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2001
Oxford Conference for the Book
The 2001
Oxford Conference for the Book attracted a large
and appreciative audience, both on campus and on
television, giving writers, readers, and
publishers a chance to converge and converse on a
subject that seems to get shorter shrift each year
in the technological age--books.
The
eighth program in a series that celebrates books,
writing, and reading--as well as practical
concerns on which the literary arts depend,
including literacy, freedom of expression, and the
book trade itself--took place March 30-April 1.
For the third time the conference was open to the
public without charge and was televised over the
local cable network. This year’s live broadcast
and television news coverage reached a record
audience of 50,000. Funding was provided by the
University of Mississippi and grants from the City
of Oxford, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the National
Endowment for the Humanities through the
Mississippi Humanities Council.
In
keeping with the tradition of saluting prominent
Mississippi literary voices, the 2001 Oxford
Conference for the Book was dedicated to Richard
Wright (1908-1960) in recognition of his
contributions to American letters. Literary
scholar and poet Jerry W. Ward Jr. delivered the
keynote address “Richard Wright: The Enduring
Challenge of His Legacy,” followed by comments
from Wright friends Geneviève and Michel Fabre
from France, Keneth Kinnamon from Arkansas, and
Paul Oliver from England, as well as Hazel Rowley,
author of a new Wright biography to be published
this summer.
Other
special events included the celebration of the
50th anniversary of Grove Press and the
announcement of the Phil Hardin Foundation’s
funding to provide each high school in Mississippi
a copy of Our Mothers Before Us: Women and
Democracy, 1789-1920, a new educational
resource published by the Center for Legislative
Archives at the National Archives and Records
Administration. University Chancellor Robert C.
Khayat was on hand for the announcement as were
Michael L. Gillette, director of the Center for
Legislative Archives, and others involved with the
project.
Morgan
Entrekin, president and publisher of
Grove/Atlantic Inc., led a panel about Grove Press
and presented each audience member a copy of The
Grove Press Reader, 1951-2001, an anthology
featuring work by some of the most seminal writers
the company has published over the past 50
years--including Henry Miller, William S.
Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac--and retrospective
essays by Grove’s key publishers and editors who
chronicle the house’s compelling history.
Several Grove authors and Judith Hottensen,
director of marketing and publicity, also took
part in the conference and joined the audience in
a trip to Taylor, Mississippi, for a celebration
that included catfish, fireworks, and the music of
Blue Mountain.
Barry
Hannah, writer in residence at the University of
Mississippi and author of acclaimed novels and
story collections, opened the conference by
moderating two sessions on writing, being
published, and reaching an audience. Panelists for
these sessions, in addition to several authors,
were Neal Coonerty, president of the American
Booksellers Association and owner of Bookshop
Santa Cruz in California, and Amy Williams, a
literary agent at the Gernert Company in New York
City.
Joseph
Urgo, chair of the English Department at the
University of Mississippi, chaired a panel during
which Dave Smith and editors from the Southern
Review talked about this prestigious literary
journal published at Louisiana State University.
Educator Elaine H. Scott moderated “The Endangered
Species Readers Today and Tomorrow.” Speakers for
her panel were Clayborne Barksdale, executive
director of the Barksdale Reading Institute at the
University of Mississippi, and children’s book
author Kimberly Willis Holt. Holt also spoke at
local schools as part of the Young Authors Fair
sponsored by the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford.
University
of Mississippi professors organized and moderated
four panels on significant academic topics that
affect books and readers. Ethel Young Minor, an
English professor who specializes in African
American literature, chaired “Writing Sexuality in
and of the South,” which explored the challenges
of writing about eroticism and sexuality, noting
especially the context of race and region. Panelists
were author and literature professor Jeffrey Renard
Allen, poet and performance artist Lasana Kazembe,
and Reginald Martin, who teaches at the University
of Memphis.
Three
writers who have featured mother-daughter
relationships centrally in their fiction--Rosemary
Daniell, Patricia Poster, and Jayne Anne
Phillips--talked about this aspect of their work
during Kathryn McKee’s panel “Writing Our
Southern Mothers.” Ted Ownby led historians Allen
Ballard, David Blight, and Catherine Clinton in a
discussion of the Civil War and literature. Charles
Reagan Wilson’s session on “Writing Race and
Politics in the South” featured journalists Jesse
James Holland Jr. and Bill Minor.
As
usual, the conference provided opportunities for
notable authors to read selections from their work
and to respond to questions from the audience. Poets
Nikky Finney, Brooks Haxton, Kasana Kazembe, Dave
Smith, Jerry Ward, and Claude Wilkinson delighted
the audience with their readings and contributed to
the annual celebration of the National Poetry Month.
Jeffrey Renard Allen, Allen Ballard, Tom Franklin,
Michael Griffith, Reginald Martin, Jayne Anne
Phillips, and Cynthia Shearer read from their
fiction, and novelist Amy Tan talked about her new
book, The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Grove
Press newcomer Richard Flanagan and Tennessee native
William Gay read from their new novels, and the
conference ended on a particular high note with
readings by Grove Press authors Stewart O’Nan, Jim
Harrison, and the much-loved local Barry Hannah, who
treated the audience to a peek oat his upcoming
novel Yonder Stands Your Orphan.
The
weekend program was punctuated with social
gatherings. Square Books hosted a cocktail party on
Friday and booksignings on Saturday. On Sunday, John
Meador, Dean of University Libraries, provided a
continental breakfast and a tour the Mississippi
Hall of Writers at the John Davis Williams Library,
and participants gathered for lunch at Memory House.
Then, too, there were numerous impromptu gatherings
and the unforgettable Grove Press celebration at
Taylor.
From
beginning to end, the 2001 Oxford Conference for the
Book was a great success. The next conference is
scheduled for April 11-14, 2002. Details about the
program, when available, will appear on the
Center’s web site (http://www.cssc.olemiss.edu).
To
See Pictures of the 2001 Oxford Conference for the
Book, Click Here
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Mark Your Calendars!
Ninth
Oxford Conference for the Book
April
11-14, 2002
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