2026 Meeting Minutes

Eudora Welty Society

Minutes from Business Meeting Held at ALA in Chicago on 5/22/26

 

Attendance: Michael Pickard, Kevin Murphy, Donnie McMahand, Rebecca Harrison, Harriet Pollack, Rebecca Mark, Grace McCright, Melissa Fox, Jo Ellyn Clarey, Andrew Leiter

Stepping in for President Adrienne Warfield, Vice President Michael Pickard called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to the business meeting.

Business Items:

  1. Panel topics for 2027 ALA Conference

The goal is to reach a consensus on topics and to select those willing to write the CFPs.

  1. A reevaluation of the McClain twins (Eugene and Ran) in The Golden Apples
  2. Minor characters in connection with weird Welty. Members discussed whether the traditional distinction between major and minor characters really applies to Welty’s fiction, such as Jack from Losing Battles. Who occupies the margins of Welty’s fiction, and where are they brought to the center? Can houses or other inanimate objects serve as characters in Welty’s fiction? (Members agreed to propose this panel for ALA 2027 in Boston, and Harriet Pollack will write the CFP.)
  3. Biblical references, allusions, and other parallels in Welty’s fiction, photography, and essays. (Members thought this panel would be best suited for ALA 2027, and Rebecca Harrison agreed to write the CFP.)
  4. Stillness, animation, and locomotion in Welty’s fiction. How does Welty bring things to life? How does a story become a story?
  5. News and Welty. Welty in the news, Welty as reader of the news (Members agreed to save this panel for the next Welty conference with Melissa Fox as CFP writer.)
  6. Welty and adaptation
  7. Welty and genre bending

2. Business meetings online 

The group discussed the possibility of having business meetings online, considering the

sporadic attendance of members at ALA. Harriet pitched the idea of having an informal meeting after the conference to continue discussing the papers presented on both panels given the lack of time allotted for questions after each panel.

  1. Welty Conference in 2029

Michael opened this topic by saying that Millsaps may be interested in hosting another Welty conference in 2029. Members discussed several issues related to the conference: inquiring whether Jackson and Millsaps in particular could be a permanent home for the Welty conference; suggesting options for the conference theme; deciding on the date of the conference; asking whether certain events at Millsaps, such as the annual Welty Foundation Bettye Jolly Lecture, could again coincide with the conference; finding graduate student assistants who would be able to work at the conference, and possibly bringing in Jackson State University to participate with a panel. No firm decisions emerged from the discussion other than a consensus that Jackson (and Millsaps) would be the ideal permanent location for the conference pending guarantees of ongoing financial assistance from Millsaps. Michael agreed to continue discussions with Millsaps to determine the feasibility of hosting the conference again and would update the society with any new information.

Announcements

  1. Financials:

Michael read the report submitted by co-treasurer Laura Wilson and highlighted the following items:

  1. Bank accounts: The society remains in solid financial shape after the International Welty Conference in 2025. Both the PayPal account (managed by Laura Wilson) and business bank account (managed by Kevin Murphy) are in good working order. During this Chicago conference, Kevin worked with outgoing President Rebecca Harrison and current Vice President Michael Pickard to update the authorized users of the business bank account to reflect the new officers of the EWS. Laura continues to handle dues payments via the Paypal account.
  2. Travel Award: Current officers voted several months prior to this meeting to award Susan Donaldson a travel grant of $500 to attend the 2025 Society for the Study of Southern Literature Conference in Nashville where she received the 2025 Phoenix Award.
  3. Tax Filings: Laura renewed the Tennessee non-profit charter status of the society, and Leslie Petty continues to serve as our Tennessee-based liaison. Kevin e-filed the federal non-profit tax postcard for 2025.

2. Eudora Welty Review:

Rebecca Harrison updated the society on the journal’s activity, including the status of the most recent issue (18), which had just been sent for copyediting and is scheduled for a publication date of late July 2026. This issue features a special cluster of papers developed from a conference panel on Welty and Other Writers, including Welty and Blake, Welty and Peter Taylor, and Welty and O’Connor. Mae Miller Claxton serves as editor of this special cluster. Rebecca H. also touted the success of the journal’s open access feature, which increased readership by 121%. She advised all members to access articles via the permalinks, which the databases and institutions use to track readers.

Rebecca H. asked members to consider two points regarding upcoming issues of the journal:

  1. Issue 19: Michael will be in charge of editing a special cluster for this issue based on the 2025 Welty Conference theme of Future Welty.
  2. Issue 20: Rebecca H. asked individuals to email her if they had ideas that they would like to see for the cluster theme for this issue. She advised that we could do "Weird Welty," if people were interested, or something else, as we need to refill our special cluster pool after Michael’s issue. She also reminded everyone that they could always submit notes or provocations at any time should they come across anything interesting in their research that they did not want to develop into a full essay.

3. Critical Perspectives Series Published by UP of Mississippi

Harriet explained that three volumes would be forthcoming in the series, and New  Approaches to The Golden Apples is the newest inception in the series. If anyone has a paper relevant to this volume, please contact her.

 

  1. Southern Studies Forum in Prague, June 18-20

Harriet noted that the theme of this interdisciplinary conference is Displaced Persons. She acknowledged that this is not a conference that generally accepts pre-formed panels, so if anyone is interested in presenting, they should contact her directly.

 

  1. Special Monograph on Feminist Welty

Rebecca Mark informed members that the special issue of the journal Women’s Studies (vol. 53, no. 2) on Welty and Feminism had been selected for publication as a monograph.

 

  1. Mentoring Opportunity for MDAH Welty Fellowship

Following up on Pearl McHaney’s email about possible mentoring opportunities for those unsuccessful applicants for the MDAH summer Wetly fellowship, Michael inquired about the society's interest in mentoring those who submitted worthy applications about ways to improve their proposals. Rebecca Mark inquired about the possibility of bringing in three or four applicants, which generated follow-up questions about how much additional funding would be needed, how much each recipient receives, and what part of the award comes from the Welty foundation. Michael asked those in the room who were interested about having a further conversation with MDAH to tweak the model for this fellowship to contact him directly. He also raised the possibility of changing the formal lecture given by the fellow so that it was more of a conversation among scholars rather than simply a presentation by the fellow. Michael may send a follow up email to the society about this topic.

The business meeting adjourned after running for its allotted time.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Kevin L. Murphy