• 1

Program of the 30th Annual

Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium 

October 18th, 19th, and 20th, 2018

The theme for this year's symposium is “‘As If the Ear of the World Listened’: Celebrating Thirty Years of Southern Stories,” which is inspired by  Welty's novel Delta Wedding.

The names below are the list of authors for this year, including when available, links to author websites where you can learn a little more about this year's line-up. Don't forget that we will be selling books during the symposium.

Times listed are approximate start times of each reading—sessions begin at the following times: Thursday 7:30 p.m., Friday 9:00 a.m. & 1:30 p.m., and Saturday 9:30 a.m.

author of The Vain Conversation

Friday, October 19, 9:40 a.m.

In The Vain Conversation, Grooms takes the viewpoint of three individuals, one of which is Lonnie, a ten-year-old boy who, after witnessing the lynching of two black couples, is led around the world in search of meaning before returning to Georgia as an adult to face the ghosts of his past. Inspired by the 1946 Moore's Ford lynching in Walton County, Georgia, Grooms also takes on the perspectives of one of the men who was lynched and a white man who was present. A professor of English at Kennesaw State Universtiy, Grooms has also written the collection of poems Ice Poems, the short-story collection Trouble No More, and the novel Bombingham. 

 

Did You Know?

  1. Grooms teaches creative writing and has taught in Stockholm, Sweden.  
  2. He has twice received the Lillian Smith Prize for Fiction. 
  3. He has plans for a work of science fiction.  

vainconversation sm