Special Collections Hosts Event for Frank Stanford Literary Festival

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As part of this year's Frank Stanford Literary Festival, the University of Arkansas Libraries' Special Collections department will host a drop-in event from 3-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, in the Special Collections Reading Room in Mullins Library. Remarks will be given at 4 p.m. by Ralph Adamo, associate professor at Xavier University, and Matt Henriksen, an organizer of the conference. This event is free and open to the public, as is the entire festival.

"The Frank Stanford festival is a great opportunity for the university and the Libraries to celebrate the lives and legacies of two alumni: Stanford, whose untimely death 40 years ago the festival is planned to commemorate, and C.D. Wright, an internationally acclaimed poet who passed away in 2016," said Joshua Youngblood, rare books librarian. "Special Collections is proud to continue to preserve and promote the publications and archives of Stanford, Wright, and others in our on effort to collect and share the history and culture of the state of Arkansas."

Stanford was a student at the university in the late 1960s, taking courses in creative writing while still an undergraduate. He left school at the end of his junior year before finishing his degree and then founded Lost Roads Press. He died in 1978.

Attendees are invited to help celebrate a few of the University Libraries' significant recent acquisitions, including the manuscript of Frank Stanford's first published book, The Singing Knives. The University Libraries will showcase a collection of Stanford publications, as well as the other Lost Roads Press books and works of noteworthy poets, such as Besmilr Brigham, whose work is included in the Arkansas Collection.

It will also unveil another significant step toward preserving the university and state's literary contributions: the addition of a collection of one of the university's most illustrious literary alumni, C.D. Wright's complete library of her own publications.

Wright graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Program in Creative Writing and Translation in 1976, and her first collection of poetry was published by Lost Roads Press.

"C.D. Wright's influence on American poetry and Arkansas literature was profound, and her legacy will continue to grow now that she has passed away," said Youngblood. "A native of Mountain Home, she got her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the U of A, and Special Collections is privileged to have been able to bring in the entire library she kept of her published works — 117 items in all — and provide it a permanent home in the University Libraries."

About Special Collections: The Special Collections Department was created in 1967 to encourage research and writing in the history and culture of Arkansas and the surrounding region. The mission of the department is to acquire, preserve, and provide access to historical manuscripts, archives, maps, photographs, and published materials to support scholarly investigation of the state, its customs and people, and its cultural, physical, and political climate. Special Collections include manuscripts and archives, the Arkansas Collection, rare books and special libraries, photographs, broadsides, and maps.

About the Program in Creative Writing and Translation: Founded in 1966, the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences consistently ranks in the top 40 M.F.A. programs nationwide, according to Poets & Writers magazine. The Atlantic Monthly named the U of A among the “Top Five Most Innovative” M.F.A. programs in the nation. Noteworthy graduates include Barry Hannah, C.D. Wright, Lucinda Roy, and Nic Pizzolatto.