The American South gave the world biscuits, jazz, and a literature that stands among the best of the 20th century. 

 Knox County Public Library is pleased to present “Reading Close to Home,” a reading/discussion series that focuses on the short fiction of three Southern giants of American Literature. 

The series starts with William Faulkner at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 5 at Lawson McGhee Library.  Future programs in the series will focus on Alice Walker and Eudora Welty. Edward Francisco, Professor of English at Pellissippi State College, will lead the discussions.  Admission is free.
 
In 1951, William Faulkner wrote: “The past is never dead.  It’s not even past.”  His words seem especially true today as Americans debate issues of race, class, and gender that many thought long since settled. Set in the fictitious Yoknapatawpha County, ten of Faulkner’s novels and numerous short stories depict the decay and collapse of a hubristic society that refused to deal with these very issues. He wrote in the cadence and syntax of his native Mississippi and his stream of consciousness style of writing was in direct contrast to the minimalist style of his contemporary, Ernest Hemingway. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.  
 
Edward Francisco is Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Pellissippi State College. He is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright and scholar. His poetry and fiction have appeared in more than seventy magazines and journals and a half dozen anthologies. He is the author of two novels and was the principal editor of The South in Perspective, an anthology of Southern literature, published by Prentice-Hall. Professor Francisco is also a member of the Oxford Roundtable at the University of Oxford, England. 
 
SCHEDULE

Sunday, November 5, 2:00 pm 
Introduction to Faulkner’s life and work with film screenings of Barn Burning and A Rose for Emily
 
Tuesday, November 7, 6:30 pm
Discussion of “A Rose for Emily”
 
Tuesday, November 14, 6:30 pm
Discussion of “Barn Burning”
 
Tuesday, November 21, 6:30 pm
Discussion of “Dry September”
 
“Reading Close to Home: William Faulkner” is sponsored by Friends of Knox County Public Library.   
 
For more information about the series, email [email protected] or call 215-8729