{"id":1282,"date":"2026-07-26T17:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:19:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:19:03","slug":"w-ralph-eubanks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/2026\/w-ralph-eubanks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"W. Ralph Eubanks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>author of <em>When It\u2019s Darkness on the Delta<\/em><\/strong><br><strong>Keynote: October 22, 2026, 7:30pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in Mount Olive, Mississippi, W. Ralph Eubanks has deep roots in the delta that he explores in his latest collection <em>When It&#8217;s Darkness on the Delta: How America&#8217;s  Richest Soil Became It&#8217;s Poorest Land<\/em>, which combines memoir, personal essay, andhistory, and journalism to reflect on the state of this iconic Mississippi region. Eubanks&#8217; previous books include <em>A Place Like Mississippi<\/em>: <em>A Journey Through A Real and Imagined Literary Landscape<\/em> and the memoirs&nbsp;<em>Ever Is a Long Time<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>The House at the End of the Road.<\/em> His many publishing credits include articles and essays in&nbsp;<em>The Washington Post, The New Yorker, <\/em>and <em>The Wall Street Journal,&nbsp;<\/em>among many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&nbsp;<em>Virginia Quarterly Review<\/em>, he is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow, and he was awarded the 2023 Mississippi Governor&#8217;s Arts Award for Excellence in Literature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wralpheubanks.com\">Author Website<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reviews of <em>When It&#8217;s Darkness on the Delta<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/msbookspage.wordpress.com\/2026\/01\/12\/when-its-darkness-on-the-delta-by-w-ralph-eubanks\/\">Mississippi Books Page<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackcatholicmessenger.org\/when-its-darkness-on-the-delta-review\/\">Black Catholic Messenger<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2b4002ad wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/reubanks_lg.jpg\" alt=\"Black an with short hair standing in cotton field wearing khaki pants and light blue shirt\" class=\"wp-image-1242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/reubanks_lg.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/reubanks_lg-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"419\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/whenitsdarkness.jpg\" alt=\"Cover image of field, three rusty metal silos, a rust-red pickup truck, and blue sky with the title&quot; and W. Ralph Eubanks\" class=\"wp-image-1252\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/whenitsdarkness.jpg 419w, https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/whenitsdarkness-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 419px) 100vw, 419px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When It\u2019s Darkness on the Delta<br \/>\nKeynote: October 22, 7:30pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[35,37,66,36,38],"class_list":["post-1282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-33","tag-cnf","tag-delta","tag-keynote","tag-mississippi-writer","tag-southern-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1349,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions\/1349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}