MSU president and faculty to represent at Mississippi Book Festival Sept. 13

Contact: Mary Pollitz

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State continues its strong literary and academic presence at the state’s 11th annual Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson, with President Mark E. Keenum and distinguished faculty members featured among the panelists.

Known as the “Literary Lawn Party,” the year’s festival this Saturday [Sept.13] will feature more than 200 authors and over 50 panel discussions and workshops throughout the day. All events are free and open to the public,9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the historic Mississippi State Capitol building and grounds.

Keenum will join former Gov. Haley Barbour and other leaders on the “20th Anniversary of Katrina” panel in the State Capitol, Room 216, at 10:45 a.m. 

Among other participants are Anne E. Marshall, associate professor and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, Ryan P. Semmes, director of research at the Grant Presidential Library and Museum, and Louis Gallo, managing editor of the Grant Presidential Library and Museum.

Marshall will serve as moderator for a Civil War and Reconstruction panel featuring Semmes and Gallo at 2:45 p.m. in the State Capitol’s Old Supreme Court Room. The panel will discuss Semmes’s latest book, “Exporting Reconstruction: Ulysses S. Grant and the New Empire of Liberty” and Gallo’s “The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman.” Semmes and Gallo will also be available for a book signing at 4:15 p.m. in the signing tent.

The Mississippi Book Festival celebrates literature from around the world, with a particular emphasis on authors connected to the Magnolia State. For a complete list of this weekend’s speakers and events, visit msbookfestival.com; presenter biographies are online at msbookfestival.com/authors/panelists.

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