FAULKNER CONFERENCE '09

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

The 2009 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference will examine the topic ”Faulkner and Mystery” through five days of lectures and discussions by literary scholars and critics. In addition to formal lectures, there will be several shorter panel presentations, guided day-long tours of Northeast Mississippi and the Delta, and sessions on “Teaching Faulkner” by James B. Carothers, University of Kansas, Terrell L. Tebbetts, Lyon College, Charles Peek, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Theresa Towner, University of Texas at Dallas.

In keeping with the conference theme, there will be a special panel made up of three writers of crime fiction: Ace Atkins, author of nine novels and story collections, including Devil’s Garden and Wicked City, Jere Hoar, author of Body Parts and The Hit, and Daniel Woodrell, author of eight novels, including Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir and Winter’s Bone.

The conference will begin on Sunday, July 19, with a reception at the University Museum and a special exhibition of the work of Boyd Saunders, consisting of a suite of original stone lithograph prints based on Faulkner’s story “The Bear” and a suite of original etchings based on The Sound and the Fury. After the Museum reception, the opening papers of the conference will take place, followed by a buffet supper. That evening there will be a showing of the original film version of the novel Sanctuary, “The Story of Temple Drake” (1933).

The University’s John Davis Williams 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 the Faulkner collector, Seth Berner

Other events will include “Faulkner on the Fringe”–an “open–mic” evening at the Southside Gallery, a picnic served at Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak, and a closing party Thursday.