mississippi

For the past century, southern writers have significantly shaped the literary world. Their writing has closely reflected the challenges of our nation, making their work essential American reads. Today, visiting many of their homes is as easy as driving through the neighboring states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Mississippi is the ideal starting place for your southern literature road trip. Jackson, the heart of southern literary tradition, is home to Nobel Prize award-winners William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, and Eudora Welty. Oxford, just outside of Jackson, is suspected to be the model for Faulkner’s fictional universe, Yoknapatawpha. In Oxford you can visit Faulkner’s mansion, Rowan Oak, that now doubles as a museum. A nearby home, known as The Sound and the Fury House, is the supposed setting for this critically-acclaimed work. Faulkner fans can also visit his nearby grave. Close by in Jackson, Mississippi, bibliophiles can visit the Eudora Welty Home and Garden. The home and museum contain the largest collection of Eudora Welty materials. Exhibits are hosted in honor of Welty, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Optimist’s Daughter.