Oxford Conference for the Book Returns to Celebrate the Written Word

The 32nd conference, organized by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, is set for March 25-27 at locations across the Ole Miss campus and Oxford. As always, the lineup of discussions and scholarly panels is free and open to the public.

"Watching people come back to Oxford year after year is one of the great joys of this conference," conference director Jimmy Thomas said. "The setting, the university and the community combine to create an atmosphere that celebrates reading and writing in a truly special way.

"Oxford has a character all its own, and it turns the conference into something genuinely memorable."

To kick things off, the conference and Square Books host the popular "Prologue" event at 5:30 p.m. March 24 to celebrate the launch of "Night Owl," a new collection of poetry by UM poet and creative writing professor Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

The conference provides a homecoming for Janisse Ray, the university's 2003 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence, who gives the keynote Ann J. Abadie Lecture at 6 p.m. in Nutt Auditorium. Ray, a naturalist from Georgia and author of more than a dozen books, brings powerful stories to life.

Her classic environmental memoir, "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood," chronicled the story of growing up in the disappearing longleaf pine flatwoods. Her most recent book is "Journey in Place: A Field Guide to Belonging," which offers 52 weekly explorations that help readers slow down, connect and ground themselves.

Ray said she looks forward to being back in Oxford to see old friends, walk the paths Faulkner walked and meander around the Square. 

"Ann Abadie was a quiet, powerful force," she said. "Her brilliant ideas, combined with a gentle tenacity, helped establish the Center for the Study of Southern Culture as the revered institution that it is. To speak in her memory is a gift to me, and I am delighted beyond measure to do it."

Ray understands how much a place can offer humans.

"It can offer groundedness, meaning, depth, a sense of belonging, an antidote to despair," she said. "I realized how much people need guidance on how to live in a place, how to love a place.

"This ethos contradicts so many cultural expectations thrown at us, to put the global above the local."

The annual welcome party at Memory House, which is the conference's only ticketed event, follows the Abadie Lecture at 7 p.m. Tickets are available here.

Conference sessions begin at 9:30 a.m. March 26 in the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics with a conversation with Jay Wesley and Eddie Johnson, authors of "Choctaw Traditions: Stories of the Life and Customs of the Mississippi Choctaw."

The book draws on more than 1,400 stories from interviews with more than 100 tribal members, past and present, from the nine Choctaw communities in Mississippi and Tennessee.

At 11:30 a.m. in the Baxter Room of the J.D. Williams Library, the conference welcomes back the National Book Foundation to present National Book Award honorees Sarah Thankam Mathews, whose novel "All This Could Be Different" was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award in fiction, and Camonghne Felix, whose book "Build Yourself a Boat" was long-listed for the 2019 National Book Award in poetry.

Preceding the panel is a welcome lunch hosted by the Friends of the UM Library. The lunch is free but registration is encouraged.

At 1 p.m. in the Overby Center auditorium, Robert Colby, UM assistant professor of history and associate director of the Center for Civil War Research, talks with Edda Fields-Black, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War."

Colby called Fields-Black's book is a remarkable work of historical recovery.

"Building on a foundation of painstaking research, she powerfully narrates the lives of people enslaved in Maryland and South Carolina and their pursuit of freedom during the Civil War," he said. "I'm delighted to have the opportunity to unpack this outstanding book with Dr. Fields-Black as part of a new partnership between the Center for Civil War Research and the Oxford Conference for the Book."

The "First Books from Mississippi" session at 2:30 p.m. welcomes novelist Addie E. Citchens, author of "Dominion"; short story writer Robert Busby, author of "Bodock"; and poet Nadia Alexis, who penned "Beyond the Watershed."

Fans of short-form writing won't want to miss the "'Flash!': Micro-Memoirs and Flash Writing in the Gallery" event at 4 p.m. at Southside Gallery. The session features Steve Almond, author of "Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow"; Ira Sukrungruang, author of "This Jade World"; and Ole Miss English professor Beth Ann Fennelly, whose most recent work is "The Irish Goodbye: Micro-memoirs."

A special book conference edition of "Thacker Mountain Radio Hour" closes the day at 6 p.m. at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center.

March 27 events begin at 9 a.m. in the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts with the Children's Book Festival. Every year, the festival presents each first-and fifth-grader with a book, which they will read along with classmates and their teacher during the school year. The festival serves more than 1,200 first- and fifth-graders from schools in Lafayette County and Oxford.

This year's first-grade authors are Sarah Frances Hardy and Steve Azar, who will present their book "One Mississippi." The fifth-grade author is Lindsay Currie, author of "The Mystery of Locked Rooms."

At noon on Friday, the Lafayette County and Oxford Public Library will host a "Flash Class: Learn to Write Small While Lunching," featuring poet and micro-memoirist Beth Ann Fennelly and essayist Steve Almond. Lunch is provided by the library, but registration is appreciated.

Following the talk and lunch, the remaining events take place at Off Square Books on the Oxford Square. The afternoon sessions include Nicholas Lemann at 1:30 p.m. and a conversation with Michael Reynolds, publisher of Europa Books, and Dan Simon, author of the debut novel "Ashland," at 2:45 p.m.

The ceremony for the annual Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing is at 4 p.m. A closing reception for the award winners and the book conference follows the award presentations and readings. Works by all conference authors will be available for purchase at Square Books.

The conference is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing, Center for Civil War Research, Friends of the University of Mississippi Library, College of Liberal Arts, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Square Books, Southside Gallery, Mississippi Book Festival, "Thacker Mountain Radio Hour," National Book Foundation, Hawthornden Foundation, R&B Feder Charitable Foundation for the Beaux Arts, Visit Oxford and the Mississippi Arts Commission.

Visit the conference website for more information.

Top: The 32nd annual Oxford Conference for the Book is set for March 25-27 at locations across the Ole Miss campus and Oxford. The lineup of discussions, author talks and scholarly panels is free and open to the public.