July 18, 2002

OXFORD, Miss. — The 29th Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference starts Sunday at the University of Mississippi, and if you’re not yet registered, it’s not too late to be a part.

The annual conference devoted to Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner this year will feature the topic “Faulkner and His Contempories” through six days of lectures and discussions by literary scholars and critics.

In addition to formal lectures, there will be a performance of the folk opera As I Lay Dying by the Nashville singer-songwriter group Reckon Crew, discussions by Faulkner friends and family, and sessions on “Teaching Faulkner” directed by James Carothers (University of Kansas), Robert W. Hamblin (Southeast Missouri State University), Arlie E. Herron (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), and Charles Peek (University of Nebraska at Kearney).

The University’s John Davis Williams Library will display Faulkner books, manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia; and the University Press of Mississippi will exhibit Faulkner books published by university presses throughout the United States. Films relating to the author’s life and work will be available for viewing during the week. Ms. Booth’s Garden, an exhibition of photographs by Jack Kotz, will be on display in the Gammill Gallery at Barnard Observatory.

The conference will begin on Sunday, July 21, with a reception at the University Museums for Paradox in Paradise, an exhibition of mixed media artworks by Lea Barton. This will be followed by an afternoon program of readings from Faulkner and the announcement of the winners of the thirteenth Faux Faulkner Contest. The contest, coordinated by the author’s niece, Dean Faulkner Wells, is sponsored by Hemispheres Magazine/United Airlines, Yoknapatawpha Press, and the University of Mississippi.

Other events will include a Sunday buffet supper served at the home of Dr. and Mrs. M. B. Howorth Jr., “Faulkner on the Fringe”(an “open-mike” evening at Southside Gallery), guided day-long tours of North Mississippi on Tuesday, a picnic served at Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak, on Wednesday, and a closing party Friday afternoon at Square Books.

The conference is sponsored by the University of Mississippi’s Department of English and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and is coordinated by the university’s Institute for Continuing Studies.

The registration fee for the conference is $175 for students, $200 for Friends of the Center, and $250 for others. The fee includes admission to all program events, a buffet supper on opening day, a reception on Tuesday, a picnic at Rowan Oak, conference session refreshments, and a closing reception. The fee does not cover lodging, the optional tours of Faulkner Country, and meals, except for those aforementioned. More information about the conference, including a printable registration form, is available at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture web site, www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/faulkner/.

If you would like to attend but have not pre-registered, you can still register in person beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday at the Yerby Conference Center on the University of Mississippi campus. Once the opening program begins at 2:30, you may register in the Johnson Commons foyer anytime during the week that the conference is being held.

Even if you don’t wish to attend the entire conference, a number of individual events are free and open to the public, including all scholarly lectures and panel discussions in Johnson Commons, the “Faulkner on the Fringe” open-mike night, and gallery exhibitions at University Museums, the J. D. Williams Library, and Barnard Observatory.

In addition, tickets to the performance of As I Lay Dying are available for purchase.

Following is a complete schedule of events for this year’s conference. Unless otherwise noted, all events will be held in Johnson Commons on the University of Mississippi campus.

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