OXFORD, Miss. – The life and works of Mississippi native Barry Hannah, a renowned novelist, short story writer and educator, are to be celebrated during the 17th annual Oxford Conference for the Book, which begins Thursday (March 4) at the University of Mississippi.
Hannah, who died Monday at his home in Oxford, won numerous awards and international recognition. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his short story collection “High Lonesome” (1996). His first novel, “Geronimo Rex” (1972), won the William Faulkner Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award. “Airships,” his 1978 collection of short stories about the Vietnam War, the Civil War and the modern South, won the Arnold Gingrich Short Fiction Award. He published eight novels and four short story collections and won a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Robert Penn Warren Lifetime Achievement Award, a PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of the short story and a prestigious Award in Literature from the American Institute of Arts and Letters.
Organizers felt the conference should go on despite Hannah’s untimely death.
“It’s painful to have a conference on Barry Hannah so close to his passing,” said Ted Ownby, director of the UM Center for the Study of Southern Culture. “I hope the event will give people plenty of chances to tell stories about Barry and to hear them.”
“Barry Hannah was an extraordinary teacher and colleague, and, of course, he remains one of the best American writers since Faulkner,” said Ivo Kamps, chair of the UM English department. “His prose still has the power to mesmerize and to startle the reader. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts was once asked what it takes to be a great drummer. He replied, ‘It’s all about hitting things and when.’ Barry’s prose is like that; he knew how to hit things and when. That’s how he made his music.”
The conference also includes sessions with authors of books for young readers involving some 1,000 local schoolchildren, a panel about reading problems and opportunities, a presentation on book and author promotion, a fiction and poetry jam, a marathon book signing, a program commemorating the 40th anniversary of the University of Mississippi Press, a conference edition of “Thacker Mountain Radio” and various other addresses, readings and panels.
The conference kicks off at 11:30 a.m. Thursday with a program and luncheon at UM’s J.D. Williams Library, featuring Nicholas A. Basbane. The leading authority on books about books will discuss “Common Bond: A World of Books and Book People.”
Two panel presentations are scheduled Thursday afternoon. “Writing about Politics,” moderated by journalist and UM journalism professor Curtis Wilke, will feature New Yorker columnist Hendrick Hertzberg and journalist Todd S. Purdum. “Celebration of National Poetry Month,” moderated by English professor Beth Ann Fennelly, features renowned poets Mark Jarman of Vanderbilt University and E. Ethelbert Miller of Washington, D.C.
Popular novelist John Grisham lectures on “Literary Oxford”. Richard Howorth, former Oxford mayor and owner of Square Books, will introduce Grisham and UM Chancellor Daniel W. Jones is providing closing remarks.
Also on Thursday, Jim Dees will host a special edition of “Thacker Mountain Radio.” Featured guests include author Steven Amsterdam and house band the Yalobushwhackers.
For the seventh year, two sessions with young authors are scheduled. On Friday morning, Ingrid Law, author of “Saavy,” will speak to Oxford-area fifth-graders. Law’s book is winner of the 2009 Newberry Honor Book Award. The second session, also on Friday, features Watt Key, author of “Alabama Moon,” who will speak to students from Mississippi high schools. These two sessions are sponsored in collaboration with the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, the Lafayette County Literary Council and Square Books Jr.
On Saturday, programming includes the annual panel presentation “The Endangered Species: Readers Today and Tomorrow.” Moderator is educator Elaine H. Scott and panelists are Claiborne Barksdale of the Barksdale Reading Institute and authors Law and Key.
Ownby moderates a panel Friday on “Writing in 2010 about the Ideas of Race Identity.” Panelists Bliss Broyard, author of “My Father, Dancing,” and W. Ralph Eubanks, a memoirist and literary critic, will discuss the racial issues in their own backgrounds.
Conference sessions Thursday afternoon, as well as Thacker Mountain Radio that evening, take place at the Lyric Theatre, 1006 Van Buren Ave. Friday morning sessions are at Fulton Chapel on the Ole Miss campus, with Friday afternoon sessions at the Lyric Theatre, and book signings and open mike Poetry and Fiction Jam that evening at Square Books. Saturday’s sessions are scheduled at UM’s Nutt Auditorium.
Preceding the conference for the seventh year was the Mississippi Delta Literary Tour, based in Greenwood, with visits to Indianola, Tutwiler, Clarksdale, Merigold and Greenville.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Square Books, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette County-Oxford Public Library, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Oxford Middle School PTA, Mississippi Library Commission and Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance. It is funded in part by a contribution from the R&B Feder Foundation for the Beaux Arts and grants from the Mississippi Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Mississippi Arts Commission, Oxford Tourism Council and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.
For more information, a complete schedule or to register, call 662-915-5993 or visit http://www.