News & Events

The judges for the Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing have announced their 2019 fiction shortlist. The three finalists for this year’s prize are Chanelle Benz, for The Gone Dead; Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, for The Revisioners; and De’Shawn Charles Winslow, for In West Mills. The Willie Morris Awards are administered by the Department of Writing … Continued

On March 15, 1998, during the Fifth Oxford Conference for the Book, singer/songwriters Tommy Goldsmith, Tom House, and Karren Pell performed their song cycle of Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies. The piece was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. From the book: Ivy Rowe may not have much education, but her thoughts are classic, … Continued

Since we can’t gather in person to celebrate the written word this year, we’d like to post audio and video from previous Oxford Conferences for the Book. We begin the series with John T. Edge in medias res, introducing Daniel Woodrell, who reads from his novel Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir, from The … Continued

The Book Conference Authors’ Party, co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library, will be held at the historic Memory House on the University of Mississippi campus again this year. This much-loved opening dinner includes wonderful food, drinks, and conversation with fellow conference-goers and conference authors. Tickets are on sale now for $50 per person. Click … Continued

Those who are arriving in Oxford on Tuesday, March 31, for the Oxford Conference for the Book: the University of Mississippi Museum is hosting an opening reception that evening for Brian Dettmer’s upcoming exhibition Hardcovers and Paperbacks, a collection of works that both memorializes the written word and reincarnates it. With great reverence, Dettmer has … Continued