Delta State University will present Dr. Carolyn J. Brown, author of \u201cA Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty,\u201d as part of its long-running First Tuesday brown bag luncheon series at 12:10 p.m. on Oct. 15 in the Fielding L. Wright Art Center on campus.<\/p>\n
Mississippi author Eudora Welty, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, was the first living writer to be published in the Library of America series. She mentored many of today’s greatest fiction writers and is also known for photographing Mississippi in the early to mid-1930s, documenting poverty and struggles of the Great Depression era.<\/p>\n
Brown, also a successful writer, editor and independent scholar, will be lecturing about the historic figure at the First Tuesday event, which is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
The Welty biography, published by the University Press of Mississippi, is her first book. It was selected in 2012 by the Mississippi Library Commission to represent the state at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Editors of Delta Magazine also chose it as the book of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe title of my talk at Delta State is going to be \u2018Eudora Welty’s Daring Life,\u2019\u201d said Brown. \u201cI am going to discuss how daring is not an adjective typically associated with Welty, but her photographs, work at the Works Progress Administration during that time, and other examples, especially during the civil rights period, reveal a woman with much courage and daring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown is the founder, along with Delta State professor of English Dr. Susan Allen Ford, of the new Mississippi Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America, which is actively seeking new members. The duo also has team-teaching experience at Millsaps College in Jackson.<\/p>\n
Ford and Don Allan Mitchell, both professors in Delta State\u2019s Division of Languages and Literature, have been helping plan the affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Brown is coming here partly because of the Eudora Welty photos that are up at the Wiljax Gallery in Cleveland,\u201d said Ford. \u201cShe is an engaging speaker and has talked to many different groups about this book. She always brings a different and interesting perspective for each new audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell has been facilitating the international connection of this event with Dr. Svetlana Polyakova, a professor in the English Language and Intercultural Communication Department at Perm State University in Russia \u2014 where President William N. LaForge was once a colleague during his time as a guest law professor and Fulbright Scholar at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident LaForge mentioned he had a friend from Perm State who really wanted to get involved with international exchanges with Delta State,\u201d said Mitchell. \u201cWe put two and two together and thought they would be interested in viewing presentations at our campus related to Mississippi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelty was such a great observer of life and Brown has written a great biography \u2014 we thought this was a good starting point and that by recording this event we could share a snapshot of a day in the life of Delta State.\u201d<\/p>\n
Original plans were to livestream Brown\u2019s presentation to an audience in Russia, but due to time differences, Mitchell is making sure Professor Polyakova and students at Perm State will be able to view a recorded copy of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be well after midnight in Perm, Russia when Dr. Brown begins her lecture.\u00a0 There may be a few night owls willing to log in, but it makes more sense to make this event asynchronous,\u201d said Mitchell. \u201cEdwin Craft of DSU\u2019s Office of Information Technology, Ron Koehler of the Art Department and Christy Riddle, who heads up our international student center, have been really helpful in setting this event up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Mitchell and Ford agree that forging this international bridge fits well with LaForge\u2019s goal of improving Delta State\u2019s international relations. They expect a good turnout from the campus and community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at this as connecting the dots with our international partnerships,\u201d said Mitchell. \u201cPresident LaForge will also be announcing Delta State University\u2019s partnership with Perm State University, and I cannot think of a more fitting occasion than a lecture on the life of a woman who encouraged all Mississippians to be more daring. I imagine Ms. Welty would approve of this endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n