Plan to attend the NLCC - Feb. 25-28, 2010

21^ST ANNUAL NATCHEZ LITERARY AND CINEMA CELEBRATION TO FEATURE SOUTHERN HUMOR

Get ready to laugh! “Humor in the Deep South” is the theme of the 21^st annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, which will take place Feb. 25-28, 2010, in Natchez, Miss.

“This conference couldn’t come at a better time,” said NLCC Founder and Co-chairman Carolyn Vance Smith of Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Natchez.

“Several years ago, when Southern humor was chosen as the 2010 conference theme, we had no idea that we’d need to laugh right now,” she said.

“With the state and national economy as it is, and with so many other serious pressures all around us, we hope the conference will let us slow down, laugh a little and leave refreshed,” she said.

The Olympic Award-winning conference will feature four jam-packed days which include:

· Programs by some of America’s most outstanding authors, historians and film experts, including James C. Cobb, Thad Cochran, Trudier Harris, Mary Donnelly Haskell, Sam Haskell, M. Thomas Inge, Mark LaFrancis, John Mayfield, Scott Dixon McDowell, JoAnne Prichard Morris, Marshall Ramsey, Clifton Taulbert , Charles Vahlkamp, Sarah McLaurin Vahlkamp, Jerry W. Ward Jr., Jane Feltus Welch, Rebecca Wells, Diane Williams, Charles Reagan Wilson, Gerald Wood and others

· Screening and discussion of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias and Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful

· Premiere screening of Scott Dixon McDowell’s documentary, Horton Foote: Regional Voice, Universal Vision, about the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenplay writer

· Premiere screening of Mark LaFrancis’ documentary, Now! That’s Funny! Jokes, Stories, and Other Musings from the Deep South

· Richard Wright Literary Excellence Awards ceremony honoring the authors Robert S. McElvaine Jr. of Millsaps College and Steve Yarbrough of Emerson College

· Horton Foote Award for Special Achievement in Screenwriting ceremony honoring the screenplay writer and playwright Robert Harling

· Thad Cochran Humanities Achievement Award ceremony honoring Jerry W. Ward Jr.

· The play, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in cooperation with the Natchez Little Theatre

· Writing workshops for adults and grade school children

· Book signings and other informal times with authors

· Live music

· Festive social events in two of Natchez’s most beautiful mansions, Greenlea and Stanton Hall

Because of major support from the four co-sponsors as well as the Mississippi Humanities Council and other agencies, most of the NLCC is free of charge, Smith said. “There are only three ticketed events,” she said.

Information and tickets are available at www.colin.edu/nlcc; by calling toll-free 866-296-6522;

or by emailing NLCC@colin.edu.

Sponsors of the NLCC are Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Natchez National Historical Park,

Mississippi Department of Archives and History and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Co-chairmen are

Smith, representing Co-Lin; Kathleen Jenkins, NNHP; Jim Barnett, MDAH; and Sherry Johnson, MPB.