Eudora Welty Foundation

It has been a year of celebration, education, and collaboration for the Eudora Welty Foundation as we have shared the glory of Eudora with wider audiences of students and teachers, Welty scholars and fans, readers and writers.

Author Lee Smith Inaugurates Bettye Jolly Lecture Series

Celebrated fiction writer Lee Smith delighted a large audience gathered in the Welty Garden in March to launch the annual Bettye Jolly Lecture Series. Her topic, “A Life in Books,” was a bit of a preview of Dimestore, her collection of personal essays to be published in 2016. The talk was followed by a book signing and reception.

Smith says she started writing as a child because she couldn’t stand for her favorite books to ever be over. “I wrote more and more chapters onto the ends of them, often including myself in the plot,” she added. “I never quit, but it wasn’t until I encountered the fiction of Eudora Welty in college that proverbial light bulb clicked on in my head.”

Bettye Jolly, who died in 2014, was a docent at the Welty House and a long-time Welty enthusiast. She was the guiding light of a book group that grew out of a Great Topics Seminar on Welty at Millsaps College led by Suzanne Marrs. The book group, which has been meeting for ten years, created the lecture series to honor Jolly and celebrate Welty.

The lecture series is supported by an endowment of the Welty Foundation, and gifts may continue to be made. The series is part of the Welty Foundation/Millsaps College Partnership.

Smith has published thirteen novels and four collections of short stories. She has received numerous awards including the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is also a member of the Welty Foundation National Advisory Board.

Scholastic Writing Award Winners Hear Katy Simpson Smith at Ceremony

Winners of the 2015 Mississippi Regional Scholastic Writing Awards program were recognized at the Eudora Welty House and Garden in April. Katy Simpson Smith, noted author of The Story of Land and Sea, was the keynote speaker, and readings from student writers were featured. Three Mississippi students were selected to receive national awards.

From a record number of entries, 184 literary works were chosen for awards. Student winners represented 25 middle and high schools as well as home schools. There were 5 students named American Voices Nominees, and there were 7 Senior Portfolio winners, 32 Gold Key, 65 Silver Key, and 77 Honorable Mention award recipients.

A special benefit for Gold and Silver Key winners is an invitation to participate in the McMullan/Welty Young Writers Workshop in July at Millsaps College in Jackson—see related story that follows this article.

A Jackson, Mississippi, native, Smith attended Mount Holyoke College and received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. The Story of Land and Sea was named among the Best Books of 2014 by Vogue and Huffington Post.

The awards ceremony—attended by some 300 students, family members, and teachers—was preceded by tours of the Welty House and a garden reception. The program is administered by the Welty House and sponsored by the Welty Foundation with a generous grant from the C Spire Foundation, enabling the program to be offered statewide.

McMullan Young Writers Workshop Offered to Scholastic Award Winners

The Welty Foundation and Millsaps College have partnered to offer Scholastic Writing Gold and Silver Key award winners the opportunity to participate in the McMullan Young Writers Workshop to be held at Millsaps July 20-25, 2015. Students will work with writers and scholars and present their works at a Writers Showcase on July 24.

The workshop is offered at no cost to the students thanks to a generous gift from the James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation. The late Jim McMullan was a member of the Welty Foundation National Advisory Board. Daughter Margaret McMullan, author and Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at the University of Evansville, is a current member of the...