Mercer University’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies will award the 2021 Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature to novelist, essayist and poet Barbara Kingsolver. The prize will be presented April 17 at 1 p.m. in a livestreamed ceremony at kingcenter.mercer.edu. Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in rural Kentucky. She…

The Last Sorcerer  is an operetta from 1867 composed by opera star and composer Pauline Viardot, recently rediscovered and made available for performance. Deep in the forest, fairies play tricks on the old sorcerer in his decaying palace in an effort to dislodge him from their woodland home. The opera incorporates magic, love, and comedy in…