Teachers, there’s good news for you! You can earn a total of 2.4 Continuing Education Units by attending “Mississippi’s most significant annual conference devoted to literature, history, film and culture.”

Yes, that is how the annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration is referred to by official Mississippi Humanities Council evaluators.

This award-winning conference, now in its 18th year, is one of the most enjoyable ways to learn new information to take back to the classroom. This year’s event is called Southern Accents: Language in the Deep South.

Mostly free, the event features more than 20 programs on various angles of the use of Southern language, including the award-winning words of such Southern icons as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Richard Wright; humorous stories; patrician orations in the United States Senate; fire-and-damnation sermons; country song lyrics; messages and dialects in spirituals; the French dialects of Louisiana; word play, anecdotes, myths and tall tales.

Rounding out the lectures are all sorts of events: a concert of spirituals by the Alcorn State University Choir; a play about Mark Twain and his love of stories; films; book signings; discussion sessions; a tour of the newly restored Federal Courthouse; writing workshops; an award ceremony honoring the writers Beverly Lowry, Al Young and Charles Burnett; supper at the Museum of the Natchez Association of Afro-American Culture; a reception at the antebellum mansion Choctaw; and dinner at The Briars, overlooking the Mississippi River.

The Olympic award-winning conference begins at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, at the Natchez Convention Center. Programs continue there daily until Saturday evening, Feb. 24. The conference concludes with writing workshops Sunday, Feb. 25, at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

For those wishing to obtain CEUs, a registration form must be completed prior to the start of the conference. The cost for 2.4 CEUs is $75. For those who cannot attend the entire conference and thus will earn fewer than 2.4 CEUs, the cost is $65. The fee pays for CEUS as well as for attendance at three ticketed events.

More information about CEU credit is available by calling me at the Natchez-Adams School District’s headquarters at 601-445-2800 or e-mailing her at stbmorris@natchez.k12.ms.us.

Registration forms are available at the receptionist’s desk at the Braden Building, 10 Homochitto St., Natchez.

The conference is sponsored by Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Natchez National Historical Park, Mississippi Department of Archives and History and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. It is partially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mississippi Humanities Council.

More information about the celebration is available by calling 601-446-1289 or at www.colin.edu/nlcc.

Sturleen Butler-Morris is a Natchez-Adams School District employee.