SewaneeLetters.com

photo by Dean Wilson

Our man in Chattanooga, Jimmy Swansbrough, attended the recent Conference on Southern Literature and sent me this report:

I attended nearly the whole day on Saturday and had a great time. You know you’re pretty nerdy when you’re the minority age group at an event by a good twenty years. I was mostly surrounded by two types:
1) elderly professorial gentlemen trying not to nod off (especially humorous during a monotone reading by Richard Bausch–this could have been a Lunesta commercial)
2) mid- to latter-aged biddies with their knitting/crochet work splayed across their laps, nodding their heads at whatever they deemed accurate or acceptable from the panelists

The first panel I attended was entitled, “History is the big myth we live,” a line taken from a Robert Penn Warren poem. The three panelists (Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason and Allen Wier) were informally expected to speak about the role (burden?) that history plays on literature, both for fiction and non-fiction. All three panelists offered excellent commentary, then fielded an assortment of questions from the mildly-annoying audience. My favorite improvised response came from Wendell Berry. In response to a question about the freedom that historical fiction can take with the history it follows, he said, “Look, I don’t believe in a willing suspension of disbelief. I don’t care about that. I want my disbelief COMPELLED into suspension.” I was impressed at nearly every sage word that Berry spoke. The audience was in awe of him too; I half expected the ladies to toss some crocheted panties on the stage.

Jill McCorkle’s address centered on the role that free speech plays in literature, and she took the stance that censorship of any form tantalizes those who are censored into rebellion (e.g cursing, abstinence, alcohol, etc.). Her anecdotal humor gave levity to her serious topic and wooed the old conservatives in the audience into letting her drop f-bombs without complaint. She was like an oratorical snake-charmer! I now want to read her work…any recommendations?

The final discussion of the conference was facilitated by renowned editor Shannon Ravenel and paneled by Dorothy Allison, Roy Blount, Jr., Clyde Edgerton and Sam Pickering. The topic was “After the Writing’s Done: Publishing, Promoting, and Avoiding the Critic’s Arrow,” and it was hilarious from beginning to end. It was great to see published authors who didn’t take themselves too seriously and still gave helpful comments to their audience. The four panelists kidded each other and told self-deprecating anecdotes about failed promotional tours. Dorothy Allison laughingly confessed that she intimidated the New York editors into publishing her by storming into their offices with a “vengeful lesbian feminist” agenda. Sam Pickering claimed no one in his family has ever read anything he’s written–even his mama dismissed his writing as “more of that bullshit,” he claimed. I almost pitied Shannon Ravenel, because her task as facilitator seemed comparable to herding cats. In fact, she kind of reminded me of our own Meg Binnicker, whose boundless patience and organization has kept the SOL afloat for the last four years.

All in all, it was a great conference organized by UT-Chattanooga’s Arts & Education Council. Rumor has it they’re hosting another conference next spring called the Festival of Writers (these two programs are hosted biennially in alternating years).

ps. I spoke to Dorothy Allison and asked if she’d ever read/lecture at Sewanee, and the opportunity sounded appealing to her. I told her I knew people and would pull some strings, so maybe Dr. Grammer will read your blog post and get the ball rollin?

Tags: chattanooga, conferences, festivals, jimmy, southern literature

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.