Faulkner Conference 2013: Focus on Black Literature

2013 Faulkner Conference set for July 21-25 

Photo By Robert Jordan / University Communications

The 2013 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, “Faulkner and the Black Literatures of the Americas,” will gather writers, teachers, and literary scholars for five days of lectures and discussions exploring the relationships between Faulkner’s oeuvre and African American literature including intellectual production from slave narratives to the contemporary era.

In addition to four keynote lectures, the conference program will include panel presentations, guided daylong tours of North Mississippi, the Delta, and Memphis, and sessions on “Teaching Faulkner” led by James B. Carothers, University of Kansas, Terrell L. Tebbetts, Lyon College, Charles Peek, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Theresa M. Towner, University of Texas at Dallas.

The conference will begin on Sunday, July 21, with a reception at the University Museum honoring photographer Alain Desvergnes and his exhibition featuring his black-and-white photographs of the Oxford and Lafayette County area from the early 1960s, when Desvergnes taught photography at the University of Mississippi. Many of these images were collected in the 1990 volume Yoknapatawpha: The Land of William Faulkner.

After the Museum reception, the academic program of the conference will open Sunday afternoon with a keynote address and panel presentation, followed by a buffet supper on the grounds of Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak. Over the next four days, a busy schedule of lectures and panels will also make room for “Faulkner on the Fringe,” an open mike evening at the Southside Gallery, an afternoon cocktail reception, a picnic served at Rowan Oak, the guided tours, and a closing party on Thursday afternoon, July 25.

Throughout the conference, the University’s John Davis Library will display Faulkner books, manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia. The University Press of Mississippi will exhibit Faulkner books published by university presses throughout the United States, and there will be a display, with books for sale, by Faulkner collector Seth Berner, who will also give a brown bag lunch presentation on “Collecting Faulkner.”

For information on attending the 2013 Faulkner Conference visit: http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner/

Story provided by the Ole Miss News Desk

The first Faulkner Conference in 1974:

http://youtu.be/FDQpHkgMhwU