Mississippi Poet Laureate, UM Professor Takes Stage for Performance

Beth Ann Fennelly

The work of University of Mississippi English professor and Mississippi’s poet laureate, Beth Ann Fennelly, along with a Mississippi native singer-songwriter, can be enjoyed by all in August through a broadcast of an intimate performance of songs and poems.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting Television will air “An Evening with Claire and Beth Ann” at 9 p.m. Aug. 6, with encore presentations set for 9 p.m. Aug. 10 and noon Aug. 12.
Fennelly and Claire Holley took the stage inside The Cedars, Jackson’s oldest surviving residential structure, for the performance. Holley and Fennelly, who have been friends for 15 years, take turns treating the audience with their unique artistic talents during the performance, as reported by MPB.
Fennelly previously served as director of the UM Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, as well as teaching poetry and nonfiction writing at Ole Miss, before being named by Gov. Phil Bryant in 2016 as the state’s poet laureate. The designation comes with a four-year term she is using to make poetry more accessible to Mississippians.
In 2011, she was named UM Humanities Teacher of the Year and College of Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year. Her first collection of poetry, “Open House,” was a Book Sense Top Ten Poetry Pick and won a Kenyon Review Prize, a Zoo Press Poetry Prize and a Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award.

Staff Report