FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2010
Contact: Debra Williams
(662) 329-7119
ddw2@muw.edu
MUW to host Southern Literary Festival April 22-24
COLUMBUS, Miss. –Approximately 200 participants are expected to attend the Southern Literary Festival hosted at Mississippi University for Women April 22-24.
The festival, founded at Blue Mountain College, was established in 1937 to promote southern literature. The festival has been held at MUW several times in the past.
“We are excited to bring students and faculty from around the South to our historic campus,” said Dr. Kendall Dunkelberg, professor of English at MUW and current Southern Literary Festival association president. “We hope to offer a very student-centered festival with ample opportunities for students to socialize and to workshop their stories, poems, essays and plays.”
The public is invited to attend readings by southern authors, sponsored by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Thursday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Carrier Chapel, poet Jeanie Thompson will read. She is founding director of the Alabama Writers Forum and has published four collections of poetry: “The Seasons Bear Us,” “How To Enter the River,” “Witness” and “White for Harvest: New and Selected Poems.” She has received individual artist fellowships from the Louisiana Council on the Arts and the Alabama State Council on the Arts and is a faculty member of the Spalding University Brief Residency MFA writing program in Louisville, Ky. Thompson’s reading will be followed by a reception and book signing, featuring a student open mike session in Cochran Ballroom.
Friday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Carrier Chapel, novelist Dedra Johnson and nonfiction writer Alan Huffman will read, followed by a reception and book signing.
Johnson recently published her debut novel, “Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow,” which was a finalist for the 2006 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. She is a native and current resident of New Orleans, and her stories have appeared in Product and Bridge.
Huffman is an author and journalist from Bolton. He is the author of the nonfiction books “Sultana and Mississippi in Africa” and the photo-essay book “Ten Point: Deer Camp in the Mississippi Delta.” He has contributed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Oxford American, The Washington Post magazine and numerous other publications.
The festival has been preceded by a literary contest for students from member schools. Categories in the contest are short fiction, poetry, informal and formal essays and one act plays. Each school submits up to two entries in each category and the final choices are made by outside judges. During the day on Friday and Saturday, there will be readings by the student prize winners in each category and by the workshop leaders: Richard Lyons, Catherine Pierce, Becky Hagenston, Michael Kardos, Dottie Blais, Jennifer Strange, Michael Smith, Dr. Bridget Smith Pieschel and Dr. Dunkelberg. The public also is invited to attend these readings. Sessions will be held on Friday, April 23, from 9:30-12:30 and 2 -5 p.m. and Saturday, April 24, from 9:30-12:30 in Cochran Hall Ballroom.
Students and faculty are eligible to attend from 20 member schools, including: Auburn University at Montgomery, Belhaven College, Blue Mountain College, Centenary College, Columbus State University, Delta State University, Furman University, Gainesville State College, Hendrix College, Hinds Community College, Lipscomb University, Millsaps College, Mississippi College, Mississippi State University, MUW, Tulane University, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, University of Louisiana at Monroe, University of Mississippi and the University of North Alabama.
For more information, visit the Southern Literary Festival website at http://www.muw.edu/llp/SLF.php or contact Dunkelberg at kdunkelberg@as.muw.edu.
