Faulkner Studies Conference Keynote Address

Southeast Missouri State University’s Center for Faulkner Studies will host the international William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich Conference Oct. 22-24, bringing scholars, teachers, students and members of the public together to explore the work of two major American authors. The conference will open with a keynote address by Dr. Eric Gary Anderson, associate professor of English at George Mason University and a scholar of Horror and Gothic studies, Native American and Indigenous studies, and Southern Studies. Anderson will present “Tangled Routes and Roots: Haunted Locations in the Fiction of Faulkner and Erdrich” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in University Center Ballroom A.

The keynote is free and open to the public. The conference’s art exhibition, Temporality, featuring works inspired by the writings of Faulkner and Erdrich, will also be on view at SEMO’s River Campus Oct. 22-Jan. 15, with an opening reception Oct. 23.

The conference will examine connections between Faulkner’s and Erdrich’s writing, including their representations of people, land, place and history. Supported by grant funding from Missouri Humanities, the three-day event will feature scholarly presentations, an opening banquet, a tour of SEMO’s renowned L.D. Brodsky Collection of William Faulkner materials, and a Faulkner and Erdrich art exhibition and reception.