author of When It’s Darkness on the Delta
Keynote: October 22, 2026, 7:30pm
Born in Mount Olive, Mississippi, W. Ralph Eubanks has deep roots in the delta that he explores in his latest collection When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became It’s Poorest Land, which combines memoir, personal essay, andhistory, and journalism to reflect on the state of this iconic Mississippi region. Eubanks’ previous books include A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through A Real and Imagined Literary Landscape and the memoirs Ever Is a Long Time and The House at the End of the Road. His many publishing credits include articles and essays in The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal, among many others.
Eubanks currently serves as writer in residence at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the former director of publishing for the Library of Congress and former editor of Virginia Quarterly Review, he is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow, and he was awarded the 2023 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Literature.
Author Website
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