Contact: Maridith Geuder
Jill Conner Browne
With the theme "Read! Learn! Connect@the Library!" a series of public activities April 9-15 will mark National Library Week at Mississippi State.
Among them will be a 3:30 p.m. book talk on the 12th by Jill Conner "J.C." Browne of Jackson, author of "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love." Sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries, Browne's appearance in the John Grisham Room of the university's Mitchell Memorial Library will be followed by a book signing arranged by the MSU Bookstore.
Browne, who teaches YMCA weightlifting when not writing a Clarion-Ledger recreation column, created her alter ego for a 1982 capital city St. Patrick's Day parade. The Sweet Potato Queens--among them, a real estate agent, interior designer and former district attorney--and their send-up of beauty pageant winners have become parade staples and are repeated in her book.
Published last year by Three Rivers Press, "Sweet Potato Queens" offers advice on such topics as how to make the most of big hair, what to eat when tragedy strikes and the five men necessary at all times in life. Humorist Roy Blount Jr. describes the book as "even funnier than you think it's going to be."
In addition to Browne's book talk, other MSU events include:
--An April 11 Notable Books Program highlighting outstanding academic books as defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries. Subway fast-food outlets on the MSU campus and in Starkville, West Point, and Tupelo are helping publicize Notable Books through hanging banners and giveaway bookmarks. The area restaurants also are providing financial support to enable the MSU library to purchase more books.
--Performances, also on the 11th, of the University Woodwind Quartet and Flute Choir, beginning at 3 p.m. on the second floor at the Drill Field entranceway.
--A 10:30 a.m. Grisham Room awards ceremony on the 13th recognizing three campus and community library supporters.
--An April 14 performance of the Percussion Ensemble at 1 p.m. on the west library patio, followed by the Madrigal Singers at 2:15 in the second-floor lobby.
--The Fifth Annual Mitchell Memorial Library Book Sale, taking place 9 a.m.-noon on the 15th and featuring autograph signings at 10-11 by members of the nationally ranked Lady Bulldog basketball team and drawing for an autographed basketball. The bookstore also is providing Mississippi food product samples.
--A monthlong exhibit of award-winning works by several undergraduate art students in the fourth-floor atrium, and
--A second monthlong display of cutting-edge research under way at the National Science Foundation/MSU Engineering Research Center, third floor.
April 10 will be Amnesty Day for patrons with overdue books and fines associated with them. Fine waivers will be granted only for materials received 7 a.m.-1:45 p.m., however, and will not apply to damaged or lost materials or pre-existing fines.
First celebrated in 1958, National Library Week is sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries across the United States.
For more information, telephone Gail Peyton at (662) 325-7671 or visit the library's web site at http://library.msstate.edu/reference/nlw/natlibwk.html.