Have you ever read The Awakening? Or heard of Kate Chopin? Are you familiar with Uncle Remus? Have you seen Gone With the Wind? Or, more recently, have you seen No Country for Old Men?

What all of these things have in common is a connection to Irish Catholic writers from the American South. This interactive lecture will offer the audience an engaging account of writers who invented a regional mythos by setting them in context of their times and literary work. Derived from the award-winning book Irish Catholic Writers and the Invention of the American South, the presentation investigates the remarkable literary legacy of Irish-American southern writers.

It considers the ways in which these writers responded to the demands of Catholicism, regional loyalty and Irish identity. Their story is one of courage and enduring creativity.

Bryan Giemza (Ph.D., J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; B.A., Notre Dame) teaches and writes in Chapel Hill, where he lives with his wife, Kristi, and his children, John Paul and Vera Rose. He is director of the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina. His literary history was recognized with the 2014 South Atlantic Modern Language Association's Studies Award, which is given annually to an academic text that "reflects the highest standard of scholarship and criticism and offers a significant contribution to the field."