The weather could not have been more perfect, nor the spirits higher, at the 10th Oxford Conference for the Book, held on the campus of the University of Mississippi and at various locations in the town of Oxford April 10-14, 2003.
     As part of a recent tradition, the conference got under way at the Thacker Mountain Radio Show (www.thackermountain.com), broadcast live from Off Square Books on Thursday, April 10. Conference authors Percival Everett and Robert Stone read from their most recent novels, Erasure and Bay of Souls respectively. The featured music guest for the show was Ben Mize of Athens, Georgia, and ace North Mississippi blues guitarist Kenny Brown was a featured guest with the Thacker house band.
     The official kick-off took place Friday morning on the campus at Johnson Commons, as Oxford’s mayor, and conference cofounder, Richard Howorth welcomed the crowd. Local favorite Barry Hannah took over, moderating two panels on writing and publishing, both chock full of writers—including locals Shay Youngblood, Jere Hoar, and Scott Morris, newcomers George Singleton, Calvin Baker, Crystal Wilkinson, and the aforementioned Everett and Stone—and book industry experts such as Algonquin editor Kathy Pories, outspoken Context Books publisher Beau Friedlander, Beacon Books publisher Helene Atwan, and Jackson, Mississippi, bookseller John Evans of Lemuria Bookstore. 
     After an afternoon welcome by Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat, Friday’s sessions continued with a presentation by noted Southern publishing house Algonquin Books, featuring esteemed editor Shannon Ravenel and her protégé Kathy Pories, plus three excellent readings by house writers George Singleton (The Half-Mammals of Dixie), Scott Morris (Waiting  for April), and Marshall Boswell (Trouble with Girls).

                                                                Continued...

Crystal Wilkinson

Jere Hoar

Calvin Baker

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