"Occasions" is a celebration of the short works of one of Americaas most beloved writers. To mark the centennial of Eudora Weltyas birth, Pearl Amelia McHaney has collected more than sixty pieces by Welty (1909a2001) that are largely unknown and have not been reprinted since their first appearances in magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers.The gathering includes one of Weltyas earliest stories, aAcrobats in the Parka; a self-analysis of her art printed in the "Twenty Photographs" portfolio; a recipe for Aunt Beckas Chicken Pie served up in the novel "Losing Battles"; and a parody of Edmund Wilsonas scurrilous "New Yorker" review of one of William Faulkneras late novels. These occasional essays, tributes, stories, and comments will delight readers and reveal more of the genius of a favorite author deeply engaged with her people and their customs.In these pieces Welty put pen to paper for just causes: electing honorable officials, selling war bonds, promoting reading and the arts. Her sophistication and insight resonate in tributes to Isak Dinesen, Flannery OaConnor, and Walker Percy as well as in reviews of sculpture, painting, dance, and photography, and in her candid remarks about her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Optimistas Daughter." Her sly humor emerges in aWomen Make Turban in Own Home , a a delightful parody of projects suggested in "Popular Mechanics." Written between the 1930s and the 1990s, these fictions, essays, commemorations, reviews, and salutes reveal the sparkling imagination of a celebrated writer who continues her hold on a wide audience through these newfound pleasures.