Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium

The annual celebration of Southern writing at Mississippi University for Women.

[weltysymposium]

our morning readings are getting started https://www.youtube.com/live/4Zbe44NgqRg?si=JxGFOsNwjd6KlLWq

[weltysymposium]

We're getting excited for the 36th annual Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium!

[weltysymposium]

Videos of This Weekend's Symposium

Did you miss the symposium Oct. 19-21? Never fear, you can watch the archived videos. Each heading is linked to the video in our Facebook group.

Thursday, Oct. 19, 7:30pm Katy Simpson Smith, The Weeds

Friday, Oct.20, 9am-12pm Lee Durkee, Stalking Shakespeare Maurice Carlos Ruffin, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Decent People K. Iver, Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco

Friday, Oct.20,  1:30-4:30pm Ann Fisher-Wirth, Paradise is Jagged Halle Hill, Good Women: Stories Claude Wilkinson, Soon Done with the Crosses Ephemera Prize Reading

Saturday Oct.21,  9:30am-12:30pm Ethel Morgan Smith, Path to Grace Christie Collins, The Art of Coming Undone Ellen Ann Fentress, The Steps We TakeExodus Brownlow, I'm Afraid That I Know Too Much About Myself Now

[weltysymposium]

We're excited to announce our full line-up of authors, minus the Welty Prize who will be announced later. We hope to have a more detailed schedule soon. Photos and book cover images can be found on our website, where author bios and links will also soon reside. As always, all symposium sessions will be free and open to the public in Mississippi University for Women's historic Poindexter Hall, Columbus, Mississippi.

[weltysymposium]

This year's symposium has come and gone, but you can still watch each panel on our archived video.

Keynote with Steve Yarbrough Friday Morning with Derrick Harriell, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, Adam Vines, and Holly Goddard Jones Friday Afternoon with Olivia Clare Friedman, Chantal James, Jacqueline Allen Trimble, and this year's Ephemera Prize Winners Saturday Morning with Annette Trefzer, T. K. Lee, Earl S. Braggs, and C. T. Salazar

[weltysymposium]

It’s time once again for the Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, Oct. 21-23. This year, we will be live in-person at The W in Whitfield Hall and live-streaming on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/weltysymposium

All times are Central Daylight Time, and videos of the sessions will be archived to our group’s media.

[weltysymposium]

In just over 2 weeks, we will host our first-ever virtual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium. All sessions will be live on our facebook group’s newsfeed. To sign up for each session (not required, but you’ll get reminders) go to our events page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/weltysymposium/

[weltysymposium]

We’re getting ready for this year’s symposium! Check out our authors at www.muw.edu/welty — more info on each, coming soon!

Kiese Laymon — Heavy: An American Memoir

Kendra Allen — When You Learn the Alphabet T. J. Anderson III — Devonte Travels the Sorry Route  John Bateman — Who Killed Buster Sparkle? Tina Barr — Green Target  Ann Fisher-Wirth — The Bones of Winter Birds  Brandon Hobson — Where the Dead Sit Talking  Cary Holladay —  Brides in the Sky Ashley M. Jones — Dark // Thing  Mary Miller — Biloxi Christin Marie Taylor — Labor Pains Ken Wells — Gumbo Life, Tales from the Roux Bayou 

[weltysymposium]

I had fun walking downtown Columbus MS distributing this year’s flyers this morning! This afternoon, I’ll hit campus. Look for one near you, soon!

[weltysymposium]

Hotels for 10/19-10/21

Tip: if you're traveling in from out of town, you may want to book your rooms early! Mississippi State is having their homecoming on our weekend, and the hotels are filling up. Last I heard, though there were still rooms at the new Holiday Inn Express and the newly remodeled Wingate. There may be individual rooms at other hotels, too, and there may be cancellations closer to the date, so it pays to reserve early and to keep trying. I haven't checked the B&B's, but Columbus has quite a few very nice ones.

[lastnightsreading]

Mary Miller at Greenlight Bookstore, 1/11/17

[lifeinpoetry]

She decided a long time ago she didn’t want to be a careful person, that she didn’t want to live her life constantly worrying about what other people thought of her. Of course she does worry, she does nothing but worry, and all her lack of care amounts to is that she offends people constantly and tests them with her inappropriateness and expects them to love her for it.

— Mary Miller, from “Instructions,” Always Happy Hour: Stories

[weltysymposium]

Mary Miller will read at the Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, Oct. 19-21, 2017

[dukeofbookingham-deactivated202]

Genre: fiction Setting: Birmingham, also possibly Georgia (?), present day # of Pages: 336 Rating: 5/5 

The skinny: Delightfully funny and irreverent, but not without weight. 

The fat: Wallace manages to write a protagonist who is pathetic without being depressing and hapless without being hopeless. Edsel Bronfman is an especially endearing Everyman, surrounded by a riotously colorful cast of characters which includes his shady drug-dealing neighbors, a ubiquitous policewoman, his lively but demented mother, and the eclectic occupants of the Cranston building. It’s definitely whimsical, but it’s not frivolous–there is a lot of truth here, easily swallowed alongside spoonfuls of narrative sugar. The most fun I’ve had reading a book in a good long while. Get your hands on it as soon as it comes out.

[weltysymposium]

Daniel Wallace will be the keynote writer at the 29th annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, MS, Oct. 19-21. http://www.muw.edu/welty

[weltysymposium]

Announcing this year’s Ephemera Prize. High school students in Mississippi and surrounding states may submit an essay, poem, or story on our theme. 5 winners will read their work at the symposium and receive a $200 cash award. For full details, see http://www.muw.edu/welty/ephemeraprize

[weltysymposium]

High school writers in grades 10-12 from Mississippi or nearby Alabama may enter 1-3 poems, a story, or an essay on the theme: “Overcoming the Silence: To speak out when ‘It warrants no stir’” based on Eudora Welty’s story “The Demonstrators.”

Deadline: September 12, 2016

email submissions to: [email protected]

Judges: Welty Symposium authors David Armand and Paulette Boudreaux

For full details on contest rules and a high school lesson plan go to http://www.muw.edu/welty/ephemeraprize

There is no contest fee, and the winners will read at the Eudora Welty Writers Symposium, October 20-22, at Mississippi University for Women.

[thew-mfacw]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68uPx7aJkk)

Our MFA students are featured interviewing 4 authors from the 2015 Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium at our Short Residency. The half-hour video was initially broadcast on Mississippi Public Broadcasting in June 2016. #MPB #Welty #TheW 

[weltysymposium]

Last year’s interview feature is now on YouTube!

[weltysymposium]

Ephemera Prize Deadline Approacheth

It’s September and there’s only a week remaining before the deadline for the 2nd annual Ephemera Prize open to students in grades 10-12. There’s still time to polish that story, poem, or essay! Email submissions accepted and preferred. Details: http://www.muw.edu/welty/ephemeraprize