Tennessee Shakespeare Company to Celebrate William Faulkner During April Literary Salon

As part of its Southern Exposure Series, which features new and classic literature by Southern writers, Tennessee Shakespeare Company this April returns to its popular Tuesday Literary Salon spotlighting the early poetry and short stories of William Faulkner.

Young William Faulkner: Before the Fury will be presented for an intimate audience on Tuesday, April 21 from 6:00-8:00 pm at the elegant home of Dr. Drew and Melia Murphy in Germantown.

"I'm a failed poet," said Mr. Faulkner. "Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing."

On the heels of last month's popular Salon of Kate Chopin, this evening will feature Faulkner-inspired juleps, tasty hors d'oeuvres, Stephen DiBlasi playing Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart on the piano, and readings (led by Dan McCleary) from the literary beginnings of the future Nobel winner - including Mr. Faulkner's first published short story, "Landing in Luck."

Before the "Old Colonel" became a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Prize in Literature winner, he was a high school and Ole Miss drop-out who worked odd jobs and trained as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force as the first World War ended. But he was also a poet seeking his voice in New Orleans and in the outskirts of Paris. It wasn't until he returned to his native north Mississippi that he began thinly fictionalizing in writing what and who he knew in his fabled Yoknapatawpha County (Oxford). His early creations, famously, include The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. A man known both for this taste for and medicinal use of the bourbon julep, Mr. Faulkner would likely quite enjoy this Salon of sugared spirits and the readings of his earliest tales inspired by a land of quiet beauty and violently shifting cultures.

This season's Literary Salons are sponsored by Nancy and Dan Copp and our friends at Prichard's Distillery.

Tickets are $55. Your ticket buys you light appetizers, cocktails, live music, and live readings from Mr. Faulkner's early works. Seating is extremely limited, and parking is free. Tickets are now on sale while they last.

To purchase tickets today, call the TSC Box Office at 901-759-0604 or go online: www.tnshakespeare.org.

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