarks Mississippi Gulf Coast and New about public broadcasting’s role in Orleans. He also recounted the efforts covering the hurricane and, more of the his organization to contact generally, the importance of the media resources not only to the Coast but also members of the arts community on the in keeping the nation’s attention on to the Mississippi Delta, where many coast, gathering information about the need for resources for recovery. evacuees went to seek shelter. Her what was damaged and what resources Antoon showed excerpts from an MPB group, like others, offered many needed remained. He noted that art is “a major production, Gulf Coast Expressions, counseling services, such as advice on component of the Mississippi Gulf which evocatively portrayed the Coast how to obtain insurance funds for lost Coast.” He added that he thought of before and after the disaster. housing. Attorney Richard Scruggs was Beauvoir before Beau Rivage, referring Panelists participated in sessions on pessimistic in his assessment of a key to the historic home of Jefferson Davis “Economic Capital”; “Social Capital”; issue for the renewal of the Coast and and the popular Biloxi casino. Artists “The Governor’s Commission on asked where the capital is to come from have lost their paints, canvasses, Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal”; to help in rebuilding. Beth Sewell, from studios, and audiences, but White and “Memories and Visions.” Participants the Mississippi Department of ended on a hopeful note, “looking shared their personal experiences during Education, relayed the good news that forward to a wealth of creative genius and after the hurricane and conveyed the as of early November last year, all of the coming out of this tragedy.” work of their agencies and organizations Mississippi school districts affected by The final session on “Memories and in relief and recovery. Katrina were up and running, which Visions” was a poignant one, including One recurring theme was the was important, she said, in giving a Mary Anderson Pickard’s story of the importance of Mississippi state sense of continuity for those still shell- effects of the storm in destroying agencies, nonprofit organizations, and shocked by the storm. historic Shearwater Pottery and the churches in dealing with the aftermath Architect Tom Howorth and former family compound of members of artist of Katrina. These groups answered governor William Winter talked about Walter Anderson’s family. Alan questions and helped channel outside the work of the Governor’s Huffman told of the stunning resources to those in need. Churches, Commission and its plans for dealing destruction to historic buildings, and for example, provided assistance to the with Katrina’s effects. Howorth gave several members noted the effects of elderly and single-parent households details of “a frenzied and elaborate such destruction on the collective and helped in rebuilding homes. “There design process” that came out of a memories of coastal people. Poet used to be barriers of denomination and Governor’s Forum in October, where Natasha Trethewey, who grew up in race,” said Jacqueline Johnson, director members of the Congress of New Gulfport, looked to a renewed Coast, of the Mississippi Faith-based Coalition Urbanists, working with local given the chance to reimagine itself as for Community Renewal, “but there community members, devised the home to a diversity of people are no barriers now.” She added that extensive community plans for each looking toward the future. “everyone is in common need.” area of the coast. Governor Winter was Representing the Foundation for the passionate in urging the federal CHARLES REAGAN WILSON Mid-South, Necole Irvin recounted her government to deliver on earlier organization’s efforts to channel promises to provide extensive financial
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Reading the South Early Escapades. By Eudora Welty. Compiled and Fans and students of Eudora History, which was also an essential edited by Patti Carr Black. Welty will eagerly reach for both resource for Marrs’s biography. Jackson: University Press of volumes, but most will reach first for Black’s long introductory essay, Mississippi, 2005. the slender one with the humorous “Comic Energy: Eudora Welty’s Young 150 pages. $30.00 cloth. cover. Black chose an early 1930s Art,” provides an excellent overview photograph of Welty in a bushy of the drawings and writings, circa Eudora Welty: A Biography. moustache and curly wig for the 1920–1935, and almost all of them Early Escapades By Suzanne Marrs. Orlando, dust jacket of . “This “done in fun.” Such works, says Black, Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 2005. could be Welty as Groucho Marx, allow us to “feel the comic energy that 652 pages. $28.00 cloth. whom she admired,” the editor swirled through her adult writing, and see the beginnings of her satiric force.” “A strange kind of life he leads in At 10, Eudora drew a charming beach Oxford, two lives really,” Eudora scene that was published in the Welty wrote in August 1949 after an legendary St. Nicholas children’s enjoyable sail with William Faulkner magazine; at 15, she sketched a on Sardis Lake—gliding past “the western train trip for a Lamar Life dead cypresses and stumps and all,” Insurance souvenir booklet. Her steering clear of “bookish” matters. poetry, prose, and graphics appeared in Suzanne Marrs’s Eudora Welty: A various high school and college Biography shows just how completely publications. Black even reproduces Welty herself lived multiple lives a few two pages of doodles from notes for a hours south of Faulkner in Jackson, Columbia University psychology Mississippi. And the drawings and lecture. Welty’s artwork reflects several writings in Patti Carr Black’s styles, from classical and Victorian to compilation Early Escapades reveal modernist modes, much as she assumes that Welty’s imagination was racing varied poses and wears different far from her quiet neighborhood by costumes for the photographs included the time she was 12. For “The Glorious in this volume. Early Escapades also Apology: A Tragedy,” a precocious reprints examples of her early Eudora clipped newspapers and journalistic writing for outlets in magazines to illustrate her story about explains, “or as a mountain man Jackson and Memphis; Black observes the resourceful Fitzhugh Green (son of with his moonshine.” In comic that Welty’s amused attitude “was a “whispering saxophonist”) and his counterpoint, the back cover barely fettered” in reports on bride, Lallie, whose head was “full of reproduces a late example of Welty’s weddings, fraternity events, and other fancies.” Packed with verbs like “juvenilia,” her sketch of Mae West social gatherings. “snarled,” “quailed,” “suffocated,” and with a huge hat, long eyelashes, red In Suzanne Marrs’s authoritative “accosted,” the hilarious narrative by lips, and well-defined bosom. Other and indispensable biography, Welty “E. Welty” is prefaced with Eudora’s caricatures in the 1933 series for her herself is often the life of the party, phony blurbs from H. L. Mencken, friend Frank Lyell include a pointy- whether the occasion is a niece’s Andrew Volstead, and other chinned Faulkner and a striking birthday, a publisher’s reception in luminaries of 1921. Black’s collection Hitler (a penciled rectangle with a New York, a visit with writer V. S. of Welty’s earliest works and Marrs’s couple of hair-strokes and a smudged Pritchett in London, or festivities at discussion of her long life are very moustache). These cartoons are Mississippi Governor William different fruits of the two scholars’ among the treasures of the Eudora Winter’s mansion. Reviewing this personal friendships with the Pulitzer Welty House Collection, Mississippi book for the New York Times, Prize–winning author. Department of Archives and Francine Prose admits that she,
Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, For these and other books call 800-648-4001 or fax 601-234-9630. Students, and Friends of the Center for the 160 Courthouse Square • Oxford, Mississippi 38655 Study of Southern Culture
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Reading the South continued
“like many readers,” had “always “clearly based on Ken’s battle with multiple perspectives is welcomed in a imagined Eudora Welty as a bit like Alzheimer’s disease”; and she suggests civil, academic discourse where Emily Dickinson with excellent that Welty’s love for Millar also participants are trying to clarify a Southern manners.” Instead, Marrs “began to inform her development of subject. This assumption, one would presents a much more robust, characters” for “The Shadow Club,” think, would be especially true if the extroverted, and adventurous another work she never completed. topic is as controversial as handling woman—in essence, the Eudora of The man who had the most obvious serpents or drinking “any deadly thing” Early Escapades. Intent on impact on Welty’s published works by Christians who believe sincerely describing Welty’s life “as fully as was her incredibly supportive agent they are “following the signs” set forth possible,” Marrs says her research Diarmuid Russell, a close friend until in scripture, specifically Mark 16: was guided by many voices: “the his death in 1973. 17–18. Unfortunately, in the case of voices in her fiction; the voices in Marrs traces this collaboration and Pastor Jimmy Morrow, his voice adds her letters to friends, editors, many other literary friendships, little to elucidate the actual evolution colleagues; the voices of individuals including those with Faulkner, of these practices. [including Marrs] who knew her not Pritchett, Elizabeth Bowen, William In his introduction, Ralph Hood as a marble statue, but as a living, Jay Smith, Katherine Anne Porter, admits the book is not a “historian’s breathing, changing, developing, Reynolds Price, Mary Lou Aswell, history,” and he readily acknowledges witty, sensitive, and complicated Elizabeth Spencer, and Anne Tyler. “obvious flaws in terms of the proper personality.” Because Welty Welty’s correspondence with these identification of sources.” The editor, endorsed Marrs’s book proposal, she and other friends gives insight into however, is willing to grant Jimmy had access to letters that will not her process of composition and Morrow his donnée, and Hood has become available to other scholars revision, her strong family ties, her done a commendable job of until 2008; and her research in far- liberal Democratic politics, her organizing the “sheets and scraps flung manuscript collections was lectures and creative writing classes at Jimmy has written” into an thorough. In fact, the resulting universities, her antiracism, her intelligible form. biography is so rich in detail that enthusiasm for theater and travel, Throughout Morrow’s account long passages read almost like a and her complicated attitude toward inconsistencies in the spellings of daybook of Welty’s travels, honors, the South. Marrs’s generous geographical places, confusion over and meetings with friends—a flood quotations from these letters put dates, skipping back and forth over of facts that occasionally obscures Welty’s own voice at the heart of the gaps of 30 and 40 years, and the the larger importance of Marrs’s biography. Readers who share my overall absence of reliable prodigious undertaking. longing for more extensive reflections documentation supporting his Two of the most significant on Welty’s works might turn next to claims are distracting, to say the friendships Marrs describes are Welty’s Marrs’s One Writer’s Imagination: The least. These issues render the book romantic passion for her fellow Fiction of Eudora Welty. As Welty problematic for most objective, Mississippian John F. Robinson and wrote to Kenneth Millar in 1980, her scholarly purposes. Hood even states for Kenneth Millar, the popular stories “showed me my life—I guess that Morrow’s assertions are often author who published mysteries under they are my life.” derived from hearsay or newspaper the pseudonym Ross Macdonald. The clippings, with no publication depth of the relationships is clear and JOAN WYLIE HALL information provided. In addition, moving in Welty’s correspondence, only two of the 31 photos provide a but Millar’s marriage and Robinson’s credit. All of these difficulties ambivalent sexuality were major muddy the waters that researchers of impediments. Even more intriguing Handling Serpents: Pastor Jesus’ Name, Holiness, and than Marrs’s discussion of these Jimmy Morrow’s Narrative Trinitarian traditions have tried so emotional dramas is their possible History of His Appalachian painstakingly to clarify, using court impact on Welty’s fiction. Her records, census documents, and protracted worry about Robinson’s Jesus’ Name Tradition. trustworthy media accounts. military service in Italy during World Jimmy Morrow with Ralph W. On the positive side, what the War II and Millar’s slipping memory Hood Jr., editor. Macon, Georgia: book does reveal is a fascinating during the 1970s could help to explain Mercer University Press, 2005. insight into one serpent handler’s some periods of writer’s block. Marrs 207 pages. $19.00 paper. psychology as he shares his version of refers to “Henry,” a story that was In most instances, the inclusion of the religious movement that many
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Reading the South continued 4HE !RT OF A 'OOD 2EAD
experts claim is almost exclusively a Southern phenomenon— despite Morrow’s allegation that “Our religion has already gone into many nations across the sea.” Pastor Morrow provides many anecdotes, detailed descriptions of services, rules to be observed by %ARLY %SCAPADES preachers and participants, and "Y %UDORA 7ELTY the traditional histories of various #OMPILED AND EDITED BY 3HELBY &OOTE churches that have practiced “fol- +ATHERINE !NNE 0ATTI #ARR "LACK ! 7RITERS ,IFE lowing the signs.” He relates, for 0OEMS SKETCHES PROlLES 0ORTER "Y # 3TUART #HAPMAN example, his conversion experi- 4HE ,IFE OF AN !RTIST AND SATIRES THAT CLEARLY PREDICT ONE OF THE 3OUTHS ! BIOGRAPHY THAT PLUMBS ence in 1970 when he was "Y $ARLENE (ARBOUR COMIC GENIUSES THE AMBIGUOUS LIFE OF THE unharmed after two bites on the 5NRUE HARDBACK GENTLEMANLY NOVELIST AND hand from a “large, yellow timber h5NRUE HAS MADE IT HER HISTORIAN back rattlesnake.” On that occa- DAUNTING TASK TO SEPA HARDBACK RATE TRUTH FROM FABLE AND sion he heard a voice say, “This THEREBY REVEAL A CON time I will overlook your igno- STANTLY EXCITING CHANGE 3HELBY &OOTE rance.” Of particular interest ABLE BAFmING ALWAYS .OVELIST AND (ISTORIAN toward the end of the book, and INTERESTING WOMANv "Y 2OBERT , 0HILLIPS *R recounted as a series of questions %LIZABETH 3PENCER ! CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF with answers taken from scripture, HARDBACK THE AUTHOR EXTOLLED FOR BOTH HIS lCTION AND HIS is a vision of hell Morrow reports ACCLAIMED THREE VOLUME having had in 1975. HISTORY 4HE #IVIL 7AR Jimmy Morrow’s “history” is 4HE 7RITING ,IFE PAPERBACK replete with biblical quotations, "Y %LLEN 'ILCHRIST and his syntax reveals a mind &IFTY