Eudora Welty Foundation

Through the Eudora Welty Foundation and its collaboration with the Eudora Welty House and Garden and with the support of Suzanne Marrs, Welty Foundation Scholar-in-Residence at Millsaps College in Jackson, Eudora Welty’s life, writing, photography, and influence continue to be widely shared with students, scholars, and the general public.

Exhibits Featuring Welty’s Photos also Offer Educational Programs and Concert

The Nashville Public Library will open a Welty photography exhibit September 5, 2014, that will run through November 9. Check the Welty Foundation website eudorawelty.org for special events to be held in association with the exhibit. Two galleries in Mississippi also featured exhibits of Welty’s photographs: the WilJax Gallery in Cleveland in September 2013 and the Cedars historic house in Jackson in April 2014, in partnership with the Fondren Renaissance Foundation. Educational programs for the Cleveland exhibit were held in cooperation with Delta State University, Coahoma Community College, and local schools. Schools in the Jackson area visited the exhibit at the Cedars, thanks to a grant from the Gannett Foundation. Singer-songwriter Claire Holley and Friends performed a concert at the Cedars during the exhibition. Holley has written a musical interpretation Welty’s “The Whistle” entitled “Pleasant Dreams,” and related instructional ideas for teachers are posted on the Eudora Welty Foundation’s website. Holley, who has made several Welty-themed concert appearances, received a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award in June for contemporary composition.

Roger Mudd Visits Mississippi in Honor of His Dear Friend, Eudora

National television anchor and author Roger Mudd, member of the Eudora Welty Foundation National Advisory Board, was the featured guest at events in Jackson in May in association with the Welty Foundation and Fondren Foundation partnership. He was the guest of honor at a Welty Foundation dinner and the keynote speaker at a public luncheon. Mudd reminisced about his long-standing friendship with Welty to the delight of both groups. A 1989 interview Mudd conducted with Welty for the PBS MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour was shown at the luncheon.

Ebony O. Lumumba Completes Research as 2013 Welty Research Fellow

Ebony O. Lumumba, an advanced doctoral student at the University of Mississippi, received the 2013 Welty Foundation Research Fellowship. During the summer of 2013, she researched the inclusion of elements of the African-American community in Welty’s fiction, correspondence, and images and presented her findings in a paper entitled “‘Caught in the Act of Living’: Welty as a Voyeur and Witness of Black Life” at the conclusion of her work in the Welty Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). (Read Lumumba’s essay elsewhere in this issue.)

Jacob Agner Named 2014 Welty Foundation Research Fellow

Jacob Agner, also an advanced doctoral student at the University of Mississippi and a former graduate student of Bucknell University Welty Scholar Harriet Pollack, will spend time in July doing research in the Welty Collection at MDAH. Agner did his undergraduate study at James Madison University and was introduced to the study of Welty at Bucknell by Pollack. He will be investigating the movies Welty saw in the 1940s and their possible influence on her work. The fellowship is sponsored by the Welty Foundation and includes a $2,000 stipend that may be used for travel, housing, and other expenses.

Author Margaret McMullan Keynotes Scholastic Writing Awards Ceremony

On Welty’s birthday, April 13, some 300 students, their families, and teachers attended the 2014 Scholastic Writing Awards Ceremony, held for the first time on the front lawn of the Welty House and Garden. The keynote speaker was Margaret McMullan, a young adult author, previous Scholastic Award-winner, and member of the Welty Foundation National Advisory Board. Sponsored by the Welty Foundation and administered by the staff of the Welty House, the Scholastic Awards competition was offered statewide for the first time, thanks to a grant from the C Spire Foundation. The competition received 416 entries and 21 senior portfolios from public, independent, and home-schooled students in 42 counties. The ceremony recognized 171 winners from the Mississippi region, including five national awardees and five American...