Robert Jordan/University Communications
Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha 2013
“Faulkner and the Black Literatures
of the Americas”
Oxford, MS • July 21-25, 2013
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
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 a hemispheric corpus of black writing, with a particular emphasis on African American literature and intellectual production from slave narrative 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, who will introduce an 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.”
SOUTHERN WRITERS, SOUTHERN WRITING GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE
The 19th annual Southern Writers, Southern Writing Graduate Conference is set for July 18–20, 2013, at the University of Mississippi. Both critical and creative submissions will be accepted, dealing with all aspects of Southern culture. Submissions to the conference are not limited to literary studies—we are interested in all interdisciplinary approaches to Southern culture. Deadline for submissions is 5:00 p.m., April 1. Professor Thadious M. Davis (University of Pennsylvania) will give the keynote lecture. Contact Amy King at swswgradconference@gmail.com for more information.
SPEAKERS
Thadious M. Davis is Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Faulkner’s “Negro”: Art and the Southern Context, Nella Larsen: Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, Games of Property: Law, Race, Gender, and Faulkner’s “Go Down, Moses,” and, most recently, Southscapes: Geographies of Race, Region, and Literature.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of three collections of poetry, including Mule & Pear, which was selected for the 2012 Inaugural Poetry Award by the Black Caucus American Library Association. She was featured in O Magazine’s first poetry issue as an emerging poet to watch and is the recipient of fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Millay Colony, and the Vermont Studio Center.
Randall Horton is assistant professor of English at the University of New Haven. A recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award, and, most recently, a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature, he is also a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of the Affrilachian Poets, and a member of The Symphony: The House that Etheridge Built. His latest poetry collection is the forthcoming Pitch Dark Anarchy.
George Hutchinson is Newton C. Farr Professor of American Culture at Cornell University and the author of The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White, In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line, and The Ecstatic Whitman: Literary Shamanism and the Crisis of the Union. He is also editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance.
Jamaal May is the author of Hum, winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award. His poems appear or are forthcoming in New England Review, Indiana Review, Verse Daily, Callaloo, and The Believer, and he has received fellowships and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Cave Canem, and Bucknell University, where he was named the 2011–2013 Stadler Fellow and serves as associate editor of West Branch.
James Smethurst is professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is author of The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and American Poetry, The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s, and, most recently, The African American Roots of Modernism: From Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance.
Kenneth W. Warren is Fairfax Cone Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Black and White Strangers: Race and American Literary Realism, So Black and So Blue: Ralph Ellison and the Occasion of Criticism, and the 2011 monograph What Was African American Literature?, expanded from the 2007 W. E. B. Du Bois lectures at Harvard University.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The registration fee for the conference BEFORE July 3 is $150 for students, $250 for Friends of the Center, and $275 for other participants. The fee AFTER July 3 is $175 for students, $275 for Friends, and $300 for others. The fee includes admission to all program events, a buffet supper on Sunday, a reception on Tuesday, a picnic at Rowan Oak on Wednesday, conference session refreshments, and a closing reception on Thursday. The fee does not cover lodging, the optional tours of Faulkner Country, and meals, except for those aforementioned.
A deposit of $50, made payable to The University of Mississippi, should be submitted with a conference registration form. Please also include prepayment of $95, for a total of $145, if you are registering for an optional guided tour. The remainder of the fees will be payable at registration on July 21.
The student certification section of the registration form must be completed for all registrants who pay the student fee. A department head or academic dean must sign the form. Registrants who contribute to the Center between August 2012 and July 2013 are eligible for the Friends fee.
Student Group Discount Package: A special package is available for five or more students who attend the conference as a group. The package includes the conference registration fee and the guided tour, for $150. Accommodations, travel, and meals (other than those covered by the conference registration fee) are the responsibility of the individual. A designated person within the group must be identified as the group leader, who should submit the registration forms and deposits by July 11. Receipts and correspondence will be sent to the leader, who will be responsible for collecting the balance, presenting fee checks at on-site registration on July 21, and otherwise assisting with arrangements for members of the group. The group leader will receive a complimentary registration. Group registration must be done using the printable form only, or by contacting Barbara Thompson at bthompso@olemiss.edu or 662-915-5811.
A limited number of waivers of the registration fee are available for graduate students. Contact Jay Watson at jwatson@olemiss.edu for details.
Refunds: A refund will be made, less a $20 service charge, provided cancellations of reservations are made in writing and postmarked no later than July 11. No refunds will be made after that date.
Click here to download the 2013 registration form
ACCOMMODATING SPECIAL NEEDS
If you require assistance relating to a disability or have special dietary requirements, please contact Barbara Thompson at 662-915-5811 prior to the conference.
LODGING
On-campus lodging is available at the Inn at Ole Miss, which offers special conference rates. Lodging in and near Oxford is available at motels and other facilities. Conference participants should make their own reservations. Phone numbers (area code 662) are listed below
- Inn at Ole Miss 234-2331 (888-486-7666)
- Colonel's Quarters 236-9601
- Comfort Inn 234-6000 (800-228-5150)
- Days Inn 234-9500 (800-329-7466)
- The Inn at Ravine 234-4555
- Fox Hill B&B 513-0120
- Hampton Inn 232-2442
- Holiday Inn Express 236-2500 (800-465-4329)
- Johnson’s Motor Inn 234-3611
- Ole Miss Motel 234-2424
- 512 Inn 234-8043
- Puddin’ Place 234-1250
- Super 8 Motel 234-7013
- The Tree House 662-513-6354 (877-849-8738)
- Wall Doxey State Park 252-4231
- The Barn Loft at Willowdale Farm 513-3662
Housing in Ole Miss dormitories is also available. Rates are as follows:
- Single: $50/night with linens provided, $45/night without linens
- Double: $40/night with linens provided, $35/night without linens
Reservations should be submitted to Robert Fox via e-mail at rfox@olemiss.edu or by calling 662-915-1408. Dormitory reservations are required by July 19 to ensure rooms.
TEACHING FAULKNER
All registrants, whether they are teachers or not, are welcome at these sessions.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Conference registration opens Sunday, July 21, at 10:00 a.m. in the E. F. Yerby Conference Center. A reception at the University Museum is set for 1:00 p.m., followed by the first keynote speaker at 2:30. The conference will conclude with the closing party scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, July 25. A detailed program will be provided with our conference acknowledgment letter.
TRANSPORTATION
Persons who plan to fly to the conference should book their flights to and from Memphis (Tennessee) International Airport. The University will provide a shuttle service for conference participants who arrive at the Memphis International Airport (approximately 75 miles or 1 hour and 15 minutes drive). The cost of the shuttle is $135 round trip or $85 one way. Shuttle reservations must be made and paid for in advance. If you would like to use the University shuttle service, please copy and fill out the reservation form below and enclose it with your conference registration form. Shuttles will be confirmed via e-mail on Friday, July 19. Please meet your shuttle driver inside the airport and nearby Baggage Claim, Area B escalator. (AMTRAK shuttle cost is $135 round trip or $85 one way.)
MEMPHIS AIRPORT SHUTTLE SERVICE
Shuttle Service for participants arriving at the Memphis International Airport will be provided from Thursday, July 18, through Sunday, July 28, at the following times:
Memphis Departures*(Shuttle leaves the airport at these times.)
- 10:00 a.m.
- 2:00 p.m.
- 6:00 p.m.
**(Shuttle leaves Oxford at these times.)
- 8:00 a.m.
- Noon
- 4:00 p.m.
*Schedule your flight arrival 30–40 minutes (or more) before these shuttle departure times from Memphis.
**Schedule your flight departure 2 hours (or more) after these shuttle departure times from Oxford.
***Should your arriving flight be delayed, please call 662-915-7015 and leave a voice mail message with your name and new arrival time. However, should you be unable to meet the next shuttle(s) you will be required to stay over in Memphis and take the 10:00 a.m. shuttle the next day, or rent a car. There is a Radisson Inn on the airport property, and it can be reached at 901-332-2370.
Please complete the reservation on the registration form and submit no later than July 19, 2013, with appropriate payment. Please retain a duplicate copy for your information.
OPTIONAL TOURS: Thursday, July 25
You will be given an opportunity to spend a day touring one of the areas listed below. All tours depart from Oxford at 9:00 a.m. and return around 3:30 p.m. except where noted. There is limited space on all tours, but specifically, the Oxford and Lafayette County Architectural Tour is limited to 25 and the Mississippi Delta Tour is limited to 45. The tours are optional and are available for an additional fee of $95, which must be prepaid in full along with the conference registration deposit of $50.
Oxford (overview): This tour moves throughout Oxford/Jefferson and Lafayette/Yoknapatawpha County. This tour will have lunch with the Oxford Architecture group. Some walking is required.
Oxford (architecture): This is a look at Faulkner-connected and other historic structures in the Oxford-University community with a side trip for lunch. The tour includes visits inside three or four private homes and “curbside tours” of others. Also included are the campus, the Square, the Oxford cemetery, and the College Hill Church, where Faulkner and Estelle Oldham were married. Some walking is required.
New Albany and Ripley: The Faulkners came to Oxford from Ripley and New Albany. The tour travels to the New Albany Museum and then on to the Ripley City Library, where Tommy Covington will talk about the Ripley/Faulkner background. The tour will go to the Ripley cemetery, where Faulkner’s great-grandfather, “The Old Colonel” and model for John Sartoris, is buried beneath his impressive statue.
The Mississippi Delta: This tour consists of a circuitous drive to Clarksdale by way of Charleston, Sumner, and Tutwiler. The tour focuses not only on the hunting camps of Faulkner’s fiction but also on the music of the Delta, the Mississippi blues. The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale is the centerpiece of our visit there. The historic district includes the childhood home of Tennessee Williams. After lunch, we wind our way back to Oxford and usually return between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m.
Memphis: This tour begins at the National Civil Rights Museum housed in the historic Lorraine Hotel. We’ll enjoy a barbecue lunch before an afternoon ramble that will take us by Beale Street and the Peabody Hotel.
FAULKNER POSTERS
Flat copies of Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference posters with illustrations by Glennray Tutor (1989–1993), John McCrady (1994, 2003, 2005), and William Faulkner (2007) and with photographs by Martin Dain (1996, 2009, 2012), Jack Cofield (1997, 2000), Bern Keating (1998), Odione (1990), Budd Studios (2002), Phyllis Cerf (2008), Alfred Eris (2010), Henri Cartier-Bresson (2011), Robert Jordan (2013), and from the Cofield Collection (2001), the Williams Library (2004), and the Commercial Appeal (2006) are available for $10.00 each plus $3.50 postage and handling. Mississippi residents add 7 percent sales tax.
Also available are two posters with duotone photographs of William Faulkner, one made by Martin J. Dain and the other by Colonel J. R. Cofield. Each poster costs $18.95 plus $5.00 postage and handling. Mississippi residents add 7 percent sales tax.
Send all orders to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture with a check made payable to the University of Mississippi or with Visa or MasterCard account number and expiration date. Credit card orders also may be made by calling 800-390-3527.
SPECIAL THANKS
The 2013 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference poster is produced through the generous support of the City of Oxford and the Oxford Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Additional speakers and panelists will be selected from the “Call for Papers” competition.