Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Faulkner Studies has received a grant from the Missouri Humanities to support events connected to the William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich Conference Oct. 22-24 at SEMO.
The international conference will bring scholars, teachers, students and members of the public to campus to examine the work of two award-winning American authors whose writing has shaped modern literature. The conference will explore connections between the works of William Faulkner, whose fiction often centered on the people and places of northern Mississippi, and Louise Erdrich, whose novels and stories frequently explore Ojibwe communities and life in the northern Midwest.
The $5,327 grant will support the conference keynote address by Dr. Eric Gary Anderson, a scholar of horror and Gothic studies, Southern studies, and Native American and Indigenous studies. Anderson has written more than 35 academic essays published in edited volumes and journals and has co-edited books including "Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture," published by LSU Press.
Anderson's keynote address is free and open to the public at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, in Ballroom A of SEMO's University Center. The grant also supports a conference-themed art exhibition at the ARX Main Gallery on SEMO's River Campus, on display Oct. 22, 2026-Jan. 15, 2027.
The William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich Conference provides an opportunity for the Center for Faulkner Studies to connect its work with a broader audience while bringing scholars and readers together to examine the authors' contributions to American literature.
Missouri Humanities is the only statewide agency in Missouri devoted exclusively to humanities education for citizens of all ages. The grant is part of Missouri Humanities' support for humanities projects throughout the state and was made possible by the Missouri Humanities Trust Fund.
For more information about the William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich Conference, contact the Center for Faulkner Studies at cfs@semo.edu or (573) 651-2620. For more information about the grants program of the Missouri Humanities Council, call (314) 781-9660 or (800) 357-0909 or email clarice@mohumanities.org.
For students interested in studying literature, writing and the humanities at SEMO, visit semo.edu/hss.