36th annual Welty Writers’ Symposium to feature Maurice Ruffin

Novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin returns to keynote the 36^th annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, Oct. 24-26 with his new novel, “The American Daughters.”

Ruffin’s keynote will be held Thursday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Mississippi University for Women’s Poindexter Hall. Sessions continue Friday at 9:30 a.m. until noon, Friday at 1:30 p.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturday at 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

Set before, during and long after the Civil War, the novel is an account of a young woman who was sold into slavery; escapes with her mother in an attempt to rejoin the Maroon community where she was born; is recaptured, raised and educated by her enslaver in New Orleans; works at an inn with free women of color; and becomes involved with an organization of resistance fighters and spies.

According to symposium director, Kendall Dunkelberg, “the journey of Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s main character, Ady, is a perfect starting pointfor this year’s theme ‘Keep out from under these feet… I got a long way: Resilience and Resistance in the South,’ which is inspired by Eudora Welty’s story ‘A Worn Path.’”

Writing for The New York Times, Kate Manning praises “The American Daughters” as a “stirring new novel” that joins the ranks of Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Kaitlyn Greenidge and Colson Whitehead to “reanimate a long-suppressed history through sweeping stories of people whose free labor built this country.”

Ruffin will be joined by Mississippi novelists Gerry Wilson and Minrose Gwin. Wilson will read from her debut novel “That Pinson Girl,” the story of Leona, a young unwed mother set in north Mississippi during and after World War I, while Gwin returns to the symposium with her fourth novel “Beautiful Dreamers,” the story of Memory Feather and her mother Virginia who reluctantly return to the Mississippi Coast in the 1950s after Virginia’s divorce. Both protagonists must navigate the vagaries of small-town morality and the prejudices of their respective eras.

Steve Yates brings these themes much closer to the present with his novel “The Lakes of Southern Hollow” that follows the story of a group of Ozark teens from right before the Covid-19 pandemic. Yates has been a frequent participant in the symposium, both with several of his novels and as a representative for the University Press of Mississippi.

Each year, the Press and The W award the Eudora Welty Prize to a book of scholarship in Literary Studies, Women’s Studies or Southern Studies. This year’s prize goes to Kemeshia Randle Swanson for her book “Maverick Feminist,” which combines memoir and theory to explore the intersection of race and gender in contemporary writing and culture.

New Orleans native Brooke Champagne makes her debut appearance at the symposium with her essay collection “Nola Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy,” which the Southern Review of Books has called “a bold and ‘buggy’ debut that “parades through the multiple masks she and her city of New Orleans wear, while tossing her insights and insecurities at readers like so many trinkets.”

Champagne will be joined by spouses Pauline Kaldas and T. J. Anderson III, who both return to the symposium, though for the first time together. Kaldas brings her debut novel, “The Measure of Distance,” which is a multigenerational family’s story of migration within Egypt and immigration from Egypt to America, while Anderson brings his fourth collection of poetry, “t/here it is,” which continues his exploration of the African diaspora through poetry and music.

Other poets joining the symposium include Christian J. Collier, a current student in The W’s MFA program with his debut collection “Greater Ghost,” James E. Cherry, a native of west Tennessee, who returns with his collection “Between Chance and Mercy,” Hannah V. Warren with her debut collection “Slaughterhouse for Old Wives’ Tales” and Todd Osborne who will read from his debut collection “Gatherer.”

On Friday afternoon, these 12 published writers will be joined by five high-school Ephemera Prize winners, whose poems, essays and stories were judged by James E. Cherry and Gerry Wilson.

Other Welty Series events include the Welty Gala on Friday evening, a university fundraiser and dinner featuring Jeannette Walls who will discuss her bestselling memoir, “The Glass Castle,” detailing her life growing up in and escaping extreme poverty. The Welty Gala will be held at the James M. Trotter Convention Center. Also featured with be the reception for the “Biennial Art Faculty Exhibition,” which will be ongoing in Summer Hall.

All symposium sessions and art exhibits are free and open to the public. No reservations are required. For Welty Gala tickets, please contact the MUW Foundation. For information on the authors, books, the Ephemera Prize and the Gala, see the Welty Series website www.muw.edu/welty.