Yoknapatawpha and Faulkner Conference in Oxford, Mississippi

This is the longest continually running literary conference in the United States dedicated to the work of one author. This is the 50th Anniversary of the Conference, first held in 1974.

Square Book Store, Oxford, Mississippi

Square Books is a general independent bookstore in three separate buildings (about 100 feet apart) on the historic town square of Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi and many great writers, including William Faulkner, Barry Hannah, Larry Brown, and, for a time, both Willie Morris and John Grisham. The main store, Square Books, is in a two-story building with a cafe and balcony on the second floor; Off Square Books is a few doors down from the main store and has lifestyle sections such as gardening and cookbooks; Square Books, Jr., the children's bookstore, is in a building on the east side of the square; above it (in the site of the original bookstore) is the more recently opened Rare Square Books, which feature collectible, vintage, first edition books across a broad price range. Square Books is known for its strong selection of literary fiction, books on the American South and by Southern writers, a large inventory of reduced-price remainders, and its emphasis on books for children. The store hosts the popular Thacker Mountain radio show and over 150 author events a year.

University Press of Mississippi

University Press of Mississippi tells stories of scholarly and social importance that impact our state, region, nation, and world. We are committed to equality, inclusivity, and diversity. Working at the forefront of publishing and cultural trends, we publish books that enhance and extend the reputation of our state and its universities.

Dr. Jay Watson

Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies Jay Watson, a native of Athens, Georgia, received his B.A. degree from the University of Georgia (1983) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University (1985, 1989). He joined the English department at the University of Mississippi in 1989, was promoted to Professor of English in 2007, and became UM’s second Howry Professor in 2010. During the 2002-2003 academic year he served as Visiting Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, and he has since been honored with the UM Faculty Achievement Award (2012), the UM Liberal Arts Professor of the Year award (2014), and the UM Humanities Teacher of the Year award (2014). In 2013 he was a finalist for the Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year Award, and in 2018 he was the fall convocation speaker at UM.

Elizabeth Howard, Producer and Host of the Short Fuse Podcast

Elizabeth Howard is the producer and host of the Short Fuse Podcast, conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others. Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. @elizh24 on Instagram

Elizabeth Howard began hosting and producing the Short Fuse during the pandemic years. Those days when we were shuttered in our rooms. Displaced. Disoriented. Since then she has hosted 33 conversations, created a YouTube channel for online Short Fuse reading groups, and held live events at P&T Knitwear in New York, the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, and at the Portsmouth Athenaeum in New Hampshire.  You can find all of the Short Fuse conversations  on the Short Fuse website.

Dell'Aria Cafe is at 232 East 111th Street in East Harlem.  An authentic cafe with roasted Italian coffee ... and conversation.

Jasmine Rice LaBeija is a Drag Queen, who can often be found performing in New York City.

Rev. Michael Curry is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.  He spoke at the memorial held for Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Ann Kjellberg is the founder of Book Post. 

Bill Marx is the founder and Editor of the Arts Fuse, the online journal of arts commentary and criticism.

Kyle Dacuyan is a poet and the director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery.

Valena Beety is the author of Manifesting Justice and works with Tasha Shelby.

Frank Young is the artist who created the collage for this episode. 

The Arts Fuse is  an on-line magazine designed to preserve the craft of professional arts criticism,  while also looking for ways to explore new and innovative ways to evolve the cultural conversation and bring together critics, readers, and artists. Substantial criticism -- by sparking lively, contentious dialogue about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts -- plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations are fostered by debate and evaluation. When they are ignored, as they are by the mainstream media, they fade away.

SUBSCRIBE to the Arts Fuse weekly e-newsletter

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Justice Malala, is one of South Africa’s foremost political commentators and commentators and the author of the bestseller We Have Now Begun Our Decent:  How to stop south Africa losing its way.   He has been a columnist for the Times in SA, and written for the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian and the Financial Times. He now lives in New York.

Jonny Steinberg is the author of several books about everyday life in the wake of South Africa’s transition to democracy. He is a two-time winner of the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, South Africa's premier literary prize, and an inaugural winner of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes. Until 2020, he was professor of African studies at Oxford University. He currently teaches part-time at the Council on African Studies at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies and is visiting professor at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) in Johannesburg.

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Ann Kjellberg founded Book Post, a newsletter-based book review, in 2018. Book Post publishes short book reviews by distinguished figures in literature, history, science, social sciences, and the arts. Kjellberg also reports for Book Post on the book industry, journalism, and the state of writing and ideas. Her essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Observer, The Browser, and LitHub. She was on the editorial staff of the New York Review of Books from 1988 to 2017, and from 1985 to 1987 she was an editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She is the literary executor of the poet Joseph Brodsky and editor of several editions of his work. She  founded the literary magazine Little Star and has taught literary journalism at Bryn Mawr College.

The Short Fuse Podcast  hosted and produced by Elizabeth Howard, are conversations with artists, writers, musicians, and others who have a lens on contemporary thought and stir us to seek change. With their art, their music, their performances, and their vision they lead us through the social and environmental transformations sweeping across the globe.

“Artists are here to disturb the peace.” James Baldwin.

The Short Fuse is distributed through the Arts Fuse, a journal of arts criticism and commentary.

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Jasmine Rice LaBeija  the International Godmother of the Royal House of LaBeija is  an iconic and respected entertainer. In 2017, she was one of the leading cast members in the documentary series Shade, Queens of New York City, on Fusion Network. She has been a  host of Dragged, which won a Shorty Award in Diversity and Inclusion for Verizon's network In the Know and she was the face of New York City's 2020 Pride. Jasmine is a graduate of the Juilliard School and made her opera debut at the Shell with the San Diego Symphony as a special guest soloist with Megan Hilty, Rob Fisher conducting. This year, she was invited back to the Guggenheim Museum for a solo recital and she appeared at Lincoln Center. 

Works & Process    Described by The New York Times as “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” for 35 years as New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers.

Elizabeth Howard, host and producer of the Short Fuse Podcast. 

Alex Waters is the technical producer, audio editor and engineer for The Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. He writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at alexwatersmusic12@gmail.com with inquiries. 

Justice Malala is one of South Africa’s foremost political commentators and the author of the #1 bestseller We Have Now Begun Our Descent: How to Stop South Africa Losing its Way. A longtime weekly columnist for The Times (South Africa), he has also written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Financial Times, among other outlets. The former publisher of The Sowetan and Sunday World, he now lives in New York.