Welty Symposium Celebrates 20th Anniversary

By Donette Lee

Pulitzer Prize winning poet and Mississippi native, Natasha Trethewey will be joined by 12 other authors in honoring the legacy of Mississippi University for Women alumna Eudora Welty during the 21st annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium.

In the summer of 1989, Dr. Clyda Rent, the new president of MUW, asked the academic departments to look for special events that would showcase MUW’s history and women’s issues. One of these events was a literary weekend in honor of Eudora Welty, which has become a highly popular gathering of authors and readers each October for the last 20 years. The 2009 Welty Symposium will be held October 22-24 on the MUW campus in Columbus.

Developed by the Humanities faculty, the first symposium included Southern writers and scholars in Southern literature, history, or women’s studies. Invitations were sent to the writers and Dr. Rent contacted Eudora Welty, who graciously agreed to attend the entire weekend and read for the Inaugural Gala. The keynote speaker to launch that first symposium was the inimitable Ellen Douglas from Greenville, MS.

Dr. Bridget Pieschel, a member of the first planning committee remembers a delightful story about that first weekend: “At the conclusion of the first symposium, the Demonstration School fourth grade presented a musical based on Welty’s children’s book, The Shoe Bird. Dressed in elaborate bird masks and bright-colored feather boas, for the grand finale the children crowded onto the stage singing and flapping their “wings”. When they concluded, the audience began to applaud, but Miss Welty stood up and flapped her arms in tribute, bringing the rest of the audience to its feet.”

Distinguished authors have abounded as the reputation of the symposium became widespread. From Elizabeth Spencer (Light in the Piazza) to Rebecca Wells (The Ya Ya Sisterhood) and Lewis Nordan (Wolf Whistle), from Will Campbell (Forty Acres and a Goat) to Rick Bragg (All Over But the Shouting), the list of talented participants is lengthy. There have been four Pulitzer Prize winners and numerous recipients of other noteworthy awards.

Not surprisingly, there was even a prima donna or two along the way. One woman (who will remain unnamed) sent specific instructions to the director, Dr. Ginger Hitt, concerning how her hotel room should be specially cleaned and sanitized before her arrival. And after giving a wonderful stage performance (as opposed to a reading), she signed just a few books and then hurried back to her hotel room. She was not interested in talking with anyone; rather she spent the remainder of the weekend ordering items from room service, most of which she tasted once and rejected.

And then there was the author who was trying to “change her image” as a Southern mystery writer and thought that attendance at the symposium would be a step in that direction. When she learned the theme for the weekend, “Murder, Mayhem, Mystery and Madness: Gothic Elements in Southern Writing”, she called Dr. Hitt to cancel, loudly castigating her for deceiving the writer about “what type of conference” we hosted. According to Dr. Pieschel this individual is “still considered a mystery writer, when she’s considered at all.”

According to Dr. Kendall Dunkelberg, director of the 2009 symposium, it “has established a reputation for showcasing new talent, such as Ann Patchett, Vicki Covington, Haven Kimmel, and Larry Brown, among many others who appeared on the symposium program after publishing a single work, or in a few cases, two. They are now recognized as prominent contemporary Southern writers.” According to Pieschel, “we caught them right at the beginning of their careers when they were affordable!”

When asked about the most serious challenges of hosting such an event, Pieschel remembered being a nervous wreck on opening day. Her first year as symposium director, she had been in weekly contact with Rick Bragg, keynote speaker in 1999. As a working journalist he had a chaotic schedule as he shuttled from one breaking crisis to another. Calling from a plane headed to Haiti, he told her that he had no idea where he would be week to week. When he finally booked a flight to Columbus, she relaxed until his next call saying that he might have to cancel. She told him, “You can’t do this to me! People are expecting to see you. You just have to come.” He agreed, but called at noon on opening to say that he had missed his connecting flight...he was scheduled to speak in 7 hours. But in spite of an afternoon of uncertainly, she received a call at 6:30 from the driver saying that he had Rick Bragg in his possession, headed for campus. He arrived on time and, speaking to an overflow crowd, he delighted his audience with witty stories about his life. “Why had I even worried?” asked Pieschel.

The theme for the 2009 symposium is “Time Goes Like a Dream No Matter How Hard You Run”, taken from Welty’s short story, “A Shower of Gold.” Among the participants this year will be Ravi Howard (Like Trees, Walking), Becky Gould Gibson (Aphrodite’s Daughter), Tony Earley, (The Blue Star), and MUW’s own Kendall Dunkelberg, (Time Capsules). The program begins on Thursday, October 22 with this year’s keynote speaker, Natasha Trethewey, author of Native Guard and a Pulitzer Prize winner, and continues until noon on Saturday, October 24. The entire program is open to the public at no charge.

Celebration includes a gala event