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Mississippi Delta Literary Tour


The Mississippi Delta Literary Tour, set for March 22–26, 2009, will again travel across the Delta countryside exploring the region’s rich literary, culinary, and musical heritage. The tour will be based at the Alluvian Hotel in downtown Greenwood and will travel to Indianola, Clarksdale, and Greenville, making stops along the way in the communities of Money, Tutwiler, and Merigold.

The Delta tour is $575 per person for all program activities, eight meals, and local transportation. The fee does not include lodging. Remember to sign up early. Only a limited number of places are available, and they will go fast.

Group accommodations are offered at the Alluvian. Rooms at the Alluvian require a separate registration. Standard rooms are priced at a discounted rate of $170. Call 866-600-5201 and ask for the Literary Tour rate. Also call the hotel to inquire about rates for luxury rooms and suites. Additional rooms have been set aside at the Greenwood Best Western, 662-455-5777, or the Hampton Inn, 662-455-7985.


The 2009 tour will explore the Delta’s cultural heritage, beginning in Indianola and returning to Greenville and Clarksdale. In Indianola, the group will take an excursion through the new B. B. King Museum, see an exhibition celebrating the life and work of New York Times food editor and Indianola native Craig Claiborne, and experience down-home Delta music in Club Ebony, the famed blues club. Author and former English professor Marion Barnwell will accompany the group all three days and talk at length about her hometown’s literary history.


In Greenville, Hodding Carter III, author and former publisher of the newspaper his father began in 1938, the Delta Democrat-Times, will discuss his father’s lasting influence and legacy in his hometown. Using his newspaper as his platform, Hodding Carter Jr. publicly tackled the hot-button Southern issue of racial equality, and in 1946 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his outspoken editorial work, writings that eventually earned him the moniker “Spokesman for the New South.” Joining the discussion on Hodding Carter Jr. will be University of Mississippi journalism professor Curtis Wilkie and author and journalist Julia Reed, both of whom are natives of Greenville. The tour will once again visit McCormick Book Inn, where local authors will gather to sign their work.


En route to Clarksdale, Delta State University professor Henry Outlaw and director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning Luther Brown will talk about the region, and the group will stop at Robert Johnson’s gravesite, see the remains of the store in Money where Emmett Till allegedly made his tragic whistle, and visit with local quilters and gospel singers at the Tutwiler Community Education Center. Clarksdale sites will include the Cutrer Mansion and St. George’s Episcopal Church, where literary scholar W. Kenneth Holditch will speak on the town’s influence on Tennessee Williams’s work; Cathead Records, a center for blues recordings and folk art; and the Delta Blues Museum. The day will end with a visit to Po’ Monkey’s juke joint.

Can't get enough literature in one road trip? Visit the Southern Literary Trail for more!

SUNDAY, MARCH 22
GREENWOOD

3:00 p.m.   Registration—Alluvian
4:00 p.m.   Welcome by Jimmy Thomas at Turnrow Book Company
                    Reading by John Pritchard—“Junior Ray and Yazoo Blues”
6:00 p.m.   Dinner at Delta Bistro

MONDAY, MARCH 23
INDIANOLA

8:00 a.m.    Alluvian Breakfast
9:00 a.m.    Depart for Indianola
9:30 a.m.    Bus tour of Indianola by Scott Barretta, with additional comments by Steve Yarbrough
10:00 a.m. The Delta Blues, talk by Scott Barretta
                     Guided Tour of B. B. King Museum by Scott Baretta
Noon           Lunch at Club Ebony
1:00 p.m.    Talk on Craig Claiborne by Marion Barnwell

2:00 p.m.    Reading by Steve Yarbrough
3:00 p.m.    Return to Greenwood
4:00 p.m.    Art Tour of Alluvian by William Dunlap
                     Delta Photography Slideshow by Maude Schuyler Clay
5:30 p.m.    Depart for Carrollton
6:00 p.m.    Dinner at Carroll County Market, with Martha Foose

TUESDAY, MARCH 24
TUTWILER, CLARKSDALE, AND MERIGOLD

8:00 a.m.   Alluvian Breakfast
9:00 a.m.   Depart for Clarksdale—Luther Brown and Henry Outlaw, tour guides
                    Visit Little Zion Church and Robert Johnson’s Grave Site
                    Drive through Money
10:00 a.m. Visit Tutwiler Community Education Center
                    Gospel Music
Noon           Lunch at the Cutrer Mansion
1:00 p.m.   Program at Cutrer Mansion
                    “Tennessee Williams,” talk by W. Kenneth Holditch
2:00 p.m.   Bus tour of Clarksdale by Panny Mayfield
                    Tour of St. George’s Episcopal Church
                    Reading of talk on Tennessee William’s work by John Pritchard
                    Walking tour of Downtown Clarksdale
                    Visit Cathead Records
                    Visit Delta Blues Museum
5:00 p.m.   Tennessee Williams porch plays at Panny Mayfield’s house
6:00 p.m.   Dinner at Panny Mayfield’s House
8:00 p.m.   Visit Po’ Monkey’s

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25
GREENVILLE

8:00 a.m.   Alluvian Breakfast
9:00 a.m.    Depart for Greenville
10:00 a.m.  Greenville Bus Tour, led by Mary Dayle McCormick, ending at William Alexander Percy Memorial Library, Welcome by
                      Franke Keating, View Greenville Writers Exhibit and Jane Rule Burdine’s Photography Exhibit
11:00 a.m.  “Greenville Writers,” talk by W. Kenneth Holditch
Noon             Lunch
1:30 p.m.     E. E. Bass / Greenville Arts Council
                      Welcome by Kathryn Lewis
                      “The History of Greenville,” talk by Hugh McCormick
2:00 p.m.     “Hodding Carter Jr.: His Greenville Legacy,” panel with Curtis Wilkie, moderator; Julia Reed; Jere Nash;
                      Hodding Carter III
3:00 p.m.     Readings by Charlotte Hayes, Gayden Metcalf, John Pritchard, and Steve Yarbrough
4:00 p.m.     William Alexander Percy graveside reading by Mary Dayle McCormick
                      Marathon book signing at McCormick Book Inn with Marion Barnwell, Jane Rule Burdine, Hodding Carter III, Maude
                      Schuyler Clay, Maggie Dunlap, William Dunlap, W. Kenneth Holditch, Franke Keating, Gayden Metcalfe, Jere Nash, John
                      Pritchard, Julia Reed, Curtis Wilkie, and Steve Yarbrough
5:30 p.m.     Cocktails at Home of and Clarke and Judy Reed
6:30 p.m.     Dinner at Doe’s Eat Place
8:00 p.m.     Depart for Greenwood

THURSDAY, MARCH 26
OXFORD CONFERENCE FOR THE BOOK OR BUST!

8:00 a.m.     Alluvian Breakfast
9:00 a.m.     Depart for Oxford (1.5 hours)
                      Oxford Conference for the Book, dedicated to Walter Anderson