The Eudora Welty Foundation, in partnership with the Millsaps College Visiting Writers Series, will present the 2026 Bettye Jolly Lecture on April 2, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. The Eudora Welty House & Garden will host this year’s lecture, which will conclude with a reception and book-signing. The event is free and open to the public.
This year’s keynote speaker is Jackson native and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Richard Ford. This year’s keynote speaker is Jackson native and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Richard Ford. The author of thirteen novels and story collections as well as a memoir of his parents, Ford has published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Irish Times, and Le Monde, among other places. His work has earned the Prix Femina in France, The Princess of Asturias Prize in Spain, The Carnegie Gold Medal, and The Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. He has taught literature in many colleges and universities, including Williams, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and Trinity College, Dublin. At the conclusion of his lecture, distinguished Welty scholar and biographer Suzanne Marrs will join Ford on stage for a brief conversation, followed by audience questions.
The Bettye Jolly Lecture honors the memory of Bettye Jolly who was a community leader, journalist, and wife of the late Grady Jolly, senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.The series is funded by her family, her friends, and the Eudora Welty Foundation and grew out of a Millsaps College Great Topics Seminar titled “Eudora Welty and Friends.” Students in the seminar, inspired by conversations about Welty and her literary circle, continued meeting as a book club under Bettye Jolly’s guidance. She became the guiding light of that group, and this lecture series continues her legacy of fostering the literary community. The event could not take place without the Eudora Welty Foundation.
Past Bettye Jolly Lecturers include Lee Smith, Rosanna Warren, Beth Henley, Alice McDermott, Natasha Trethewey, Ron Rash, Paulette Giles, and Jesmyn Ward.
