Welcome to the Mississippi Writers Page Newsletter for Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 2001.

In this issue:

• This week in Mississippi Literary History
• News about Mississippi writers
• New features in the Mississippi Writers Page web site
• Author events: readings, book signings, and appearances
• New books from or about Mississippi
• On the horizon: upcoming events to plan for

THIS WEEK in MISSISSIPPI LITERARY HISTORY

The following events all happened during this week in Mississippi history.

Year:
1923: Malcolm Franklin was born in Shanghai, China. (Dec. 3)

1925: Writer John Alfred Williams was born in Jackson, Mississippi. (Dec. 5)

1932: William Faulkner published “Mountain Victory” in the Saturday Evening Post. (Dec. 3)

1936: William Faulkner publishes “Vendee” in the Saturday Evening Post. (Dec. 5)

1937: Tennessee Williams’ play The Fugitive Kind premiered with the Mummers of St. Louis, directed by Willard Holland. (Nov. 30)

1947: Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. At the same time the play also debuted in New Orleans (without the Broadway cast). (Dec. 3)

1951: Eudora Welty’s story “The Bride of the Innisfallen” is published by the New Yorker. (Dec. 1)

1952: Eudora Welty’s story “The Ponder Heart” is published in the New Yorker. (Dec. 5)

1953: William Faulkner left for Paris to begin work on the movie Land of the Pharaohs for Howard Hawks. (Nov. 30)

1970: I Can't Imagine Tomorrow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, by Tennessee Williams, were televised together under the title Dragon Country by New York Television Theatre. (Dec. 3)

1998: Margaret Walker Alexander died of cancer in Chicago. (Nov. 30)

NEWS about MISSISSIPPI WRITERS

Vicksburg Playhouse auditioning for ‘The Robber Bridegroom’

The Parkside Playhouse in Vicksburg, Mississippi, announces auditions for The Robber Bridegroom, based on the novel by Eudora Welty. The production is seeking 20 adults, high school age and older, and six children, seven years old and older. Auditions will be on December 1 from 3-6 p.m., and December 2 from 4-6 p.m. For more information, call (601) 636-0471.

"Call for Papers: Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha 2002, 'Faulkner and His Contemporaries' "

The Department of English and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture have announced a call for papers for the 2002 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference, to be held at the University of Mississippi from July 21-26, 2002. The deadline for submissions of plenary papers (approximately 6,000 words) and short papers (approximately 2,500 words) is January 15, 2002.

For more information, please read the entire article
www.olemiss.edu/mwp/news/2001/2002_cfp_faulkner.html

Do you have a news item about a Mississippi writer? Please send your information to mwp@olemiss.edu.

NEW FEATURES in the MISSISSIPPI WRITERS PAGE

The following articles were recently added to the Writer Listings:

• Edward Cohen  (1948-     )
• Shirley Jean Johnson

In addition, we have added online access to past weekly newsletters. Go to www.olemiss.edu/mwp/news/nl/ for past issues.

AUTHOR EVENTS: Book Signings, Readings, and Appearances

Nov. 30: Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi, 5 p.m.
Mississippian Martin Hegwood will return to Square Books to read from his newest thriller, Massacre Island. The book, the third in the Jack Delmas series, is the story of a woman's grisly murder on a small island off the coast of Alabama.

Dec. 1: Cover to Cover Books, Natchez, Mississippi, 1-3 p.m.
Book signing by Judy H. Tucker and Charline McCord, editors, and Wyatt Waters, illustrator of the recently published Christmas Stories from Mississippi. Call (601) 445-5752 for information.

Dec. 2: Books-a-Million, Jackson, Mississippi, 2-4 p.m.
Book signing by Judy H. Tucker and Charline McCord, editors of the recently published Christmas Stories from Mississippi. Call (601) 366-3008 for information.

Dec. 8: Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi, 3-5 p.m.
Holiday book signing by local authors. Among the local authors featured in Square Books 2001 Holiday Catalog who will be on hand to sign books are Barry Hannah (Yonder Stands Your Orphan), Larry Brown (Billy Ray's Farm), Maude Schulyer Clay (Delta Land), John T. Edge (Mrs. Wilke's Boarding House Cookbook, Southern Belly), and Ace Atkins (Leavin' Trunk Blues). Other author appearances pending.

If you know of upcoming readings and appearances by Mississippi writers, please let us by writing us at mwp@olemiss.edu.

NEW BOOKS from or about the state of Mississippi

Christmas Stories from Mississippi
Edited by Judy H. Tucker and Charline R. McCord
Illustrated by Wyatt Waters
University Press of Mississippi (Hardcover, $28.00, ISBN: 1578063817)

Description from the publisher:

How do you create Christmas spirit when the temperature refuses to dip below fifty degrees or when snow is a miracle that vanishes at sunrise?

Held together by bonds of family, soil, and history, Mississippians share a peculiar yuletide experience in the Deep South. To capture the state’s unique holiday glow, Christmas Stories from Mississippi packages writings by such greats as Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, Elizabeth Spencer, Clifton Taulbert, Barry Hannah, William Faulkner, and Ellen Gilchrist with the work of such rising stars as Edward Cohen, Carolyn Haines, and Caroline Langston.

Illustrated by one of Mississippi’s best known artists, Wyatt Waters, these seventeen short stories and essays reveal the wonders and sorrows of Christmastime and the special poignancy of childhood memories. With Waters's touch, the book makes the perfect gift for literary readers and anyone who relishes life in Mississippi.

Christmas Stories from Mississippi opens with Welty’s classic, “A Worn Path,” and closes with Morris’s personal reflection, “Christmases Gone, Revisited.” Between the writings of these two Mississippi literary giants are stories, memoirs, essays, and excerpts such as Spencer’s “Presents,” Gilchrist’s “Surviving the Holiday Season,” an excerpt from Faulkner’s Light in August, Hannah’s “Sermon with Meath,” and Taulbert’s “Quilts: Kiver for My Children.”

The many storytellers and many perspectives in Christmas Stories from Mississippi share Southern experiences in which families create their own entertainment, relish and break traditions, and celebrate a season in ways no other region’s families can.

Judy H. Tucker (Jackson, Mississippi) has published in Mississippi Magazine, the Clarion-Ledger, the Northside Sun, and Southern Living. Charline R. McCord (Clinton, Mississippi) is vice-president of publishing at DREAM, Inc., and has been published in The Southern Quarterly, The Mississippi Quarterly, and the Clarion-Ledger. Wyatt Waters lives in Clinton, Mississippi. Two books that feature his watercolors are Another Coat of Paint and Painting Home.

ON THE HORIZON

The following events are planned for the coming weeks and months. You may want to begin planning to attend or participate.

The Ninth Oxford Conference for the Book
April 11-14, 2002
The University of Mississippi and Oxford, Mississippi

Check back for registration information.

The 29th Annual Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference:
"Faulkner and His Contemporaries"
July 21-26, 2002
The University of Mississippi, Oxford

Information on registration will be available in early 2002.

If you know of additional news items for this newsletter or if you have suggestions, please write us at mwp@olemiss.edu.

For more information about events in the Oxford and University, Mississippi Community, see the Ole Miss Community Calendar:
www.olemiss.edu/calendar/

The Mississippi Writers Page is online at
www.olemiss.edu/mwp/

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