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Reference works about Mississippi Writers

Lives of Mississippi Writers, 1817-1967. Edited by James B. Lloyd. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1980. Based on files at the John Davis Williams Library of the University of Mississippi.
An excellent general resource on more than 1,000 Mississippi writers who wrote during the state’s first 150 years. This book is now out of print, but selected articles from this volume are being reprinted in this web site.

Mississippi Writers Directory and Literary Guide. Compiled and edited by Aleda Shirley, Susan M. Glisson, and Ann J. Abadie. Oxford, Mississippi: The Center for the Study of Southern Culture, 1995.
This compact paperback includes brief biographies and contact information for a number of contemporary Mississippi writers. The book also has biographies of older writers, a map of literary landmarks, and information about other arts and literary organizations in Mississippi.

Mississippi Writers Talking. Interviewed and Edited by John Griffin Jones. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1982.
This two-volume set includes interviews with some of Mississippi’s most acclaimed contemporary writers, including Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, Shelby Foote, Elizabeth Spencer, Barry Hannah, Beth Henley, Ellen Douglas, Willie Morris, Margaret Walker Alexander, James Whitehead, and Turner Cassity.

Anthologies of works by Mississippi Writers

Antebellum Mississippi Stories. Edited by Robert L. Phillips. Jackson: Mississippi Library Commission, 1976.

An Anthology of Mississippi Writers. Edited by Noel E. Polk and James R. Scafidel. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1979.
A well-rounded anthology that features a number of less famous nineteenth-century Mississippi writers. Each entry includes a biographical headnote on the author, and most include a picture (photograph, painting, or in one case, a sculpture) of the writer. The appendix lists each writer’s major publications and a brief list of secondary sources.

Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth. Edited by Dorothy Abbott. Four vols.: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985.
This four-volume anthology features a wide range of writing and more than any other single work perhaps best exemplifies the variety and diversity of the works by Mississippi writers. The literary giants are well represented—Faulkner, Welty, Wright, Percy, Williams—but more important, perhaps, is the inclusion of works by writers who have not received the same acclaim or widespread distribution. In many instances, this anthology represents the only currently available book featuring these writers’ works.

Mississippi Writers: An Anthology. Edited by Dorothy Abbott. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991.
A one-volume compilation of items published in the four-volume Reflections of Childhood and Youth, this anthology is an affordable alternative to the longer work. It includes a “Map of Literary Mississippi” and a list of twentieth-century Mississippi writers arranged by town or county. Like the four-volume edition, the book concludes with biographical sketches of all the writers featured in the anthology.

A Place Called Mississippi: Collected Narratives. Edited by Marion Barnwell. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997.
Spanning more than 400 years of history, this collection of nonfiction narratives features a diverse look at what is today the state of Mississippi. The narratives range in style and content from the writings of early Spanish and French explorers to a modern magazine piece by Ellen Douglas written on the occasion of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Also included in the collection are several previously unpublished pieces.

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