Mississippi Reads Welty

Mississippi Reads is a statewide initiative to encourage schools, book clubs, and libraries as well as all readers to read and discuss a single work by a Mississippi author. Previous choices were William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses in 2007 and Richard Wright’s Uncle Tom’s Children in 2008. The 2009 Mississippi Reads selection is The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. The project is one of many activities celebrating the author’s 100th birthday.

The Mississippi Library Commission has helped publicize the project by distributing 800 posters and 30,000 bookmarks illustrated with a Welty portrait and the jackets of five editions of her Collected Stories published between 1980 and 1998. Tracy Carr Seabold, Reference Services Director and Center for the Book Coordinator for the Mississippi Library Commission, coordinated distribution of posters and bookmarks and is the contact for libraries participating in the project. Librarians may reach her at tcarr@mlc.ms.us or 601-432-4450.

Nearly 250 libraries and bookstores throughout the state are making copies of the book available to patrons, and many are sponsoring discussion groups, readings, talks, and other programs about Welty’s Collected Stories. Welty biographer Suzanne Marrs prepared an overview of the author’s life and a readers guide for the Mississippi Reads Web site. Details about Centennial activities are located at on the Eudora Welty Foundation Web site (www.eudorawelty.org/index.html). For more information about Mississippi Reads, e-mail mississippireads@gmail.com.