The symposium is scheduled for October 16th, 17th, and 18th, 2008. The theme for this year's symposium is "Mirrors for Reality: the Past and Future Wrapped like Butterfly Wings." This title is taken from a review that Eudora Welty wrote of Virginia Woolf's posthumous volume of stories, Monday or Tuesday. In this essay, published in the New York Times, Welty describes Woolf's writing as looking at reality in a mirror, where "elongation, foreshortening, superimposing are all instruments of the complicated vision which wants to look at truth." She further says that in Woolf's writing "the opaque character is revealed opalescent in its cocoon, with its past and future wrapping it like butterfly wings. Its flicker of life ticks like a heart under our eyes, and as it emerges from its dull contemplation we almost see it fly in the sun - but not quite."
The names below are a preliminary list of authors for this year. More information will be added soon, including when available, links to author websites where you can learn a little more about this year's line-up. Don't forget that we will be selling books at Welty Book Table during the symposium. We often have books early for those who want to read ahead. Contact the Southern Women's Institute for more information.