the the newsletter of the
Center for the Study of Southern Culture • Winter 2010
the university of mississippi
2010 Oxford Conference for the Book The 17th Oxford Conference for the Book, set for March 4–6, 2010, will be dedicated to Barry Hannah, one of Mississippi’s most distinguished contemporary writers. The author of nine novels and four collections of short stories, and the recipient of the Award in Literature from the American Institute of Arts and Letters, Hannah is writer in residence and director of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Mississippi. Four sessions on Saturday will discuss his fiction, teaching, and life, and Hannah will be in the spotlight on Thursday afternoon during John Grisham’s talk on “Literary Oxford” and at Thacker Mountain Radio. The conference will begin at the J. D. Williams Library at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday with lunch and a keynote address by Nicholas A. Basbanes, described by Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian David McCullough as “the leading authority of books about books.” The first session on Thursday afternoon will be a Celebration of National Poetry Month, with poets Mark Jarman, a professor at Vanderbilt University, and E. Ethelbert Miller, of Washington, D.C., reading their work. Beth Ann Fennelly, a poet who teaches at the University of Mississippi, and Jon Parrish Peede, director of literature at the National Endowment for the Arts, will make comments during the celebration. During the next session, at 2:30 p.m., journalist Curtis Wilkie will discuss the topic “Writing about Politics” with Hendrick Hertzberg and Todd S. Purdum. Hertzberg, senior editor and staff writer for the New Yorker, is the author of Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966–2004 and ¡Obamanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era. Purdum, national editor of Vanity Fair since 2006, worked for 23 years at the New York Times where his last assignment was as a diplomatic and White House correspondent in the Washington Bureau. John Grisham will be welcomed by Chancellor Daniel W. continued on page 15
Illustrating 2010 Oxford Conference for the Book materials is Maude Schuyler Clay’s 1985 photograph of Barry Hannah. The photograph is reproduced on posters and T-shirts available from the Center by calling 800-390-3527.
Call 662-925-5993 or visit www.oxfordconferenceforthebook.com for more information or to register for conference programs.