Support for the University of Mississippi’s plans to develop Greenfield Farm Writers Residency — the state’s first significant infrastructure investment in contemporary writers — now tops $4 million thanks to two new private gifts and the Mississippi Legislature.
The Gertrude C. Ford Foundation of Jackson, Mississippi, has committed $500,000 to the project, and Ouida and Wayne Drinkwater of Oxford, Mississippi, have made a $250,000 gift. The Mississippi Legislature has appropriated $750,000 for the retreat-style writers’ compound.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said of the state support for Greenfield Farm, “This is a creative way to continue sharing our long literary history with the rest of the world and cultivate new authors who will carry on this Mississippi tradition. I cannot think of a more perfect setting for a writers’ residency than on land formerly owned by William Faulkner.
“We are proud to support this important project and expand the opportunities and reputation of the university.”

Stephen Sims, president of the Ford Foundation, also spoke to the environment the writer’s compound offers.
“The Greenfield Farm Writers Residency appealed to the Ford Foundation because Gertrude Ford had a strong interest in many literary works and was an author herself. This Writers Residency will provide potential authors and writers the focus to pursue their literary interests and projects in an inspirational environment,” he said.
Greenfield Farm will be built on a 20.4-acre site between Oxford and New Albany, Mississippi, once owned by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner and now by the university.
“We think of Ole Miss as humanities-focused, with particular strengths in literature and Southern history,” said donor Wayne Drinkwater, a retired trial lawyer. “We also see Mississippi as America’s most fertile breeding ground for great writers.
“This is not an assessment based solely on giants of the past — Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, Tennessee Williams and Richard Wright. The current crop of Mississippi writers shines just as brightly. Jesmyn Ward, Donna Tartt, John Grisham, Angie Thomas, Kiese Laymon, Richard Ford, Natasha Trethewey, Wright Thompson, Steve Yarbrough, Ace Atkins, Greg Iles, Ralph Eubanks, Curtis Wilke and Michael Farris Smith all come to mind.
“We want our literary tradition to continue, and Greenfield Farm Writers Residency is an exciting vehicle to nurture our next generation of writers,” Drinkwater said.
Each year, Greenfield Farm is projected to cultivate 50-60 writers who work in Mississippi or are inspired by Mississippi. Writers will stay an average of two to three weeks at no charge and stipends of $1,000 per week will be awarded to those utilizing the overnight studios.

Drinkwater responded, “What can we expect this program to achieve? Well, maybe one of the participants will write the next generation’s ‘Absalom, Absalom,’ ‘The Moviegoer,’ ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ or ‘Native Son.’ Being able to encourage great writing is reason enough to support it.”
The Greenfield Farm campus will be designed by the national award-winning firm Marlon Blackwell Architects of Fayetteville, Arkansas. It includes four studios and a gathering pavilion with the Julia Evans Reed Kitchen at its heart. The campus will also feature a restored farm shed and the late writer Rev. Will D. Campbell’s relocated cabin.
Walking trails and communal spaces will connect writers to the natural world. Exhibits will tell the story of this land and the people who worked it, beginning with the Chickasaws, including the McJunkins family who worked the land and concluding with Faulkner.
“The Gertrude C. Ford Foundation continues to have a transformational impact on our university,” said John T Edge, developer of the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency and director of the Mississippi Lab. “The foundation’s leadership has provided amazing support to significant projects across our campus, and we are deeply grateful for this very generous gift.
“The Drinkwaters’ gift gets us far closer to our goal of building Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, where the University of Mississippi will serve writers who live or work in Mississippi or draw inspiration from our state,” Edge said. “We thank the Mississippi Legislature for its generous appropriation to this meaningful project that promises a positive, long-term economic impact.
The Ford Foundation contributed $25 million for the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts and $25 million for the Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation. It also helped fund the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom in The Inn at Ole Miss; the Daniel W. Jones, M.D. Chair for Faculty Support; the Patterson School of Accountancy’s new home; the MPower Extended Orientation Program; and land for Gertrude C. Ford Boulevard, all on the Oxford campus. The Ole Miss Student Union was named for Ford in 2022 following its renovation and expansion.
Wayne Drinkwater earned bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from Ole Miss in 1971 and 1974, and Ouida Creekmore Drinkwater received a master’s degree in journalism from Ole Miss in 1978.
To support the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, send a check with the fund’s name written in the memo line, to the UM Foundation, at 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655 or visit online here.
For more information about supporting the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, contact John T Edge, developer and director, at johnt@olemiss.edu or 662-715-9046.
By Tina H. Hahn/UM Development
About Gertrude C. Ford
Gertrude C. Ford was raised in a generations-old tradition of philanthropy, which began more than 150 years ago with a $25 donation from her family to the Andrew Female College Building Fund in Randolph County, Georgia. Ford, who died in September 1996, established the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation in Jackson with a very generous gift in 1991. She was married to Aaron Lane Ford, an Ackerman, Mississippi, attorney and U.S. congressman representing what was then the state’s Fourth District.