Hey!

The blog is still here! I clicked on over, fully expecting a 414 page instead of the spooky ol’ banner.

Here are a few items of note, courtesy of the indefatigable Karey Perkins:

WALKER PERCY’S 100TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY

In honor of Walker Percy’s 100th Birthday Anniversary, proposals addressing any topic or area celebrating Walker Percy’s life, his fiction, or his non-fiction are welcome. Send 300-word abstracts, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Dr. Karey Perkins, University of South Carolina – Beaufort, at both kareyp@uscb.edu and kareyperkins@gmail.com by June 7.

WALKER PERCY: A CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION

In 1962 Walker Percy wrote, “Southern fiction, in one sense of the word, ran out its string at Faulkner’s death and has not known where to go since. It has been hung up on the myth, both the splendor of the myth and its decay, on the people who come after and who are haunted by the myth. But it has not known what to make of the people who come after that, who grew up in the South and who don’t even remember that there is anything to remember.” Percy’s observations are especially noteworthy on the 100 anniversary of his birth. Is what he said in 1962 proved to be validated since then—and has an awareness of “not remembering that here is anything to remember” actually embodied a typical paradox for which Percy is noted? The session invites papers on all aspects of Walker Percy’s writings, particularly as they enlarge the scope of Southern writing to other fields–literary, theological, and sociological. By June 9th, please send a 200-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Benjamin Alexander, Franciscan University of Steubenville, at balexander@franciscan.edu.

WALKER PERCY’S UTOPIAS AND DYSTOPIAS

Much of Walker Percy’s fiction and non-fiction writing is social commentary. At least two novels – Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome – may be called dystopian or post-apocalyptic. His numerous essays on race relations, on secular materialism, on misguided “self-help” books in a postmodern world seem to indicate that he suspected 20th century America was a dystopia itself. Additionally, Walker Percy’s personal life included social action in his local community and through the Catholic Church. Proposals addressing the SAMLA 88 theme “Utopia/Dystopia: Whose Paradise Is It?” in Walker Percy’s fiction, non-fiction, or life are welcome. Send 300-word abstracts, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Dr. Karey Perkins, University of South Carolina – Beaufort, at kareyp@uscb.edu by June 7.

See y’all in 2017!