William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich Conference

Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead (2026)

Thursday, October 22, 2026 | 3 p.m.
University Center Redhawks Room

Join us for an exclusive screening of Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead (2026). The documentary brings Faulkner’s literary world to life through scenes inspired by his words, animated recreations, drawings, and conversations with members of his family and leading experts.

A discussion following the screening will feature Anita Modak-Truran, executive producer of the film, and Tyson Koenig, head of Special Collections & Archives.

Admission

Free and open to the public.

Dr. Eric Gary Anderson

“Tangled Routes and Roots: Haunted Locations in the Fiction of Faulkner and Erdrich”

Thursday, October 22, 2026 | 5:30 p.m.
University Center Ballroom

Dr. Eric Gary Anderson, associate professor of English at George Mason University, will present the conference keynote address, “Tangled Routes and Roots: Haunted Locations in the Fiction of Faulkner and Erdrich,” at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22 in the University Center Ballroom. Anderson, a scholar of Horror and Gothic studies, Native American and Indigenous studies, and Southern Studies, will examine connections between the works of these two authors through the lens of place, haunting, and literature. Anderson has published more than 35 scholarly essays and co-edited Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature, published by LSU Press.

Admission

Free and open to the public.

“Temporality,”

conference-themed art exhibition 

Friday, Oct. 23 from 5- 7 p.m. 
ARX Gallery on the River Campus (340 S. Frederick St.).

Artwork in an array of media from across the country and inspired by the works of Faulkner and Erdrich will be on view. The exhibition will be open October 22, 2026 - January 15, 2027. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. 

Admission

Free and open to the public.

Registration and Coffee

Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: University Center, 4th Floor

Session 1: Time, Memory, and Trauma

Time: 10:30-11:45 a.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Bridget Dixon, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Communicating a Vision of Transcendence in The Sound and the Fury"
  Melody Goh, Baylor University

• "'Nothing ever happens once': Narrative Repetition and Ideological Trauma in Absalom, Absalom!"
  James Masanek, Indiana University-Bloomington

• "Black Holes and William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Spatialized Temporality and Historical Trauma"
  Aoife Arras, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Session 2: Poetry, Prose, and Narration

Time: 1:30-2:45 p.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Matt Sissom, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Young, Pastoral Faulkner Between Poetry and Prose: Transformations of 'The Hill'"
  Koji Motomura, Komazawa University (Japan)

• "The 'Quality of a Dream:' Kierkegaard's Poet, Hero, and Assistant Professor Paradigm and the Narrators of Absalom, Absalom!"
  Kylie Ledbetter, University of West Georgia (Virtual Presenter)

• "Postcolonial Hybridity of Multivocal Narration in Love Medicine"
  Ava Chuppe, University of Mississippi (Virtual Presenter)

Film Screening

Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Redhawks Room

Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead (2026)

View a newly edited version of the documentary film followed by a discussion with Anita Modak-Truran, Executive Producer, and Tyson Koenig, Head of Special Collections & Archives at Southeast Missouri State University.

Keynote Address

Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: UC Ballroom

"Tangled Routes and Roots: Haunted Locations in the Fiction of Faulkner and Erdrich"

Dr. Eric Gary Anderson
Associate Professor of English, George Mason University

Opening Banquet

Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant, 19 N. Water Street (Private River City Yacht Club Room)

Faulkner and Erdrich Undergraduate Writing Contest Recognition

1st Place
Melody Goh, Baylor University
"Communicating a Vision of Transcendence in The Sound and the Fury"

2nd Place
Ellen Moth, Boston University
"'Carpenter Notions': The Materiality of Death in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying"

Registration and Coffee

Time: 8:30 a.m.
Location: University Center, 4th Floor

Session 3: Death, Labor, and Materiality

Time: 9:00-10:15 a.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Jon Hayes, Southeast Missouri State University

• "'Carpenter Notions': The Materiality of Death in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying"
  Ellen Moth, Boston University

• "'Like a body long submerged in motionless water:' Framing the Corpse in Film Adaptations of 'A Rose for Emily'"
  Beatrice Melodia Festa, University of Verona (Italy) (Virtual Presenter)

• "'Big Woods' and Big Houses: Land, Labor, and Ideology in Faulkner and Erdrich"
  Jon Hayes, Southeast Missouri State University

Session 4: Faulkner as Poet and Muse

Time: 1:30-2:45 p.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Pennie Pflueger, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Faulkner: Critical Commentary in Verse"
• "The Quotable Faulkner: A Work in Progress"

Presented by:

• Robert W. Hamblin, Founding Director, Center for Faulkner Studies
• Catherine Packard Hamblin, Emeritus Professor of English, Southeastern Illinois College

Session 5: Law, Justice, and The Round House

Time: 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Terrell Tebbetts, Lyon College

• "The Round House: Making a Case for Sovereignty with Forensics and Narratology"
  Barrington Taylor, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Race, Place, and (In)Justice: Parallels Between William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust and Louise Erdrich's The Round House"
  Phillip "Pip" Gordon, University of Mississippi

• "Boy Killers: Vigilante Justice in Faulkner & Erdrich"
  Terrell Tebbetts, Lyon College

Art Exhibition and Reception

Time: 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Location: ARX Gallery, 340 S. Frederick St.

Enjoy artwork inspired by the works of William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich. Refreshments will be served and a cash bar will be available.

Registration and Coffee

Time: 8:30 a.m.
Location: University Center, 4th Floor

Session 6: On Light in August

Time: 9:00-10:15 a.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Debrah Raschke, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Absurdity and Apotheosis in Louise Erdrich's The Bingo Palace and William Faulkner's Light in August"
  Peter J. Ingrao, University of Texas at Dallas

• "I Knew There Was Never a Martyr Like Me: The Outsider in Faulkner and Erdrich"
  James Stannard, Independent Scholar (Virtual Presenter)

• "Food and Race in William Faulkner's Light in August"
  Asma Chahed, University of Kairouan (Tunisia) (Virtual Presenter)

Session 7: Revenge and the Gothic

Time: 10:30-11:45 a.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Abe Book, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Monstrous Women Across the Gothic Divide: Faulkner and Erdrich"
  Abigail Ross, University of Arkansas (Virtual Presenter)

• "Betrayal and Revenge in Louise Erdrich's Four Souls and William Faulkner's The Mansion"
  Randall Wilhelm, Independent Scholar (Virtual Presenter)

• "The Kingdom by the Sea: Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner's European Gothic"
  Ahmed Honeini, Royal Holloway, University of London (UK) (Virtual Presenter)

Session 8: Lands and Waterways

Time: 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Sandra Cox, Southeast Missouri State University

• "'Water Flows Slow Through Flat Land': Narrative Refusal as Refraction in Faulkner's Sanctuary and Erdrich's The Antelope Wife"
  Navaneeta Lodh Hridy, Southeast Missouri State University

• "'It is everything': Waterways in Erdrich's The Mighty Red and Faulkner's Go Down, Moses"
  Rebecca S. Nisetich, University of Southern Maine (Virtual Presenter)

• "Resistance through Spatiality: Indigenous Relationality to Land in Tracks"
  Mine Ömerali Uslu, Ege University (Turkey) (Virtual Presenter)

Session 9: Family, Kinship, and Heredity

Time: 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Location: Redhawks Room
Moderator: Susan Kendrick, Southeast Missouri State University

• "Blood's Uncertain Destiny in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury"
  Joe Larios, Hollins University

• "Trauma, Family, and Resilience in Faulkner and Erdrich"
  Susanna Hoeness-Krupsaw, University of Southern Indiana (Virtual Presenter)

• "Tracking Motherhood from the Reservation Novels through The Sentence: Erdrich Revisits and Revises"
  Kathryn West, Bellarmine University (Virtual Presenter)