The 31st annual Oxford Conference for the Book kicks off tonight, April 1, at Off Square Books. The conference celebrates the vibrant literary community of Oxford and will last until Friday, April 4. All events are free and open to the public except for the Author’s Party on Wednesday night, which requires attendees to purchase a ticket.
Events will take place around the University of Mississippi campus and in the town of Oxford. Locations on campus include the Overby Center, the J.D. Williams Library, Nutt Auditorium, the Brandt Memory House and the University Museum. Locations around town include Southside Gallery, Proud Larrys, the Oxford Public Library, The Powerhouse and Off Square Books.
Notable UM faculty members involved in welcome speeches, readings and moderating panel discussions include Kathyrn McKee, Beth Ann Fennely, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Robert Saarnio, Melissa Ginsburg, Sheila Sundar, W. Ralph Eubanks, Ann Fisher-Wirth and John T. Edge.
Conference director Jimmy Thomas spoke of the conference’s benefits and opportunities for students.
“One of the things I really enjoy seeing happen with students is that they understand books more deeply and understand that these are real people who are writing these books just like everybody else,” Thomas said. “You can go and you can leave and don’t have to do anything else. But you’re smarter when you leave. You know something that you didn’t know an hour before.”
Tonight, the conference will have its prologue event with a book release party and readings celebrating the recently published environmental poetry collection, “Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology,” at Off Square Books at 5:30 p.m. Selections will be read by the book’s co-editor Fisher-Wirth. More selections will be read by University of Mississippi English professors and poets featured in the book.
A reception titled “Dedication of the Dr. Ann Julian Abadie Pollinator Garden” will be held Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. at the University Museum. At the Brandt Memory House at 6:00 p.m. there will be the Author’s Party which requires patrons to purchase a ticket.
At 9:00 p.m. later that night, musicologist Elijah Wald will play a free show at Proud Larry’s to accompany his new book, “Excavating the Bawdy: Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories.” At 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Wald will start the day’s events off with a panel discussion in conversation with Xavier Sivels at the Overby Center.
Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will have a book signing for authors from Thursday’s session, readings by Preston Lauterbach and Devreaux Baker and music by Wald and Jontavious Willis at The Powerhouse at 6 p.m.
Marshall Cain, a junior English major from Booneville Miss., expressed excitement about events featuring Wald.
“I would like to go see the events with Elijah Wald. I love his stuff, and I love his work on biographies of great folk and blues musicians. I’ll definitely have to check it out,” Cain said.
Pulitzer Prize-winner and former United States Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway will be in conversation with Eubanks in a panel titled “Why I Write” at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
More panels include the National Book Foundation’s “NBF Presents: Memorializing Memory” at 11:30 a.m. and “The Suspense of Writing” at 2:30 p.m. “Memorializing Memory” features Hanif Abdurraqib and Vannessa Angelica Villarreal as they discuss their work in conversation with Sheila Sundar. Lilliam River, Rachel Lyon and Zach Williams will discuss their works with Melissa Ginsburg moderating in “The Suspense of Writing.”
Southside Gallery is hosting “Poetry in the Gallery” at 4.00 p.m. with readings by Philip Metres, Rose McLarney and Julia Kolchinsky with Beth Ann Fennelly. There will be a panel titled “After Songs: An Evening of Poetry and Music,” with Michael McFee, Price Walden and Michael Rowlett in Nutt Auditorium at 8:00 p.m.
The “What Became of Dr. Smith” panel and art installation at the University Museum will be introduced by Robert Saarnio Friday at 10:30 a.m., followed by a discussion with author Noah Saterstrom in conversation with Edge. At noon, there will be a free lunch and poetry talk titled “Poetry’s Magic” with Fisher-Wirth introducing the poet Philip Metres at the Oxford Public Library.
Friday’s concluding events will be in Off Square Books. Bernice L. McFadden will read from her memoir “Firstborn Girls” in a panel titled “A Legacy of Love, Survival and Storytelling” at 1:30 p.m. Alice Austen and McKee will have a panel-style discussion titled “Love, Courage and Art in Occupied Brussels” at 3:00 p.m.
Oxford’s Conference for the Book will wrap up on Friday evening at 4:30 p.m. with a presentation of the winners of the Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing. There will be a celebration reception and book signing following the award presentation.
More information about the participants and event schedule can be found on The Oxford Conference for the Book’s website.
