Welcome MLA 2014!

     We are excited to announce that the Mississippi Library Association's annual convention is back in Vicksburg this year. MLA's mission is to "to provide professional leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all." This four day conference includes workshops and vendors selling aids for use in academic, public, and school libraries. Also included are tours of historic Vicksburg. On Thursday, October 16, there will be the annual Mississippi Author Awards Dinner. These awards are given to Mississippi authors in one of three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and juvenile literature.  All of this is being held at the Vicksburg Convention Center--just down the street from our own public library. I know that as a community you will join me in showing our participants and presenters the hospitality that Mississippi is famous for! If you would like to learn more about the conference, please feel free to follow one of the links below.

Mississippi Library Association's Convention Page
http://www.misslib.org/event-856714


Vicksburg Convention Center Homepage
http://www.vccmeet.com/

Judith Ann Rush Signs New Poetry Book

Judith Ann Rush will host a signing of her poetry book on Wednesday,April 23, 2014 from 4:30 to 6:30
PM in the library auditorium. Her book, My Testimony of God’s Love and Mercy: God Speaks to Me Through Poetry, is about the trials and tribulations that Ms. Rush went through and survived, only by the grace of God, a testimony of his love and mercy. Ms. Rush feels that her poems will inspire anyone who is struggling in life to look to God because he is the solution to every problem. Judith Ann Rush grew up in Vicksburg and began going to church at the early age of six. She was raised by her grandmother, who insisted she and her siblings go to church every Sunday. Ms. Rush was very shy and rarely said anything, but met many women and men in various churches of various denominations and made many friends in her life. Ms. Rush graduated from Vicksburg High School in 1977 and received her Bachelor of Science degree from Alcorn State University in Secretarial Science in 1981. Ms. Rush thanks her many friends for the encouragement they gave her to write her book.

Meet author Harris Dickson Shortle on September 18!

     Join us on Tuesday, September 18 from 12:00-1:30 pm in the library auditorium for a book reading and signing with Vicksburg native, Harris Dickson Shortle.  The program will be a Brown Bag Luncheon where attendees are  encouraged to bring their lunch to the program and drinks and dessert will be provided by the library. Harris Dickson Shortle, known as Dickson, is the author of Duplicate and The Duke of Zardano both published in 2009 by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, Mustang, Oklahoma.  Both books reflect a diversity of approach and innovative techniques of expressions in two distinctively different historical genres.

     Shortles’s story-telling is a product developed as the result of the influence of his grandfather, Harris Dickson, attorney, jurist and raconteur of note who published 13 novels and received an appreciative bicentennial award from The Saturday Evening Post for his 100 contributions. He was published by Collier’s, Redbook and other magazines during his career also.  Dickson’s novel creations followed his long-standing career as a construction project engineer, project manager and general contractor.  His work experiences and interactions with people during his career , granted him a “feel” for the humanisms of the stories he tells so realistically.

     Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi and reared in Mississippi and Louisiana, Dickson’s background is spiced not only by the influence of his grandfather, but also by his father who was a civil engineer from Detroit, Michigan and by the grace of his mother who was an English major at the University of Mississippi.  Harris Dickson Shortle was a cum laude graduate of the Sewanee Military Academy at Sewanee, Tennessee, a member of the class of 1960 at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York and a graduate of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  Dickson and his wife, Dllona recently moved back to Vicksburg from Upper Arlington, Ohio. Their only daughter is Harra Dickson Shortle Windsor who with her husband, the Reverend Doctor Van Windsor and their sons, Dickson and Walter live in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Vicksburg 1863

I read the book, Vicksburg 1863 by Winston Groom, to acquire a better understanding of the Civil War. The author Winston Groom brings the Civil War to life in this book and I found myself caught away in reading of this great historical event. The book covers the War in great detail. You will read of the battles and leaders of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant’s drinking problem, diary entries from citizens and soldiers, etc. You’ll also read of the hardships of life in Vicksburg. Before the war Vicksburg had forty-five hundred residents and there were about thirty-thousand soldiers added to the population during the war. Cave shelters were built and furnished with items from homes. Water and food were scarce and people were starving. After nearly seven weeks in the heat of the battle, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4th. As the tattered Rebels marched out with their white flags and laid down their arms, it was as if a funeral were taking place. Union soldiers stood by and watched quietly. The grieving citizens of Vicksburg were relieved that the fighting had ended.