Imagine having the opportunity to roam the same streets as William Faulkner, immerse yourself in the same nature and culture, or even visit his historic home, Rowan Oak. You can. Oxford is bursting with opportunity and is one of the top literary destinations in the South.
This rich history is being celebrated today through Friday at the 21st annual Oxford Conference for the Book. This year’s conference is being held in conjunction with the Southern Literary Festival.
“We’re excited that the events line up this year,” said Becca Walton, associate director for projects at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. “A continual goal of ours is to attract younger people to attend the conference, and having a large group of undergrad writers from other universities in town at the same time is wonderful.”
The Center for the Study of Southern Culture partners with Square Books every year to present the Conference for the Book. The center’s job is to organize, fundraise and take care of the logistics; while Square Books helps reach out to the publishers and writers.
“They have made Oxford a place writers want to visit while on tour,” Walton said.
The conference consists of three days of panel discussions, talks and readings. There is also a children’s program for first and fifth graders in Lafayette and Oxford schools.
Several programs will appeal to students of the university, including programs in journalism, Southern Studies, history, memory, documentary photography, the Blues, poetry, literacy, feminism and fiction, among others.
“We hope the conference will allow those students an opportunity to meet well-known writers and discuss craft and the career of a writer,” Walton said.
All sessions to the Oxford Conference for the Book are free and open to the public. A schedule of events is available at http://oxfordconferenceforthebook.com.
The Southern Literary Festival is an undergraduate writing conference consisting of writing workshops of different genres, writing competitions and readings by well-known authors. The festival is hosted by a different school each year, this year’s host being Ole Miss.
The last time Ole Miss hosted the Southern Literary Festival was in 1995 with featured readers Larry Brown and Barry Hannah.
“The literary headliners are too many to count, but we are particularly excited to have Megan Abbott, current Grisham Writer-in-Residence, deliver the keynote address,” said Beth Spencer, Southern Literary Festival director and UM English instructor.
A Grisham Writer-in-Residence is an emerging writer who has been chosen based on the quality of their work.
Abbott said it has been a truly incredible year.
“I’m so grateful to the Grishams for their generosity and to Beth Ann Fennelly and the Creative Writing Program for this opportunity,” she said. “I’ve never lived in a place so supportive of writers and I feel so lucky.”
“The best part is probably how wonderful, earnest and talented the students have been,” Abbot continued. “I’m sorry to see my year ending in May.”
Other writers attending the festival include Chiyuma Elliott, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Tom Franklin, Derrick Harriell, George Kehoe, Chris Offutt and Sheryl St. Germain.
Fisher-Wirth teaches at the university and is the director of the Environmental Studies minor.
“Luckily I love my work,” Fisher-Worth said. “It’s true, I am too busy, and from time to time it gets stressful and I get grouchy. But it is also exhilarating and very rewarding, to do work that feels meaningful to me. I wish everyone could be so fortunate as to make a life out of following their passions.”
Sophomore English major Haley Hurst is attending the festival and is especially excited to hear Chi Elliott and Derrick Harriell’s presentation on ‘African American Poetry and William Faulkner.’
“I’m also looking forward to participate in the great culture and literature that Oxford has to offer,” Hurst said.
This festival has been in the planning for three years and runs Thursday through Saturday. Funding for the event is provided by the Department of English and through collaboration with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Center for Writing and Rhetoric.
Spencer said the UM departments “have been exceptionally generous with their time.” She hopes that the 170 guests from across the South “will experience what’s best about Oxford: our literary (and) musical heritage, our creativity and our sense of community.”
All readings are free and open to the public, but the workshops and writing competitions are closed to “all but attendees from member schools,” as stated on the website. A schedule of events for the festival is available at http://southernliteraryfestival.com.
All are encouraged to attend and take part in all that the Oxford Conference for the Book and the Southern Literary Festival have to offer. The combination of established authors with authors on the rise makes for a lot of talented people in a very special place.
— Joan Sanders
jgsander@go.olemiss.edu
