The Oxford Conference for the Book quietly turns ten this year with another full slate of writers and publishing folk. The annual event will be held April 10-13, 2003, on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. This year’s conference celebrates the career of Stark Young, a novelist and drama critic who spent his formative years in Oxford and often returned here throughout his life. In addition to contemplation of his work, the conference will feature panel discussions, readings, book signings, a writing workshop, a poetry and fiction jam, and the always-popular parties and social gatherings.   

This year’s conference kicks off informally Thursday, April 10, at Thacker Mountain Radio (www.ThackerMountain.com), the hour-long radio show broadcast live from Off Square Books. The popular variety show, sponsored by the Center and Square Books among other community groups, will feature readings by conference authors Robert Stone and Percival Everett, along with live music. Though heard live on Oxford’s Bullseye 95.5 FM, Thacker Mountain Radio is now rebroadcast each Sunday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. on Public Radio in Mississippi. Following the radio show will be a “Meet the Speakers” dinner at 7:00 p.m., to be held at Isom Place.  Reservations are required, and proceeds go to benefit the conference.   

 The conference’s formal kick-off begins the morning of Friday, April 11, with a welcome by Oxford mayor Richard Howorth at 9:00 a.m. The traditional morning panels for writers and readers, moderated by Barry Hannah, begin immediately thereafter with “Submitting Manuscripts/Working One’s Way into Print.” Oxford writer Jere Hoar, whose story collection Body Parts was a New York Times Notable Book, will talk about his new novel, The Hit, which is receiving plenty of early praise, along with his publisher, Beau Friedlander of Context Books. Another local novelist, Scott Morris, will be here with his editor, Kathy Pories of Algonquin Books. Rounding out the panel is the always-entertaining South Carolina short story writer George Singleton and current University visiting writer Shay Youngblood.   

Following at 10:30 a.m. is “Finding a Voice/Reaching an Audience,” featuring novelist Percival Everett and his new paperback publisher at Beacon Press, Helene Atwan. Also on hand will be Robert Stone; Jackson, Mississippi, bookseller and owner of Lemuria Books John Evans; and up-and-coming fiction writer Crystal Wilkinson.   

After a break for lunch, Friday’s panels begin at 2:00 p.m. with a welcome by University Chancellor Robert C. Khayat. Immediately following will be a panel on Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, publishers of such authors as Lee Smith, Lewis Nordan, and Jill McCorkle. Editors Kathy Pories and Shannon Ravenel, who directs her own imprint at Algonquin and edits the popular New Stories from the South series, will speak, and a host of Algonquin authors will read from their works, among them Marshall Boswell, the Memphis native whose first story collection, Trouble with Girls, is due in May; Scott Morris, author of Waiting for April; and George Singleton, whose hilarious story collection The Half Mammals of Dixie has sold well beyond the South.   

“Race and Publishing in America” at 3:30 p.m. will spotlight Percival Everett and his wonderful novel Erasure, in which a struggling yet critically acclaimed African American novelist writes a parody of black ghetto lit, only to have it revered as the Next Big Thing by the literary establishment. Everett will be joined by Helene Atwan of Beacon Press, who will publish his novels Watershed and God’s Country in April.   

At 5:00 p.m., a panel of author readings will represent the past, present, and future of the University’s Southern Writer in Residence program funded by John and Renιe Grisham. The readers will be previous visiting writer Tom Franklin, who will join the University’s English faculty next fall and whose new novel, Hell at the Breech, is due in May. Shay Youngblood, author of Black Girl in Paris and Soul Kiss and current visiting writer.  The day’s events will culminate with a cocktail party at Off Square Books. Tickets are $25, and proceeds will be invested back into the conference. Finally, any prospective writers are encouraged to attend “How to Get the Most from a Creative Writing Workshop” at 8:30 p.m., a bonus panel moderated by the University English Department’s Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts program administrator David Galef, who will be joined by M.F.A. writing students D. Allan Mitchell and Joy Wilson.   

Saturday’s panels begin at 9:00 a.m. with the annual discussion “The Endangered Species: Readers Today and Tomorrow,” moderated by library and literacy advocate Elaine H. Scott. Participants will include Claiborne Barksdale, executive director of the Barksdale Reading Institute at Ole Miss, and George Ella Lyon, a popular writer of Appalachian children’s literature. In addition to speaking at the conference, Lyon will visit local schools as part of the Young Authors Fair sponsored by the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford.   

At 10:30 a.m., University Southern Studies professor Ted Ownby will moderate a panel on personal memoirs featuring Mississippi native Clifton Taulbert, whose book Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored was called “a timeless classic” by National Public Radio; Lauren Winner, a noted religious writer whose recent book Girl Meets God: Searching for a Spiritual Identity has found a following among young Christians; and Michael Mewshaw, whose new LSU Press book Do I Owe You Something? A Memoir of the Literary Life depicts an unusual life in letters and remarks upon the author’s intriguing friendships with the likes of Robert Penn Warren, Graham Greene, Paul Bowles, and many others.

   At noon, the University Museums will sponsor a program at the Walton Young House, where Stark Young lived with his father and stepmother for a number of years. The North Mississippi Storytellers Guild will recreate characters based on Young and other local residents from the past.

After lunch, the conference resumes with sessions dedicated to Stark Young. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Ole Miss John Pilkington, an authority on the life and works of Young, will present a discussion on the author at 2:00 p.m., to be followed at 3:00 p.m. by dramatic readings from Young’s works by members of the local Theatre Oxford troupe. A popular movie based on his 1934 novel So Red the Rose will be shown on local television during the conference.   

At 4:30 p.m., Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie and a veteran foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe, will moderate a panel entitled “Third World Thrillers” with two stars of the genre--Robert Stone, whose new novel Bay of Souls uncovers complex psychology and political intrigue in the Caribbean, and Michael Mewshaw, author of the new novel Shelter from the Storm, a timely thriller set in a lawless, unnamed-but-easily-recognizable Central Asian country.   

A book signing with all the conference authors is set for 6:00 p.m. at Off Square Books. Concluding the day’s events will be “Open Mike - Poetry & Fiction Jam” moderated by University M.F.A. creative writing student Lacey Galbraith. 

Sunday begins at 8:00 a.m. with a continental breakfast in the Mississippi Hall of Writers in the Williams Library. The breakfast is hosted by Dean of University Libraries John M. Meador.   University professor Katie McKee moderates the panel “Appalachian Voices” at 9:00 a.m., featuring discussion and readings by George Ella Lyon, a native of Harlan County, Kentucky, and author of 20 picture books and four novels for young readers; Crystal Wilkinson, whose novel Water Street and story collection Blackberries, Blackberries reflect her upbringing in rural Kentucky; and Ron Rash, a poet from the southern Appalachian mountains of North Carolina whose first novel, One Foot in Eden, has received extraordinary acclaim.   

The morning sessions conclude with readings by two well-known writers from the University journalism department, Ace Atkins, whose latest blues-inspired mystery is called Dark End of the Street, and Jere Hoar, an emeritus professor of journalism reading from his own new noir thriller, The Hit. 
       
After lunch, a panel on books of the civil rights movement will be moderated by University English and Afro-American Studies professor Ethel Young-Minor at 1:30 p.m. Discussing and reading from their latest books will be Constance Curry and Winson Hudson, the subject of Curry’s new book Mississippi Harmony: Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter; and Paul Hendrickson, a much-honored writer for the Washington Post, whose new book Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy begins with an infamous photo of sheriffs in gleeful preparation for the Ole Miss riots in 1962 and traces the legacy of racism through the next two generations of these men’s families.

   One of the conference’s most popular panels, the poetry readings and remarks in celebration of National Poetry Month, will be held at 3:00 p.m. Moderated by University English professor Blair Hobbs, this will feature Beth Ann Fennelly, author of Open House and a professor of poetry at Ole Miss; Jamaican-born poet Shara McCallum, author of The Water Between Us and most recently Song of Thieves; and Ron Rash, the celebrated author of three poetry collections.   

The conference’s closing event at 4:00 p.m. will be a panel of readings by three talented up-and-coming writers: Calvin Baker, whose new novel Once Two Heroes examines the aftermath of World War II in America through the story of a black Frenchman and a white Mississippi gentleman; Emily Bingham, whose first book Mordecai explores several generations of a Southern Jewish family; and Lewis Robinson of Maine, whose first collection of fiction, Officer Friendly and Other Stories, is one of the season’s hottest titles.   As always, the schedule is subject to change as the conference date nears. Aside from a handful of events--the cocktail buffet ($50), the Off Square Books cocktail party ($25), and a dinner at Taylor Catfish on Sunday ($25)--the conference is free and open to the public. All proceeds for the cocktail buffet on Thursday and the cocktail party on Friday will go toward supporting the conference and are tax deductible. Participants are invited to make additional tax-deductible contributions to help support the conference.

    To assure seating space, those interested in attending should preregister. Visit the Center’s Web site (www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/ocb/reg.htm) to register electronically or to obtain a registration form. Registration forms may also be requested by  telephone. Contact the Center, either by phone (662-915-5993), fax (662-915-5814), or e-mail (cssc@olemiss.edu).

   The conference is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Journalism, John Davis Williams Library, McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College, John and Renιe Grisham Visiting Writers Fund, Barksdale Reading Institute, Sarah Isom Center for Women, University Museums, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette County Literary Council, and Square Books. The conference is partially funded by the University of Mississippi and grants from the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, and the Tribal-State Compact Fund.

Jamie Kornegay

 


from left to right: Robert Stone, Percival Everett, George Singleton, Ron Rash, Calvin Baker