(Poster features a 1936 Works Progress Administration poster created for a monthly reading program at Illinois libraries. Source: Library of Congress.) The 19th annual Oxford Conference for the Book kicks off this Thursday, March 22, with a lunch and lecture in the Faulkner Room of the J.D. Williams Library. The event, which celebrates books, writing and...

Jay Levy accomplished something in his first year of teaching that many other teachers take years to achieve. Levy, a 9th- and 10th-grade English teacher at Pisgah High School in Brandon, led his students to a 98.1 percent passing rate on the English II state test, which was the highest in the state of Mississippi for the 2011-12 school year. He was also named Teacher...