it is also a delight to introduce chiamanda ngochi adichie. a writer who like miss welty uses place as a means of grounding perfection. to miss welty, the place was her home state of mississippi. the magnolia skate geography and history and inevitably, its policies, are a powerful presence in miss tran 11's fiction. for miss chiamanda ngochi adichie, the places nigeria, one thatseems to stem geographically and historically , what is linked in unexpected ways. when speaking of eudora welty, my students always ask me why i usually refer to her as ms. welty. until now, my response was that referred to her otherwise would violate southern manners and we were ever never really acquainted. but tonight, i feel compelled to refer to her as eudora. as a longtime student, and now teacher of her work, i've gained a closeness with her through my explorations with my students of the lyricism and irony and scientific descriptions and narrative structure of both perfection and her photographs. for a year i even lived in the shadow of her house on pinehurst s