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Welcome to the Mississippi Writers Page Newsletter
for
In this issue:
The following events all happened during this week in Mississippi history. Year: 1921: Marionettes, a one-act play by William Faulkner, was first produced at the University of Mississippi. (March 4) 1922: Con Leslie Sellers, Jr., who wrote more than 100 novels in several genres using different pseudonyms such as Robert Crane and Lee Raintree, was born in Shubuta, Mississippi. (March 1) 1925: William Faulkner published Jealousy in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. (March 1) 1932: William Faulkner published Lizard's in Jamshyds Courtyard in the Saturday Evening Post. (Feb. 27) 1938: Sociologist Charles F. Longino, Jr., was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi. (March 3) 1939: Suffragist and state legislator Belle Kearney died of cancer in Jackson, Mississippi. (Feb. 27) 1940: Richard Wright published Native Son by Harper and Brothers. Book of the Month Club offered it as one of its two main selections. In three weeks it had sold 215,000 copies. (March 1) 1941: Horror and fantasy writer Mary J. Turner (Shannon Riley) was born near Ripley, Mississippi. (Feb. 27) 1952: Mystery writer Nevada Barr was born in Yerington, Nevada. (March 1) 1954: Bobby Delaughter, author of Never Too Late: A Prosecutors Story of Justice in the Medgar Evers Case, was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. (Feb. 28) 1958: William Faulkner arrived in Princeton to spend two weeks at the University for Council on the Humanities. (March 1) 1988: Theologian Paul Ramsey died of a heart attack in Princeton, New Jersey. (Feb. 29) 1989: Historian E. Wilson Lyon died in Pomona, California, following a long illness. (March 4) 1993: Ann Ruff, writer of numerous travel books about Texas, died. (March 4)
By John Grisham Doubleday (Hardcover, $27.95, ISBN: 0385510438) Publication date: February 2004 Description: Grisham has spent the last few years stretching his creative muscles through a number of genres: his usual legal thrillers (The Summons, The King of Torts, etc.), a literary novel (The Painted House), a Christmas book (Skipping Christmas) and a high school football elegy (Bleachers). This experimentation seems to have imbued his writing with a new strength, giving exuberant life to this compassionate, compulsively readable story of a young mans growth from callowness to something approaching wisdom. Willie Traynor, 23 and a college dropout, is working as a reporter on a small-town newspaper, the Ford County Times, in Clanton, Miss. When the paper goes bankrupt, Willie turns to his wealthy grandmother, who loans him $50,000 to buy it. Backed by a stalwart staff, Willie labors to bring the newspaper back to health. A month after his first issue, he gets the story of a lifetime, the murder of beautiful young widow Rhoda Kasselaw. After being raped and knifed, the nude Rhoda staggered next door and whispered to her neighbor as she was dying, “Danny Padgitt. It was Danny Padgitt.” The killer belongs to an infamous clan of crooked highway contractors, killers and drug smugglers who live on impregnable Padgitt Island. Willie splashes the murder all over the Times, making him both an instant success and a marked man. The town is up in arms, demanding Dannys head. After a near miss (the Padgitts are known for buying themselves out of trouble), Danny is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. As hes dragged out of the courtroom, he vows revenge on the jurors. Willie finds, to his consternation, that in Mississippi life doesnt necessarily mean life, so in nine years Danny is back out — and jurors begin to die. Around and through this plot Grisham tells
the sad, heroic, moving stories of the eccentric inhabitants of Clanton,
a small town balanced between the pleasures and perils of the old and
the new South. The novel is heartfelt, wise, suspenseful and funny, one
of the best Grishams ever. By Nevada Barr Putnam (Hardcover, $24.95, ISBN: 0399151443) Publication date: February 2004 Description from Publishers Weekly : The serene snow country suddenly turns deadly
for Anna Pigeon in Barrs riveting 12th novel to feature the intrepid
National Park Service ranger (after 2003s Flashback). On
assignment to locate four young park employees who went missing in a
fierce storm, the 50ish Anna is working undercover as a waitress at Yosemites
Ahwahnee Hotel, where she must deal not only with an exacting supervisor
and a surly head chef but also share a dorm with 20-something roommates.
Evoking the stunning beauty of the park in winter, Barr contrasts the
relative safety of Yosemite Valley with the surrounding Sierra Nevada
mountains into which Anna treks in search of the missing kids. Danger
crackles like ice on the frozen lake where she finds a partially submerged
plane loaded with drugs. Attacked by vicious poachers, Anna flees into
the absolute, terrifying darkness for an ordeal that will keep readers
eagerly turning the pages. So well done is this nail-biting sequence
that the resolution can come only as something of a letdown. Barr has
a true gift for outdoor writing, using the lush snow as natural cover
for the violent life in the wild as well as among the parks human
custodians. Anyone contemplating a nice winter hike will think twice
after entering the wilderness with Anna, but her fans always come back
for more. By Nevada Barr Berkley (Paperback, $7.99, ISBN: 0425194493) Publication date: February 2004 Description from Publishers Weekly : When it comes to a vibrant sense of place,
Barr has few equals, as deliciously demonstrated in her 11th Anna Pigeon
novel (after 2002s Hunting Season), set in little-known
Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles off Key West in the Gulf of Mexico.
Anna takes up her new post on Garden Key, home to Fort Jefferson, a notorious
Union prison during the Civil War, after fleeing a marriage proposal
from just-divorced Sheriff Paul Davidson. As she goes about her duties,
Anna quickly becomes ensnared in one life-threatening situation after
another. Annas fans expect no less; all her postings somehow turn
dangerous. Indeed, the contrast between the natural beauty of the landscapes
and the human evils within them is a recurring theme. But this one has
an added twist: a mystery concerning alleged Lincoln assassination conspirator
Dr. Samuel Mudd interweaves with current crimes. In a coincidence best
left unscrutinized, Annas great-great-great-aunt was the wife of
the forts commanding officer, and her letters, relating a story
of intrigue and murder, have surfaced. The two stories are told in alternating
chapters, and only Barrs skill keeps this familiar device fresh.
The pitch-perfect 19th-century phrasing in the letters makes it easy
to forgive the occasional over-the-top prose in the modern scenes. But
this is a quibble. Those who already admire the doughty National Park
ranger will rejoice in this double-layered story with its remarkable
setting, passionately rendered; new readers have a treat in store.
Through Feb. 29, 2004: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Passionate Observer: Photographs by Eudora Welty, highlighting over 50 of Welty’s black-and-white photographs from the 1930s, will be exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. For more details, visit the museum web site at www.nmwa.org. April 1-4: Oxford, Mississippi The 11th Oxford Conference for the Book, in Oxford, Mississippi. Notable authors, editors, publishers and others in the trade gather with educators, literacy advocates and book lovers for panel discussions, readings and scholarly presentations. The 2003 conference is dedicated to Mississippian and author Walker Percy (1916-90). Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Oxford Tourism Council, and Square Books. Free admission; preregistration recommended through the Center for Study of Southern Culture (www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/). If you know of upcoming literary events by or about Mississippi writers, please let us know by writing us at mwp@olemiss.edu.
The following events are planned for the coming weeks and months. You may wish to begin planning now to attend or participate. June 17-20, 2004 Oxford Film Festival, in Oxford, Mississippi. Oxfords second annual community-sponsored film festival consists of 4 days of screenings, along with workshops on film-making, screen-writing, etc., for adults and children, juried professional independent and amateur films, presentations and awards. Ticket prices and details are available at www.oxfordfilmfest.com. July 25-29, 2004 31st Annual Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference, “Faulkner and Material Culture.” The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi. More information, including registration fees and online application forms, available at www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner. 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 of Mississippi
community, see the Ole Miss Community Calendar:
Mississippi Writers
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Last Revised on
Monday, November 9, 2015, at 04:36:06 PM CST
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