Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alysia Burton Steele, author of “Delta Jewels: In Search of my Grandmother’s Wisdom” (Center Street, 2015), will be the next writer featured in Mississippi University for Women’s “Meet the Author” series. The University of Mississippi assistant professor will be on The W campus at 5 p.m. Monday in the J.C. Fant Memorial Library’s Gail P. Gunter Multipurpose Room.
The series brings regional authors to Columbus to discuss their work, sign books and engage with students and community members.
Fant Memorial library, together with The W’s Department of History, Political Science and Geography and the Department of Languages, Literature and Philosophy present the series that hosted authors Miriam David and Karen Cox this past fall.
Bridget Pieschel, chair of the Department of Languages, Literature and Philosophy, has said the series provides a venue for discussions both entertaining and educational about books with Southern connections.
“We are so excited about the Meet the Author Series bringing new voices onto MUW’s campus to share their work with both the MUW and Columbus communities in the newly-renovated Fant Memorial Library,” said Dean of Library Services Amanda Powers.
“This month we have Dr. Alysia Steele, who has put together a remarkable and moving collection of interviews and oral histories with these ‘Delta Jewels,’ more than 50 grandmothers who were the church elders and the backbone of their communities and our state over the last century. We are lucky to have her with us on Monday to honor the stories and voices of these women who have so much to teach us. ”
The Mississippi Humanities Council and Fant Memorial Friends of the Library fund the series events, which include a reception.
“I can’t think of a better way to spend a Monday evening, immersed in a writer’s world and discussing their work with new and old friends,” Powers said.
The series is free to the public. For more information about library events, visit muw.edu/library.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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