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Memphis-born author Joan Williams, whose fiction embodied the nature of the Southern Delta, died on April 11, 2004 at the age of 75. In 1949, a short story that Williams wrote when at Bard College won the Mademoiselle magazine fiction contest. That summer, she read Williams Faulkner's "The Sound the Fury" and then drove to Oxford, Mississippi to meet the author.
Faulkner encouraged her to continue writing, and he and Williams established an enduring friendship.
A commanding stylist, Williams wrote five novels, a short story collection, numerous essays and speeches, and several uncollected stories. The Mississippi landscape was her locale and her broad topics ranged from housewives looking for independence (County Woman) to a self-made man forming levees with dynamite (Old Powder Man) to a young woman embracing her racial awakening (Spring Is Now).
Lisa C. Hickman, biographer of Joan Williams and a Faulkner scholar, is a Southern literature specialist. Dr. Hickman has completed a book-length study of the relationship between Joan Williams and William Faulkner and has published numerous articles in both academic and popular publications, including Memphis Magazine, on the two authors and other subjects (a July/August Memphis Magazine article will explore special collections at the University of Mississippi library). Dr. Hickman and Joan Williams were close friends for many years.
Don't miss this unique insight into the life of the talented Memphis author, Joan Williams, by her friend, Dr. Lisa Hickman, herself a well-established author and scholar of southern literature.
Public invited, refreshments served.
For more information please call Ms. Kay Kroboth (901-678-2209) or Mr. Tom Mendina (901-678-4310) at the University Libraries, University of Memphis.
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