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Registration Information | Oxford Tourism

OPTIONAL TOURS: THURSDAY, JULY 23

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 includes lunch. Preregistration is required as well as a $25 deposit, which is nonrefundable after July 13.

Oxford (overview): This tour moves throughout Oxford/Jefferson and Lafayette/Yoknapatawpha County. This tour will have lunch with the Oxford Architecture group at the College Hill Community Center. 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 at College Hill Community Center across from the College Hill Church, where Faulkner and Estelle Oldham were married. The tour includes visits inside three or four private homes and “curbside tours” of others. Also included are the campus, the Square, and the Oxford cemetery. Some walking is required.

New Albany and Ripley: The Faulkners came to Oxford from New Albany and Ripley. 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.

Holly Springs: William Faulkner’s Jefferson is said to resemble four Mississippi towns: Ripley, New Albany, Oxford, and Holly Springs. Holly Springs history is given as Jefferson history in Light in August. Several citizens of Holly Springs graciously open their homes to Faulkner pilgrims each year during the conference.

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 heads first to 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.