Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan is among the featured speakers during the conference on Belknap Campus. Additionally, winners of a poetry contest named for theĚýlate , UofL professor emerita of humanities, will be announced.

Writers, critics and literary scholars from around the world are expected to attend the annual event, sponsored by UofL’s English, comparative humanities and classical and modern languages departments and the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society in the College of Arts & Sciences.ĚýĚý

Egan, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for “,” will read from her latest novel, “” at 5 p.m. Feb. 24 in Middleton Auditorium, Strickler Hall. The reading is free and open to the public.

Other notables giving in person, free, public addresses during the conference are:

• Stephanie Burt, Harvard University English professor, coeditor of poetry at “The Nation” and recipient of a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry, 5 p.m. Feb. 23 in Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library.Ěý

• Spanish poet Fernando OperĂ©, professor, historian and critic from the University of Virginia, who will deliver the Hispanic Keynote Presentation, “PoesĂ­a y memoria: En el nombre del padre: CrĂłnica de la España de Franco a la AmĂ©rica de Trump. Lectura bilingĂĽe con su traductora Rhonda Dahl Buchanan,” Feb. 24, 3:15 p.m., Bingham Poetry Room, Ekstrom Library. The presentation will include a conversation between the author and his translator about his memoir, with bilingual readings from the original and the translation.Ěý

• Merve Emre, Oxford University professor and “post-discipline” theoretician, 5:30 p.m. Feb. 25 in Middleton Auditorium, Strickler Hall.

“The entire program can be accessed off the and includes free virtual offerings for registered attendees on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21,” said S. Matthew Biberman, conference director.

Among the online-only offerings are:

• Feb. 20, 8 p.m., “By Parties Unknown: Lynching in America,” a conversation with , producer/director at WKU/PBS and creator of “,” a documentary about the 1908 lynchings of four black men in Russellville, Kentucky; , assistant professor, University of South Alabama; and , archivist and curator at the West Kentucky African American Museum & Research Center. .

• Feb. 21, 8 p.m., “New Mutants,” a conversation about comics and poetry with poet Burt and , professor of comic and cartoon studies at the University of Oregon and editor of the Penguin Marvel Classic Series.

In addition, an in-person seminar dedicated to a celebration of the late , UofL professor emerita of humanities, will be Feb. 23, 1:30 p.m., Room 205, Bingham Humanities Building. Winners of a poetry contest named in her honor will be announced.Ěý

For more information on the conference and its long history at UofL, listen to the LCLC Podcast.

Such a schism became evident to Metro Councilman Brandon Coan, who said, “I’m Louisville person, I’m not a Kentucky person.”

However, following Coan’s experience with the Rural-Urban Exchange, also known as RUX, his eyes were opened to the symbiotic relationship between the two.

, which was co-founded by alumna Savannah Barrett ’08.

The program involves connecting businessmen, artists and other Kentuckians to how the “other half” operates. It includes three intensive meetings where community members come together to exchange ideas and cultures.

Barrett noted that during the first session, participants came face-to-face with the indigenous people who still reside in areas of Kentucky that are well off the beaten path. It was an important discussion on how harmful it was to refuse to acknowledge the differences between groups.

Barrett along with Josh May, the former communications director of Appalshop, conceived the idea for RUX in 2014. They were motivated by the common misconceptions about the state of Kentucky and the lack of knowledge about the cultural nuances of the state. Together, they combined the efforts of Appalshop and Art of the Rural to form RUX, which is funded primarily through donations and grants.

Barrett, who earned a degree in humanities, is in works to expand education on the program outside of the state.

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Read the in the latest edition ofĚý, along with other stories that illustrate UofL’s impact.Ěý Ěý

• : Engineering professors are disrupting life as we know it
• : Nico Thom is on a mission to teach young girls they can be whatever they want to be
• : Madison Kommor changed the way the medical students prep for disasters
• : Professor Hilaria Cruz created an alphabet so parents in one indigenous community could read books to their children