Eudora Welty at 100

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s finest prose writers, the incomparable Eudora Welty, a native and life-long resident of Jackson, Mississippi. Welty’s beautifully crafted, joyous, and wise stories, often set in the South, cross the lines of color and class, offering unforgettable portraits of a region and its people. She was the author of ten collections of short stories, six novels, and five books of literary criticism. Her many awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1973.

To celebrate Welty’s 100th birthday, Continuing Studies has invited her biographer and friend Suzanne Marrs to talk about Welty and her legacy. Marrs’ 2005 biography, entitled simply Eudora Welty, is regarded as the definitive life story, and one that the Dallas Morning News said “captures the humorous and unconventional spirit of one of the South’s greatest writers.”

Our evening celebration also features readings of some of Welty’s most popular short stories (“Why I Live at the P.O.,” “A Worn Path,” "Where Is the Voice Coming From?"). These performances—by Courtney Walsh, Aleta Hayes, and Rush Rehm—will be supplemented by projections of Welty’s extraordinary photographs, many of them made while she worked for the WPA in the 1930s, bearing clear-eyed witness to the human and architectural landscape of the South.

SUZANNE MARRS
Professor of English, Millsaps College
Suzanne Marrs’ research centers on the American South and especially on Eudora Welty. She has lectured widely on Welty’s fiction, serving as consultant for the 1987 BBC documentary on the writer. In addition to numerous articles, Marrs has published The Welty Collection, Welty and Politics, One Writer’s Imagination: The Fiction of Eudora Welty, and the biography Eudora Welty. Recipient of the 1998 Phoenix Award for Outstanding Achievement in Eudora Welty Scholarship, Professor Marrs is currently Welty Foundation Scholar in Residence.

RUSH REHM
Professor of Drama and Classics; Artistic Director, Stanford Summer Theater (SST)
Rush Rehm has written extensively on Greek tragedy, including Greek Tragic Theatre, Marriage to Death, The Play of Space: Spatial Transformation in Greek Tragedy, and Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy and the Modern World. Rehm has taught several courses for Continuing Studies and the Master of Liberal Arts program. Last year he directed “The Time of Your Life: A William Saroyan Evening” and this past Summer he directed The Electra Festival for Stanford Summer Theater.

Wednesday, December 2
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education
FREE; no registration required