Dr. Lisa C. Hickman will discuss Memphis-born author Joan Williams at noon Wednesday, June 30, in the University of Memphis’ McWherter Library, Room 226.  Her talk, “From Under Faulkner’s Shadow: The Subtle Success of Joan Williams’ Fiction,” is free and open to the public.

Williams, who died in April, was the author of five novels, a short story collection, numerous essays and speeches, and several uncollected stories. As a college student, after reading Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Williams drove to Oxford, Miss., to meet the author. Faulkner encouraged her writing, and the two established an enduring friendship.

Mississippi was the setting for Williams’ work. Her topics ranged from housewives looking for independence (Country Woman) to a self-made man creating levees with dynamite (Old Powder Man) to a young woman embracing her racial awakening (Spring Is Now).

Hickman, a Faulkner scholar and Williams’ biographer, is a Southern literature specialist. She has completed a book-length study of the relationship between Williams and Faulkner and has published many articles in both academic and popular publications.

For more information, call 678-2209 or 678-4310.