{"id":782,"date":"2023-12-15T13:14:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T19:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/?p=782"},"modified":"2023-12-15T13:21:07","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T19:21:07","slug":"2007-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/2007\/2007-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"2007 Authors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The theme of this year\u2019s Eudora Welty Writers\u2019 Symposium is \u201c\u2019Amending but never taking back\u2019: Hope and Despair as the \u2018Closest Blood\u2019 in Southern Literature,\u201d and was inspired by Welty\u2019s story \u201cThe Wanderers,\u201d in which the character Virgie Rainey, while gazing out at the houses and fields of the hometown to which she has returned, \u201cnever doubted that all the opposites on earth were close together, love close to hate, living to dying; but of them all, hope and despair were the closest blood\u2014unrecognizable one from the other.\u201d According to Symposium Director, Dr. Bridget Pieschel, this close tension informs the highly acclaimed work of Ellen Douglas, who headlines the symposium on the evening of October 18. In recent essays, Douglas explores what she has called the \u201ctangle of truth and lies, facts and purported facts, imaginary and real events” of her own family\u2019s life. \u201cWe can’t understand our own youthful natures or family histories,\u201d says Pieschel, \u201cuntil we view them through the lens of age, one of the painful ironies of life.\u201d She notes that, after a long career writing fiction, Douglas now reflects on the dichotomy of \u201ctruth and lies\u201d in a way reminiscent of Welty\u2019s character Virgie\u2019s reflection on \u201chope and despair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/td>Rilla Askew\u2019s<\/strong> novel Fire in Beulah<\/em> received the American Book Award and the Myers Book Award for its portrayal of what The Washington Post hailed as \u201ca haunting, engrossing portrait\u201d of both black and white families in the tense buildup to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. In her latest novel Harpsong<\/em>, her \u201ccommand of language is a pleasure to behold,\u201d says Publishers Weekly<\/em>, presenting a hardscrabble struggle for survival in the Dust Bowl with \u201cbittersweet immediacy.\u201d Askew\u2019s story collection Strange Business<\/em> received the Oklahoma Book Award, and her first novel The Mercy Seat<\/em> was winner of both the Oklahoma Book Award and the Western Heritage Award.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>R.H. Brown<\/strong> is the author of the memoir Call Me Gullah: An American Heritage<\/em>, which explores his family\u2019s history as Gullahs living on the Sea Coast Islands bordering South Carolina and Georgia. Brown says that even many African-Americans remain uninformed about Gullahs, descendents of African slaves who have to a remarkable extent been able to maintain African forms of language and culture in their strong communities. Born on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Brown served as an Army Medic in Okinawa during the Vietnam War, worked for many years as a radio announcer, and is now a reporter for Columbus\u2019 television station WCBI.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Ellen Douglas<\/strong> has published six novels, two collections of short fiction, and two collections of essays. Two of her novels, A Family’s Affairs<\/em> and Black Cloud, White Cloud,<\/em> were named among the ten best fiction titles of the year by The New York Times,<\/em> while her novel Apostles of Light<\/em> was nominated for a National Book Award. Her fiction has received many prizes, including Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Awards for her novels The Rock Cried Out<\/em> and A Lifetime Burning,<\/em> the inaugural Hillsdale Prize for a body of fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and in 2000, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. Douglas has been writer-in-residence and creative writing professor at many schools, including Millsaps College and University of Mississippi.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Pia Ehrhardt\u2019s<\/strong> debut collection of short stories Famous Fathers and Other Stories<\/em> is set in and around New Orleans. The New York Times says it\u2019s \u201cquite amazing what Ms. Ehrhardt accomplishes\u201d in these tales of infidelity and struggling marriages, while Booklist calls the stories \u201cfascinating and moving.\u201d Her stories have been published in Mississippi Review, Pindeldyboz,<\/em> and Word Riot,<\/em> among many others, and her fiction was included in Norton\u2019s 2006 Sudden Fiction<\/em> anthology. She is also winner of a Narrative Prize from Narrative Magazine<\/em> for what became the title work in her story collection.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Nan Graham<\/strong> is the author of the essay collections Turn South at the Next Magnolia,<\/em> a Southeaster Bookseller Association bestseller, and In a Magnolia Minute: Secrets of a Late Bloomer.<\/em> A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Graham is a commentator for WHQR public radio in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she first presented many of these essays. Writer Pat Conroy says Graham \u201cis so relentlessly Southern she makes me feel that I was born in Minnesota,\u201d while the St. Petersburg Times calls her work \u201cbright, witty and warm.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Louise Hawes\u2019<\/strong> most recent young adult novel The Vanishing Point explores the life of female Renaissance painter Lavinia Fontana, was an Independent Booksellers Booksense Pick. Booklist says that in her novel Waiting for Christopher, \u201cHawes\u2018 simple, eloquent words reveal complex truths of family love and sorrow,\u201d while her novel Rosey in the Present Tense appeared on the Children\u2018s Book Council\u2018s post-September 11 Booklist on Trauma, Tragedy, and Loss. Hawes was among the charter faculty in the nation\u2018s first MFA program in Writing for Children at Vermont College and is also author of the new collection of adult short fiction Anteaters Don\u2018t Dream.<\/em> In addition to her appearance at the symposium, Hawes will be in residence the week before the event leading special workshops for the Honors Learning Community and in conjunction with the new \u201cReading Initiative\u201d for this year\u2019s freshman seminar students, who are all reading her novel Waiting for Christopher.<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Ava Leavell Haymon<\/strong> is the author of the poetry collections The Strict Economy of Fire,<\/em> which follows a group of American women trekking the Himalayas, and Kitchen Heat,<\/em> about the stresses and comforts of domestic life. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Southern Review,<\/em> and Shenandoah,<\/em> among many others. She teaches poetry writing in Baton Rouge and New Mexico and reads her poems throughout the country. She also works in the Louisiana Artists in the Schools program, and the Baton Rouge theater company Playmakers has produced numerous of her plays for children throughout Louisiana.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Karon Luddy<\/strong> is a 2007 winner of a Parent\u2019s Choice Award for her young adult novel Spelldown,<\/em> which follows a 13-year-old\u2019s struggles with first love and family trauma on her way to the 1968 National Spelling Bee. Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/em> calls it is \u201ca resonant, applause-worthy work of fiction,\u201d while School Library Journal cites its \u201caudacious and endearing protagonist\u201d and says it \u201ccelebrates the music of the era, the flavor of the South, and the magic of words to empower young people.\u201d Luddy\u2019s stories have appeared in The South Carolina Review<\/em> and Timber Creek Review,<\/em> among others, and she is also author of a collection of poems, Wolf Heart.<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Richard Lyons<\/strong> has publised three collections of poetry. His most recent volume, Fleur Carnivore,<\/em> was deemed \u201ca stunning collection\u201d by poet William Olsen and won the 2005 Washington Prize. His volume Hours of the Cardinal<\/em> was selected for the 2000 James Dickey Award, while his first collection These Modern Nights<\/em> won the 1988 Devins Award. Currently director of creative writing at Mississippi State University, Lyons is also the recipient of the YHMA\/The Nation Discovery Award for Poetry and the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Penny Stokes\u2019<\/strong> most recent novel Delta Belles<\/em> charts the troubled reunion of four 1969 graduates of Mississippi College for Women in what writer Lynne Hinton calls \u201ca song of enduring friendship.\u201d Booklist<\/em> says that, in her novel Circle of Grace,<\/em> Stokes \u201ccrafts an inspiring tribute to the power of true friendship\u201d with \u201cabiding warmth and moving sensitivity.\u201d Stokes is also the author of nine other novels, including The Blue Bottle Club, The Amber Photograph,<\/em> and The Memory Book.<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>James D. Ward<\/strong> is the author of the suspense thriller Fuhrer\u2018s Heart: An American Story.<\/em> The novel follows an ambitious young African-American scholar who battles underground write supremacists in the New Orleans academic world. A former journalist and now Associate Professor of Political Science at MUW, Ward cites his work in these professions and his experience living in Louisiana during white supremacist David Duke\u2019s bid for political office as influences on his work.<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"<\/td>Jeff Weddle<\/strong> was awarded the 2007 Eudora Welty Prize for his book Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press.<\/em> Weddle charts Jon Edgar and Louise Webb\u2019s life in New Orleans\u2019 French Quarter where they founded the literary review Outsider, which featured writers like Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsberg and was hailed by the Village Voice and New York Times as among of the best of its day. The Webbs\u2019 Loujon Press went on to publish books by Bukowski and Henry Miller. Now assistant professor of library and information studies at the University of Alabama, Weddle has published scholarly work in Publishing History<\/em> and Beat Scene,<\/em> while his poetry and fiction have appeared in Chiron Review, Slipstream,<\/em> and many other magazines.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other Welty Weekend events which Symposium participants are invited to attend include an Art Exhibit by Terri Jones<\/strong>, who has shown her work throughout the U.S. and abroad. The Memphis Flyer says that Jones\u2019 minimalist work explores \u201csubtlety in all its various definitions.\u201d She is recipient of a Southern Arts Federation\/NEA individual artist fellowship, served as a Tennessee Exchange Artist in Switzerland, and was one of nine artists asked to create work for the Mississippi Museum of Art’s Works in Progress series. The opening for Ms. Jones\u2019 exhibit will be held, Thursday, October 18, at 4:30 in Shattuck Gallery, and the exhibit will be open to the public during gallery hours throughout the weekend, sponsored by the Department of Art and Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the lunch break at noon on Friday, October 19, participants may attend the MUW Woman of the Year Leadership Banquet and Award Presentation<\/strong> in the Mary Ellen Weathersby Pope Banquet Room in Hogarth Dining Center. Banquet tickets are required and will be available for sale through the Southern Women\u2019s Institute and at the door, though planners request that reservations be made by phone or email by October 10. MUW President Claudia Limbert initiated the Woman of the Year award in 2004 to honor alumnae who have provided significant, positive recognition and service to their alma mater while advancing the status of women in Mississippi and the region. This year\u2019s recipient is The Honorable Kay Beevers Cobb, class of 1963, former presiding justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court who retired in May. According to Limbert, \u201cMUW Woman of the Year recipients are selected based on their personal record of achievement and commitment to the life-changing benefits provided by a higher education.\u201d At the banquet, Cobb will receive the award from Limbert and present some remarks on women\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday evening, symposium participants are invited to Cromwell Hall, where MUW\u2019s Department of Music and Theatre will offer a \u201creaders\u2019 theatre\u201d based on the department\u2019s upcoming fall production, Margaret Edson\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Wit<\/em><\/strong>. This introduction to Wit<\/em>, according to director and MUW theatre faculty member Brook Hanemann, will be moving and entertaining in itself, but will also preview the full production slated for October 25-27 in Cromwell Theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All events except the Woman of the Year banquet are free and open to the public. Welty Series programs are financially assisted by a generous grant from the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation. Supplemental Welty Series funding is provided by the Welty Series Endowment and the MUW Foundation. The MUW Woman of the Year Leadership banquet is co-sponsored by the Women\u2019s Center for Entrepreneurship, an MUW center directed by Lucy Betcher and funded by a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration. SBA funding should not be construed as an endorsement of any products, opinions or services. All SBA-funded projects are extended to the public on a non-discriminatory basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The theme of this year\u2019s Eudora Welty Writers\u2019 Symposium is \u201c\u2019Amending but never taking back\u2019: Hope and Despair as the \u2018Closest Blood\u2019 in Southern Literature,\u201d and was inspired by Welty\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/welty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}