www.tennesseewilliams.net

…He thought of his friends.

He thought of his lost companions, of all he had touched and all whose touch he had known.

He wept for remembrance.

But when he had finished weeping, he washed his face, he smiled at his face in the mirror, preparing to say to you, whom he was expecting,

Love. Love. Love.

But could he believe it again?

— From “Mornings on Bourbon Street,” by Tennessee Williams

The 21st Annual Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literaryary FestivalFestival

March 28 - April 1, 2007 Table of Contents Available in the Lobby Books — Titles by Festival participants Published by: waiting to be signed by the author. New Orleans Publishing Group 111 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Letter From the Board 5 Garden District Book Shop Suite 1440 Britton Trice and Deb McDonald Metairie, La. 70005 2727 Prytania Street 504-834-9292 New Orleans, LA 70130 Fax 504-837-2258 Board of Directors 5 504-895-2266 www.gardendistrictbookshop.com Photograph from the Billy Rose Theater Collection, The New York Public Library for Concessions and Souvenirs the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Schedule of Events 7 President/Publisher: Posters, T-shirts,book bags, jewelry, D. Mark Singletary Foundations. Tennessee Williams, 1941. and note cards created especially for the Festival. Recordings of panel discus- Associate Publisher: The excerpt from “Mornings on Bourbon sions and master classes also available. Street” is taken from The Collected Poems Scholars’ Conference 11 Lisa Blossman of Tennessee Williams, copyright 1956, Custom Publishing Editor: 1964, 2002 by the University of the South. Renee Aragon Dolese Reprinted by permission of New Directions Theater Offerings 12 Publishing Corporation. Advertising Executive/ Custom Publishing: Aimee Arceneaux Participants 19 Refreshments Grab a quick lunch at Paillard’s Art Director: Restaurant at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, Lisa Finnan Funding Support for the Festival or a drink with old and new friends at its 26 stylish Snooks Jazz Club. In between Production Manager: events, feel free to relax around the Julie Bernard Bourbon Orleans’ beautiful courtyard and pool where. And no Festival experience is www.tennesseewilliams.net; complete without having one of Marureen email: [email protected] Detweiler’s famous mint juleps!

3 The 2007 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Welcome Friends of Tennessee Literary Festival We already know that you are an admirer of Tennessee Williams because you are here, participating in and enjoying Board of Directors the many stimulating offerings of the 21st annual Tennessee President Staff Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. For that, we thank Patricia Brady, Ph.D. Executive Director you. But what about the rest of the year? Will you remain a Vice President for Paul J. Willis true and loyal friend of Tennessee? Development Peggy Scott Laborde Associate Director Karissa Kary If so, we ask that you establish or renew your membership Vice President for Literary in the Festival’s Friends of Tennessee program right now— Programming Program Assistants Doug Brantley Marika Christian today—to help us keep the rich artistic heritage of this magi- Laura Miller cal city alive. To do that, we must rely not only on the Vice President for Theater Candace Perry strangeness of kindness but also on the kindness of strangers Programming Executive Director David Hoover Publicist ... the kindness of people who care. People like you. Ellen Johnson Paul Willis and longtime Secretary Festival attendee Helen Clare Beth Pierson Technical Director As you know, day-to-day life in New Orleans and its sur- Madden of Connecticut. Amy Reuben rounding area remains pretty tough for many of its citizens; Treasurer Terrence Verigan Web Master keeping an arts festival running while so many people contin- Cherry Cappel ue to struggle is, to say the least, a challenge—especially in a city still hurting, in a city Board of Directors still hoping. Doug Ahlers Festival Photographers Elizabeth Barron, Ph.D. Earl Perry Joshua Clark But you can help. Today.And make a difference. Now. Denelle Cowart, Ph.D. Festival Logo Maureen Detweiler, Ex Officio Arthur Nead William M. Detweiler, Ex Officio Please join the Friends of Tennessee! Simply take a moment to join online at Sharon Donovan Advisory Board www.tennesseewilliams.net . Also at that Web site, you will find a list of valuable ben- Stephen Ecton Dorothy Allison Mark Fernandez, Ph.D. Allain Andry efits that accompany various festival membership levels—benefits that show you exactly Harry Freeman Alec Baldwin how grateful we are for your ongoing faith and support during these challenging times. Kevin Graves, Ph.D. Fredrick Barton Danella Hero Joy Bollinger Jane Hobson Rick Bragg With your help, we will move forward to help rebuild the cultural life of New Orleans. Susan Hoskins Ted Brennan John Kemp, Ph.D. Sheila Davlin We thank all of the folks—our members, writers, actors, and volunteers—who make this Amy Kirk Randall Feldman unique literary event possible. Please join us as a Friend of Tennessee ... and we Errol Laborde, Ph.D. Randy Fertel expect to see all of Tennessee’s friends—friends like you—here again next year. Henry Lacey, Ph.D. W. Kenneth Holditch Prescilla Lawrence Anne Jackson Bev Marshall Brobson Lutz Thank you, Patricia Mason Randy Moffett Rod Mills Rex Reed Linda Anne Nix, Ex Officio Cheryle Sims The Board and Staff of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Michael Sartisky, Ph.D. Eli Wallach Molly Travis, Ph.D. Dakin Williams Bonnie Warren Stephanie Zimbalist P.S. SAVE THE DATE in 2008! Peggy Wilson Mark your calendars for the 22nd Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Scholar’s Conference Chair Festival: March 26-30, 2008. See you there! Robert Bray, Ph.D.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS/NEW ORLEANS LITERARY FESTIVAL • 938 LAFAYETTE ST., SUITE 514 NEW ORLEANS, LA 70113 • 504.581.1144 • [email protected] • WWW.TENNESSEEWILLIAMS.NET Important Reminders How to Purchase Tickets The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is a Tickets purchased before March 26 may be ordered in the following ways: non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Contributions are 1. Go to www.tennesseewilliams.net and access the online order form. Tickets can be pur- deductible according to the provision of current tax laws. chased online using Mastercard or Visa. 2. Festival program and schedule are subject to change. Theater Call the Festival box office at 504-581-1144 for phone orders. The box office is open from seating and space on walking tours is limited, and advance reser- noon until 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday vations are recommended. Payment in full is required to hold All tickets purchased after March 1 will be held at “will-call.” reservations. All ticket sales are final. Absolutely no refunds or exchanges will be made. To Purchase Tickets after March 26: Beginning March 29, tickets can be purchased on site at the Festival Box Office located in the Because of variations in attendance, the purchase of a Festival Bourbon Orleans lobby, 717 Orleans Street. For more information call 504-581-1144. panel pass cannot guarantee seating for every panel discus- sion. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, but is gener- Tickets held as “will-call” can be picked up from the Festival Box Office, March 29-April 1 ally available. at the Bourbon Orleans lobby, 717 Orleans Street. All theatre tickets will be held “will call” at Le Petit Theatre. Please note that during the Festival, many activities may be recorded for archival and/or commercial purposes. By attending Festival events, you hereby grant to The Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival and others permission to photograph and record you visually and orally for various TV and/or film productions. You grant universal rights for any reproduction of your image, likeness, or voice, throughout the Festival weekend. 5 2007 Festival Sites

8 1 The Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) 529 Royal Street 7 1 2 Le Petit Théâtre 5 616 St. Peter Street 2 4 3 11 3 Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant 801 Charters Street 6 4 The Cabildo Jackson Square 9 5 Hotel Monteleone 214 Royal Street 6 Palm Court Jazz Café 1204 Decatur Street 10 7 Bourbon Orleans Hotel 717 Orleans Street 8 The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans 10 Besh Steakhouse, Harrah’s Casino 921 Canal Street 8 Canal Street 9 Windsor Court Hotel 11 Williams Research Center 300 Gravier Street 410 Chartres Street

6 The 21st Annual Tennessee Williams / Thursday, March 29

New Orleans The Historic New Literary Festival Orleans Collection (Master Classes)

9:00 9:00 Tennessee Williams / 9:30 Allison Dickens, Judy Merrill Larson, and Marly Rusoff New Orleans 10:00 Three Women and a Book: Literary Festival 10:30 From Idea to Reality 11:00 938 Lafayette St., Suite 514 11:00 11:30 Allain Andry,Michael Ledet, New Orleans, LA 70113 12:00 and Richard Stewart 504.581.1144 12:30 Self-Publishing: Do It Yourself and 1:00 Take Home the Cash [email protected] 1:30 Festival Logo by Arthur Nead 1:30 2:00 Barry Gifford Festival Photos by Earl Perry 2:30 Translating Life to the Screen Williams Photos Courtesy of the 3:00 3:15 Historic New Orleans Collection 3:30 Michael Lewis 4:00 Behind the Zeitgeist 4:30 5:00 Le Petit Theatre Wednesday, March 28 5:30 6:30 (Special Event) 6:00 Festival Opening Night Gala “Tennessee Trio” Palm Court Jazz Cafe 6:30 7:00 7:00 1014 Dumaine 7:00 p.m. 7:30 (Special Event) Former residence of Tennessee Williams 8:00 “Tennessee and His Women” 8:00 (Special Event) 8:30 Gala Reception Friday, March 30

Bourbon Orleans The Windsor Court The Historic New Williams Research Le Petit Theatre Bourbon Orleans Orleans Collection Hotel Ballroom (Master Classes) Center Lobby/Courtyard 9:00 9:00 - 5:00 9:30 9:00 Steve Yarbrough 10:00 10:00 (panel) A Sense of Place 9:30-4:30 Ticket Sales 10:30 And the Beats Go On Tennessee Williams 11:00 Scholars’ Conference Concessions & Souvenirs 11:00 11:30 11:30 (panel) Mike Tidwell Book Fair 12:00 Head for the Hills: The Writing As If the World 12:30 Mystique of Appalachia Depended on It: Creativity Tours Meet in the Service of Humanity 1:00 1:00 (panel) 1:30 Southern Culture on the Skids? 1:30 2:00 Sharyn McCrumb 2:30 2:30 (panel) Interview 3:00 Ideal Alliances: Editor, 3:30 Agent, and Author 3:15 4:00 Yusef Komunyakaa 4:00 All That Jazz 4:30 (Conversation with) 5:00 Richard Ford 5:30 5:30 (Special Event) 6:00 A Fireside Chat with 6:00 (theater) 6:30 Food Expert “Tennessee Trio” John Mariani 7:00 7:30 8:00 (theater) 8:00 Rancho Pancho 8:30 7 Saturday, April 1

Bourbon Orleans The Cabildo, Muriel’s Jackson Le Petit Theatre Le Petit Theatre Bourbon Orleans Arsenal Room Ballroom Square Restaurant Muriel’s Caberet Mainstage Lobby/Courtyard Jackson Square 9:00 8:00 (special event) 9:00 - 5:00 9:30 Breakfast Book Club 10:00 (panel) Imagining the Crescent Ticket Sales 10:00 10:00 (panel) That Sinking Feeling: City’s Ruling Classes 10:30 Coastal Erosion and Tenn 101 10:00 (panel) Concessions & Souvenirs 11:00 Environmental Issues Orpheus Ascending: First Book Fair 11:30 11:30 (panel) 11:30 (interview/ Books, New Voices discussion) 12:00 New Orleans as a Home 11:30 (reading) Between the Lines: 12:00 (theater) Tours Meet 12:30 for Writers...Still Writers Read Tennessee’s Notebooks The Last Madam: A 1:00 1:00 (panel) Colorful and Decadent 1:00 (reading) 1:00 (panel) 1:30 Politics as Theater/ Reading With Grace Writers Read: Southern Literature 2:00 (theater) Theater as Politics Zabriskie 2:00 Sweet Word of Youth Through Transcontinental Rancho Pancho Lenses 2:30 2:30 3:00 (Conversation with) 2:30 (panel) 2:30 (special event) 3:30 Yusef Komunyakaa Noir, New Orleans Style: MEENA: Finding Tales from the Dark Side 4:00 Ports of Entry Between 4:00 (panel) 4:00 (theater) Arabic- and 4:30 Tennessee Williams’ Besh Steakhouse, Everyone Expects Me to English-Speaking Harrah’s Casino 5:00 Memoirs: When the Write Another “Streetcar”: Cultures Another Evening with the 5:30 Playwright Had His Say 3:00 (special event) Born on the Bayou: Playwright 6:00 Cooking Louisiana 6:30 Gourmet with 7:00 Chef John Besh 8:00 (theater) 7:30 Mirrors of Chartres Street: Faulkner in New 8:00 Orleans/New Orleans in 8:30 Faulkner Sunday, April 1

Bourbon Orleans The Cabildo, Muriel’s Jackson Le Petit Theatre Le Petit Theatre Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Arsenal Room Square Restaurant Muriel’s Caberet Mainstage Lobby/Courtyard Jackson Square 9:00 9:00 — 5:00 9:30 10:00 (panel) 10:00 10:00 (panel) 10:00 (video) No Short Cuts: Stories 10:00 (theater) Ticket Sales From Source to Print— 10:30 Writing from Memory: An Tennessee Williams: One-Act Reading 2007 Insider’s Look at Theater in Process The Often-Long Process Contest Winner Concessions & 11:00 Autobiography of Writing Short Fiction Souvenirs 11:30 11:30 (panel) 11:30 (panel) 11:30 (panel) Book Fair 12:00 Wild at Heart Canal Street: Demystifying the Classics: 12:00 (theater) 12:00 (special event) New Orleans’ Great 12:30 An In-Depth Look Into Small Things Drummer and Smoke: Tours Meet Wide Way The Sound and the Fury 1:00 1:00 (panel) New Orleans Jazz in the 50s and 60s 1:30 Writing Outside the Box: 1:00 (video) 1:00 (reading) Beats Documentary 2:00 Outrageous Fiction Writers Read 2:00 (theater) 2:00 (theater) 2:30 2:30 The Cabildo, The Ritz-Carlton, The Last Madam: Ignatius on Stage 3:00 (Conversation with) Gallery (2nd floor) New Orleans Colorful and Decadent Calvin Trillin Jackson Square 3:30 2:00 (special event) Reading With Grace 2:30 (panel) Zabriskie 4:00 Jackson Square New Orleans’ Classic Louisiana in Words Desserts: A Discussion 4:00 (panel) 4:30 4:00 Ode to Tennessee 4:00 (reception) and Tasting Featuring 5:00 Stanley and Stella Kit Wohl and Chef Leah Shouting Contest Meet the Louisiana in 5:30 Words Authors Chase of Dooky Chase Preliminaries Restaurant 5:30 6:00 Stanley and Stella 6:30 Shouting Contest 7:00 Final Judging & Tea with Tennessee 7:30 8:00 8:30 8 Wednesday, March 28, 2007

TENNESSEE AND HIS WOMEN: AN EVENING OF LITERARY REVELRY TO BENEFIT THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS/NEW ORLEANS LITERARY FESTIVAL This year we offer our Friends a special celebration benefit dinner, kicking-off our 21st annual “coming-of- age” Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Experience an exceptional evening of food, wine, and entertainment at the Palm Court Jazz Café. Join special Festival guests for intriguing conversations, an auction, prize drawings, New Orleans jazz, and much theatrical revelry with Jeremy Lawrence hosting the evening as Tennessee.Join us as we are moving forward to help rebuild the cultural life of New Orleans and raise your glass in salute to the city’s rich literary heritage. Cocktail attire or come as your favorite Tennessee Williams character. The Palm Court Jazz Café, 1204 Decatur Street, $150 Jeremy Lawrence Thursday, March 29, 2007

9 A.M. secrets for dis- most iconic cultural events. Tackling Silicon FESTIVAL TICKET SALES, BOURBON tributing, pro- Valley,major league baseball, the 1996 presiden- ORLEANS LOBBY moting, and sell- tial campaign, the Internet boom of the 1990s, Continues throughout the day. ing your books and the Wall Street craze of the late 1980s with ... and for avoid- equal parts reportorial insight and wit, Lewis Master Classes ing having 2,000 seems to fear no topic, no matter how big. copies under The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary your bed! You’ll included in Master Class Series registration Michael Ledet and Richard Stewart Festival opens with a series of Master Classes by learn from their leading authors, agents, and editors. Each session mistakes, as well as their successes. Festival Opening is 1 hour and 15 minutes with a lively give-and- The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or take between audience and instructors. Authors included in Master Class Series registration Night Gala will sign books. Classes may be taken individually 6:30 P.M. SPECIAL EVENT $75 ($35 1:30 P.M. for $25 or as a complete series for $175. The full FOR RECEPTION ONLY, 8:00 P.M.) series fee also includes a Festival Panel Pass. BARRY GIFFORD: Join us for a performance of three rarely staged late Presented in cooperation with the Historic New TRANSLATING LIFE one-acts by Tennessee Williams, all written in 1980. Orleans Collection. TO THE SCREEN This “Tennessee Trio”includes: The Travelling Screenwriter, playwright, nov- Companion,a poignant, semi-autobiographical look elist, poet, director, baseball at the interdependence between an aging writer and player, boxer...is there any- his young escort; the apocalyptic The Chalky White thing Barry Gifford hasn’t Substance, in which two men rely on each other for done? Find out when film- ultimate survival; and the comedy Lifeboat Drill, maker Mari Kornhauser speaks with the which takes place in a stateroom of the Queen award-winning Gifford in a no-holds-barred Elizabeth II, where a couple in their 90s make a discussion about his adventures in life and delightfully absurd attempt to prepare for a sinking. work. Gifford has written over 22 books, and The first two plays are directed by David Kaplan his work has been translated into 28 languages. Judy Merrill Larsen Marly Rusoff Allison Dickens and feature Jeremy Lawrence and Ben Griessmeyer. He has also written screenplays with David The third play is directed by Perry Martin. 9 A.M. Lynch and Matt Dillon, including Lynch’s award- Reception to follow at the former home of THREE WOMEN AND A BOOK: FROM winning film Wild at Heart, which was based on Tennessee Williams. IDEA TO REALITY Gifford’s novel. Gifford’s latest works, Memories “Tennessee Trio”—Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, Debut author Judy Merrill Larsen, agent Marly from a Sinking Ship (fiction) and The Calvary 616 St. Peter Street Rusoff, and editor Allison Dickens will chronicle Charges (essays), are due out in April. Reception—1014 Dumaine Street, hosted by the journey of the novel All the Numbers from the The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or Brobson Lutz author’s dream to its publication. In this class, each included in Master Class Series registration will offer invaluable information about their respec- tive roles in the successful publication of a novel. 3:15 P.M. The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or MICHAEL LEWIS: included in Master Class Series registration BEHIND THE ZEITGEIST 11 A.M. Join best-selling author SELF-PUBLISHING: DO Michael Lewis as he discusses IT YOURSELF AND what stimulates and informs TAKE HOME THE CASH his writing with interviewer Considering self-publishing? Michael Sartisky, executive director of the Three successful self-pub- Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Lewis, lishers—Allain Andry, in his own words, likes to explore “arenas of ambi- Michael Ledet, and Richard tion.” His books offer a behind-the-scenes peek at Stewart—will share their Allain Andry the movers, shakers, and shapers of America’s Vieux and Beau from the Travelling Companion 9 Friday, March 30, 2007

9 A.M. McCrumb’s work in preserving the history, traditions, and lore of FESTIVAL TICKET SALES, BOURBON ORLEANS BALL- Appalachia; her inspiration; and the character and spirit of one of the ROOM nation’s most lovely regions. Continues throughout the day. The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or included in Master Class Series registration BOOK FAIR, BOURBON ORLEANS BALLROOM Local independent bookseller, Garden District Book Shop, will offer books 3:15 P.M. for sale by Festival authors, along with special books about Louisiana and all ALL THAT JAZZ: THE POETICS OF YUSEF things Tennessee. KOMUNYAKAA “The songs taught me to listen,” says legendary poet CONCESSIONS AND SOUVENIRS, Yusef Komunyakaa of his early exposure to blues and BOURBON ORLEANS BALLROOM gospel, and from those songs he creates poems that Book bags, note cards, T-shirts,and more-exclusive to the Festival. move through and beyond the rhythms of music, illu- minating essential truths and extolling equality as bal- Tennessee Williams anced and necessary as music. Komunyakaa’s poems have aptly been described as “razor-sharp pieces that tell us more about Scholars’ Conference our culture than any news broadcast.” Come be inspired by the National Endowment for the Arts recipient and New York University 9:30 A.M. TO 4:30 P.M. Distinguished Senior Poet as he speaks about all things poetic. Literary experts share their insights on the creative work of America’s greatest The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or included in Master Class playwright. See page 11 for schedule of events. Series registration Conference Director: Dr. Robert Bray. Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, $10 for Scholars’ Conference pass Literary Panels Master Classes and Theater Events 9 A.M. Entrance to all literary panels is included in the Festival Panel Pass, $60. STEVE YARBROUGH: A SENSE OF PLACE Admission fees to other events indicated below. In the best literary fiction, we often feel as if the story or novel occurs in a particular place because that’s where it had to happen. In this session author Yarbrough, whose acclaimed novels are set in the Mississippi Delta, will talk about the ways in which fiction writers go about creating NEW ORLEANS’ a sense of place in their work and look at how place influ- ORIGINAL ences both plot and character. COCKTAIL TOUR The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or included in Master Class Take a walk through Series registration the French Quarter’s famous bars and 11 A.M. restaurants and dis- MIKE TIDWELL: WRITING AS IF THE cover the legendary WORLD DEPENDED ON IT—CREATIVITY IN “spirits” of New THE SERICE OF HUMANITY Orleans. It’s histo- Award-winning author Mike Tidwell explains how he ry...with a twist! This used colorful nonfiction characters and plot to make his entertaining walking pre-Katrina book, Bayou Farewll: The Rich Life and tour visits historical Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast, resonate. A restaurants such as writer on a mission to save Louisiana or the whole world Antoine’s, Arnaud’s, from environmental ruin doesn’t have to surrender the rich tools of creative Brennan’s, and the writing, according to Tidwell. The author will discuss how he used the good Court of Two Sisters, and the oldest bars in the city, old-fashioned craft of vivid story-telling in his newest book, The Ravaging including Napoleon House and Tujague’s,whose stories Tide, which focuses on Katrina and global warming and the race to save date to the 1800s. Friday and Saturday at 4:00 p.m. America’s coastal cities. The Historic New Orleans Collection, $25 or included in Master Class Series registration

1:30 P.M. SHARYN MCCRUMB: AN INTERVIEW WITH TENNESSEE WILLIAMS LITERARY WALKING TOUR Critically acclaimed author Sharyn McCrumb has Homes and hangouts of the playwright in the French explored her Appalachian heritage and the history of this beautiful and storied region in her Ballad novel Quarter. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Friday through Sunday. series. Join her and Times-Picayune book critic Diana Kenneth Holditch, Heritage Tours. Pinckley as they discuss the importance of

10 10 A.M. there anything left of it? Is it on the up and up or the down and out? AND THE BEATS GO ON Panelists: Chris Rose, Michael Swindle, Helen Taylor, and Charles Wilson. With the end of World War I came the Lost Generation and the Golden Age Moderator: Joshua Clark. of American prose: Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway.With World War II came Bourbon Orleans Ballroom a very different movement—the Beat Generation—one that brought the rhythms of jazz to the written word, and continues to influence the major writ- 2:30 P.M. ers of today.Kerouac, Burroughs, Thompson: All spent time in Tennessee IDEAL ALLIANCES: EDITOR, AGENT, AND AUTHOR Williams’ “spiritual home”—part of the “Golden Triangle”between New York It may not take an entire village to publish a book, but it all begins with and San Francisco—and like him, captured the Crescent City with their an alliance of three. Join the editor, agent, and authors on this panel for a words. In this panel, three authors who knew and have written about members behind-the-book exclusive about their experiences working (and some- of the Beat movement discuss the Beats’ influence on their own work and the times playing) together. group’s lasting contributions to the contemporary literary landscape. Panelists: Bev Marshall, Ron Rash, Marly Rusoff, and Louise Shaffer. Panelists: Doug Brinkley,Barry Gifford, and Curtis Robinson. Moderator: Allison Dickens. Moderator: Michael Swindle. Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Bourbon Orleans Ballroom 4 P.M. 11:30 A.M. A CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD FORD HEAD FOR THE HILLS: THE MYSTIQUE OF APPALACHIA Join the New Yorker’s Field Maloney as he speaks with award-winning author “There’s gold in them there hills.” You’ve heard it before, and if you’re talking Richard Ford. The recipient of two NEA grants and an American Academy of about successful authors and books, you’re talking about Appalachia. Is it the Arts and Letters Award, Ford grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, across the street mountains, the language, the wildflowers, or the water that produces so many from his friend Eudora Welty.His recurring character, Frank Bascombe, first award-winning writers like the ones on this panel? Head for the hills with us appeared in 1986’s The Sportswriter, and reappeared a decade later in and you may learn their secrets. Independence Day, which earned Ford the distinction of becoming the only writer Panelists: Ron Rash, Sharyn McCrumb, and Mark Powell. to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and the PEN/ Faulkner award. His Moderator: Bev Marshall. new novel, The Lay of the Land, is the third and last in his Bascombe series. Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Sponsored by Tulane University. 1 P.M. SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS? 5:30 P.M. The South has always been a land of contradictions: poverty and wealth, bru- A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH FOOD EXPERT JOHN MARIANI tality and hospitality,boozing and teetotalling, profligacy and religion, illitera- Join food and drink authority John Mariani for cy and literary genius, mullet-tossing and plantation-bossing. Should we be wine, wit, and hors d’oeuvres. Mariani, food embarrassed or proud? What the heck is “Southern Culture” anyway,and is columnist for Esquire will give expert advice 12th Annual Tennessee Williams Scholars’ Conference MARCH 30, 2007 Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street $10 Scholars’ Conference Pass

Robert Bray, Director

9:30 to 10:30 a.m. “The Hotel as Privileged Site of the Sex Industry in Dr. John Rindo, The University of Puget Sound Williams’ Drama” “Portrait of a Lady: Williams’ Plastic Resolution of Character” Dr. Denys Landry, The University of Montreal Dr. Lena Hill, The University of Iowa Moderator: Dr. Stuart Noel, Georgia Perimeter College “Manuscript Sources for Sweet Bird of Youth” Dr. Brian Parker, The University of Toronto 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. “Marketing a Scandal: Elia Kazan and the Baby Doll Poster” Moderator: Dr. Will Brantley, Middle Tennessee State University Dr. Barton Palmer, Clemson University

10:30 to 11:30 a.m. “Candles to the Sun and Spring Storm: Explorations Toward “Boom! And Bust: Tennessee Loses Hollywood” Williams’ Dramatic South” Dr. Michael Raines, Eastfield College Dr. David Radavich, Eastern Illinois University Moderator: Dr. Robert Bray, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Dramatization of Desire: Tennessee Williams and 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. “The Politics of Tennessee Williams” Federico Garcia Lorca” Dr. Nicholas Moschovakis, Reed College Dr. José Ignacio Badenes, Loyola Marymount University Dr. Philip Kolin, The University of Southern Mississippi Moderator: Thomas Keith, New Directions Publishing Dr. Annette Saddik, New York City College of Technology Prof. Allean Hale, The University of Illinois 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. LUNCH Dr. Robert Bray, Middle Tennessee State University

1:00 to 2:00 p.m. “Spatial Reversal in The Night of the Iguana” 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. Performance of Summer at the Lake, a Williams one-act play Halla Diyab, The University of Leicester Joi Hoffsommer, Illinois Wesleyan University Sandra Zielinski, Illinois State University “Williams and Opera: Comparative Drama, Lyricism, and Artistic Bob Quinlan, Illinois State University Vision in Bibalo’s Version of The Glass Menagerie” Directed by Gary Ambler 11 Theater Offerings

Tennessee Trio Confederacy of Dunces. Scenes edited by W.Kenneth Holditch. Directed by Join us for a performance of three rarely staged late one-acts by Tennessee Perry Martin. Presented by special arrangement with McIntosh and Otis. Williams, all written in 1980. This Tennessee Trio includes: The Traveling Sunday,April 1, 2:00 p.m. Companion, a poignant, semi-autobiographical look at the interdependence Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 between an aging writer and his young escort; the apocalyptic The Chalky White Substance, in which two men rely on each other for ultimate survival; and in the Everyone Expects Me to Write Another “Streetcar”: comedy Lifeboat Drill,which takes place in a stateroom of the Queen Elizabeth II, Another Evening With The Playwright where a couple in their 90s make a delightfully absurd attempt to prepare for a In this follow-up to his popular one-man show, Talking Tennessee, critically sinking. The first two plays are directed by David Kaplan and feature Jeremy acclaimed actor/playwright Jeremy Lawrence explores Williams’ life during the Lawrence and Ben Griessmeyer. The third play is directed by Perry Martin. years when the streetcar named success stopped running, while his writing con- Thursday,March 29, 6:30 p.m. tinued. Drawing from various sources—including Tennessee’s memoirs, poetry, Friday,March 30, 6:00 p.m. plays, and personal anecdotes—Lawrence examines the playwright’s Broadway Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 exile, his nervous breakdown and subsequent stay in the psychiatric ward at Barnes Hospital, his homosexuality,and of course, Williams’ will to survive. Rancho Pancho Saturday,March 31, 4:00 p.m. San Antonio playwright Gregg Barrios’ Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret, $25 new play, Rancho Pancho, looks at the life of Tennessee Williams and his The Last Madam: A Colorful and Decadent Reading Mexican-American muse—Pancho with Grace Zabriskie Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the 24-year- New Orleans’ own, acclaimed actress Grace Zabriskie (The Big old son of a Mexican-American border Easy, An Officer and a Gentleman) channels Norma Wallace, guard when Williams met him in Texas New Orlean’s legendary bordello queen, in this reading from in 1945. Smitten, Williams invited him Pancho and Tenn The Last Madam,the hit play by Jim Fitzmorris and Carl to New Orleans, where Pancho became Walker, adapted from local author Christine Wiltz’s best-selling Williams’ live-in muse and companion for several years. Barrios believes Pancho biography by the same title. Set in 1964, The Last Madam finds Grace served as a model for Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and had an aging Norma Wallace, still glamorous and still formidable, in Zabriskie tried to persuade Williams to make the character Latino, since there were more the middle of a turf war between district attorney Jim Garrison Mexican-Americans than Polish-Americans in New Orleans during the time. In and police chief Joe Giarrusso. Scheming, cajoling, and threatening, Norma his autobiography,Elia Kazan speaks about his difficulty in understanding the brings an entire arsenal of feminine charm and ruthlessness to bear in her love-hate relationship between Stanley and Blanche—until he witnessed an off- attempts to control not only her legendary whorehouse at 1026 Conti Street, stage altercation between Williams and Rodriguez during rehearsals of Streetcar. but her very future. Reviewing the 2006 production at Southern Rep, Gambit’s If Tennessee was Blanche, Pancho was Stanley,Kazan wrote. Rancho Pancho Dalt Wonk called The Last Madam “a fascinating original play by local writers, examines their two-year relationship from the Texas-Mexico border and New based on a fascinating book by a local writer about a fascinating local legendary Orleans to Hollywood and a Provincetown bungalow dubbed Rancho Pancho figure. You don’t want to miss it.” For the hundreds who did miss last year’s by Williams and finally onto Broadway.It concludes when the former compan- sold-out performances, here’s another chance for a tryst with The Last Madam. ions meet some 30 years later in Jackson Square. Saturday,March 31, 12:00 p.m. Friday,March 30, 8:00 p.m. Sunday,April 1, 2:00 p.m. Saturday,March 31, 2:00 p.m. Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret, $25 Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 Staged Reading of the 2007 Festival One-Act Play Mirrors of Chartres Street: Competition Winner Faulkner in New Orleans/New The University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theatre, and Orleans in Faulkner Communication Arts presents a reading of the winning entry in the 2007 In 1925, William Faulkner lived in New Festival’s national One-Act Play competition. The Creative Writing Program at the Orleans, and his time as a French Quarter resi- University of New Orleans administers and coordinates competition judging. The dent proved seminal in his artistic develop- Festival sponsors the annual competition, which includes a $1,000 cash prize. ment. It was in New Orleans where the future Sunday, April 1, 10:00 a.m. Nobel Laureate chose his literary genre, sold Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret his first work, and began to develop themes Free with Panel Pass or $5 at the door. that would pervade his entire career. Vignettes he wrote for the Times-Picayune and his char- Small Things acter sketches from The Double Dealer serve as Reinike as Faulkner Having reached the end of his rope, Hoyt has decided to end his life. Then in the basis of the one-man show, Mirrors of walks Drew,who’s going door-to-door for the Assembly of Hubristic Chartres Street: Faulkner in New Orleans/New Orleans in Faulkner,starring Evangelicals—the One True Faith that has the One True Answer. Too bad the Ryan Reinike, directed by Perry Martin, and adapted by Rob Florence. This Assembly thinks Drew is an abomination because he’s gay.Talk about a crisis work reveals a Faulkner many people are unaware of, and a New Orleans that of faith. Then Hoyt reveals the pistol he stuffed under the couch cushion many will find familiar. when Drew rang the bell. And Drew’s real missionary work begins.... The Saturday,March 31, 8:00 p.m. University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theatre, and Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 Communication Arts presents the premiere performance of the winner of the 2006 Festival One-Act Play Competition, Small Things, by Cary Pepper. Ignatius on Stage Sunday, April 1, 12:00 p.m. John McConnell returns to the stage for the always-popular staged reading of Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret scenes from John Kennedy Toole’s Pulitizer Prize winning classic, A Free with Panel Pass or $5 at the door. 12 Friday continued on selecting the perfect wine and gives the 8 P.M. scoop on the latest national restaurant RANCHO PANCHO trends. Here’s a chance to ask an expert one (THEATER) of those foodie questions you’ve Gregg Barrios’ new play, been keeping on the back burner. Rancho Pancho, examines the Windsor Court Hotel, 300 relationship between Tennessee Gravier Street, $35 Williams and his companion Sponsored by Windsor Court Hotel. Pancho Rodriguez, the model for Streetcar’s Stanley Kowalski. 6 P.M. The play explores their tumul- TENNESSEE TRIO (THEATER) tuous two-year relationship and The Festival offers three rarely seen late Tennessee Williams one- concludes when the two meet acts ranging from the comic to the tragic. The Traveling 30 years later in Jackson Companion and The Chalky White Substance are directed by Square. Eric Lozano as Pancho David Kaplan and feature Jeremy Lawrence and Ben Griessmeyer. Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, Lifeboat Drill is directed by Perry Martin. $25 Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 Saturday, March 31, 2007

8 A.M. for sale by Festival authors, along with special books about Louisiana and all BREAKFAST BOOK CLUB (SPECIAL EVENT) things Tennessee. Imagining the Crescent City’s Ruling Classes: George Washington Cable, Ellen Gilchrist, and Literary Depictions of Elite New Orleans CONCESSIONS AND SOUVENIRS, BOURBON ORLEANS In the long history of literary representations of New Orleans, few writ- BALLROOM ers have proved as insightful, penetrating, and controversial when assess- Book bags, note cards, T-shirts,and more-exclusive to the Festival. ing the city and its ruling enclaves as George Washington Cable and Ellen Gilchrist. Although separated by a century, the work of both fic- tion writers is replete with keen observations, unforgettable characters, Literary Panels imaginative plots, and, perhaps most irksome to New Orleanians, sharp criticisms of the cultural elites who, at varying times, have controlled the and Theater Events city socially, racially, and economically and have then witnessed that power erode. Entrance to all literary panels is included in the Festival Panel Pass, $60. In this unique single-session RELIC program, participants will, on Admission fees to other events indicated below. their own, acquire seminal short story collections by Cable and Gilchrist: Old Creole Days, Cable’s pioneering 1879 assessment of the 10 A.M. French legacy in New Orleans (Pelican Publishing; ISBN 0882897802), THAT SINKING FEELING: COASTAL EROSION AND and In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, Gilchrist’s highly praised 1981 col- ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES lection that, among other things, brilliantly dissects Garden District cul- Well before Hurricane Katrina, journalist and author Mike Tidwell ture and mores (LSU Press; ISBN 0807128295). Participants will then warned Louisiana that coastal erosion would magnify the devastating read two representative stories from each author—Cable’s “Belles effects of the next major hurricane to hit its coast. LSU scientist Ivor van Demoiselles Plantation” and “Jean-ah Poquelin” and Gilchrist’s “Rich” Heerden issued similar warnings. Join these authors, along with Tulane and “In the Land of Dreamy Dreams”—and, led by long-time RELIC geographer Richard Campanella, as they explore issues that should con- facilitator Dr. Gary Richards, professor of English at the University of cern every resident of south Louisiana. New Orleans, discuss the modes that the authors use to analyze these Panelists: Richard Campanella, Ivor van Heerden, and Mike Tidwell. ruling classes. Moderator: Norman Robinson For more information, including a full syllabus and contact information Bourbon Orleans Ballroom for Dr. Richards, visit www.tennesseewilliams.net. RELIC, Readings in Sponsored by the Booth-Bricker Fund. Literature and Culture, is the series of humanities programs for public libraries of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. For more informa- 10 A.M. tion about the RELIC programs, visit www.leh.org. ORPHEUS ASCENDING: FIRST BOOKS, NEW VOICES Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant, $20. In their first novels, novellas, and short story collections, these fresh, new writers take on subjects ranging from fallen women and secret words to 9 A.M. racist diatribes and sideshow freaks. FESTIVAL TICKET SALES, BOURBON ORLEANS LOBBY Panelists: Amy Guth, Jennifer Paddock, John Pritchard, and Sidney Continues throughout the day. Thompson. Moderator: Arin Black BOOK FAIR, BOURBON ORLEANS BALLROOM Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant Local independent bookseller, Garden District Book Shop, will offer books 13 Saturday continued... 10 A.M. 12 P.M. TENN 101, OR WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO THE LAST MADAM: A COLORFUL AND DECADENT READ- ASK ABOUT TENNESSEE WILLIAMS BUT NEVER HAD ING WITH GRACE ZABRISKIE A CHANCE TO Acclaimed actress Grace Zabriskie channels Norma Wallace, New Orleans’ Here’s the one you’ve been requesting! This will be an audience-interactive legendary bordello queen, reading from The Last Madam, the hit play by panel that offers the basics on the great playwright’s life and art, from begin- Jim Fitzmorris and Carl Walker, adapted from Christine Wiltz’s best-selling ning to end. Williams scholars will provide an overview of his career, fol- biography by the same title. lowed by a lengthy question-an-answer session. Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret, $25 Panelists: Thomas Adler, Robert Bray,and Margaret Thornton. The Cabildo, Jackson Square 1 P.M. POLITICS AS THEATER/THEATER AS POLITICS 11:30 A.M. Politicians and thespians are frequently on stage, and both aspire for public NEW ORLEANS AS A HOME FOR WRITERS...STILL. approval. This panel explores the common bonds between the public stage In 1987, at the first Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, a and the theatrical stage. Panelists will compare some of the great performances group of writers gathered on a panel to discuss the distinctive elements that by politicians with stage performers who would have done well in electoral life. make New Orleans congenial to their creative spirits. Is it Mardi Gras, the Is theatrical politics artificial or can it serve a public good? This panel will like- weather, the Sazeracs, or the jazz? Join original panelists as they share how wise aspire for public approval with the goal of being fun and lively. the Crescent City continues to inspire and influence their work. Join original Panelists: Jason Berry,John Egerton, Carol Gelderman, Michael Lewis, panelist Ralph Ademo as he revisits the topic with three of the city’s most and Tom Sancton. popular current-day authors. Moderator: Errol Laborde Panelists: Jason Berry,John Biguenet, Christine Wiltz. Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Moderator: Ralph Adamo Bourbon Orleans Ballroom 1 P.M. SOUTHERN LITERATURE THROUGH 11:30 A.M. TRANSCONTINENTAL LENSES WRITERS READ What does Southern literature look like from the other side of the Come hear Festival authors read from their latest works. Join John Egerton, Atlantic? For many readers abroad, Southern literature is American liter- Paula Morris, Amy Guth, Haven Kimmel, and Margaret Sartor as they ature, which is strange enough. But from Walter Scott to Roots, thrill entertain, educate, and stimulate the literary mind with that most pow- Southerners have also relished and embellished their transatlantic ties- erful instrument: the written word. not excepting Tennessee himself. What do such affections—if not affecta- Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant tions—tell us about the Southern experience and its links to Europe and Africa? Applying their own international and well-traveled lenses, this 11:30 A.M. panel of writers and scholars will tell us what they see. BETWEEN THE LINES: Panelists: Gary Richards, Helen Taylor, and TENNESSEE’S NOTEBOOKS Steve Yarbrough. This past summer, Yale University Moderator: Barbara Ewell Press published The Notebooks of Muriel’s Jackson Square Tennessee Williams, long-anticipat- Restaurant ed by Tennessee Williams fans and scholars. Edited by Margaret 1 P.M. Bradham Thornton, with exten- WRITERS READ: SWEET sive scholarly annotations and WORD OF YOUTH illustrated with reproductions Come hear these exciting young from early manuscripts and pho- voices from area creative writing pro- tos, Publisher’s Weekly called it a grams. In this special edition of our “magnificent tome” and a “trea- “Writers Read” series, these students sure trove.” Williams kept jour- will read selections from their lastest nals from 1936 to 1959, and works. Join Gregory Johnson, Kaitlin from 1979 to 1981, and they Ketchum, Laura Miller, Iga Mrozek, provide an uninhibited and Brittany Polk, and Nate Usrey as they rare look at the playwright’s thrill, entertain, educate, and stimulate most private thoughts and the literary mind with that most power- feelings. Writer and indepen- ful instrument: the written word. dent scholar Thornton joins The Cabildo, Jackson Square New Directions editor Underwritten by Michael and Jesse Ledet in Thomas Keith to discuss memory of Sharon Ledet. the history of Williams’ journals, Thornton’s role as 2 P.M. editor for Notebooks, and RANCHO PANCHO (THEATER) some of the surprising dis- Gregg Barrios’ new play, Rancho Pancho, coveries she made about examines the two-year relationship between Williams in the process. Williams and his companion, Pancho The Cabildo, Jackson Rodriguez, the model for Streetcar’s Stanley, Square and concluding when the two meet 30 years

14 later in Jackson Square. Restaurant August. This lively discussion and cooking performance will focus Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 on Besh’s experiences growing up in Southern Louisiana, his worldwide culi- nary travels and training, his post-Katrina experiences as leading one of the first 2:30 P.M. restaurants to reopen, and his passion for using local ingredients in taking A CONVERSATION WITH YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Louisiana cuisine to a new level. This in-depth interview with award-winning authorYusef Komunyakaa, Besh Steakhouse, Harrah’s Casino, 8 Canal Street, $35 conducted by jazz authority and Dillard University professor Dr. Henry Sponsored by Pelican Publishing Company, Besh Steakhouse, and Lacey, will more than likely be punctuated with music. A Pulitzer Prize-win- Restaurant August. ning poet, Komunyakaa has also written librettos and song lyrics, collaborat- ed on a jazz chamber opera and a verse play,and recorded his poetry with 4 P.M. jazz musicians. He’s the author of 12 books of poetry,among them Neon TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ MEMOIRS: WHEN THE Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, which won the Pulitzer. Other honors PLAYWRIGHT HAD HIS SAY include a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the William Faulkner Prize from the When Williams’ Memoirs Université de Rennes, the Hanes Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the was first published in National Endowment for the Arts. Professor and Distinguished Senior Poet 1975, it attracted quite a at New York University,Komunyakaa also served as a Chancellor for the bit of controversy, much Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005. of it because of Williams’ Bourbon Orleans Ballroom openness about his love Sponsored by Xavier University. life and drug use, and also because of the criti- 2:30 P.M. cal decline on the play- NOIR, NEW ORLEANS STYLE: TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE wright’s reputation at the The City of New Orleans has always been magical and beautiful with a time. A reissue of rough, dark side to it; a side only the unlucky ever manage to see. Edgar Memoirs, with an intro- Award-winning author Julie Smith recently turned to editing to produce duction by independent New Orleans Noir, a collection of deliciously dark tales from some of the filmmaker John Waters, city’s top local writers who explore the Crescent City’s shadowy side. “Mr. Williams Saved My Panelists: Ace Atkins, Greg Herren, Kalamu ya Salaam, and Christine Wiltz. Life,” has brought new Moderator: Julie Smith. attention to Williams’ Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant famous autobiography. Sponsored by Akashic Books. Panelists will consider some of the observations 2:30 P.M. made by Waters about John Waters MEENA: FINDING PORTS OF ENTRY BETWEEN Williams as a role model, why some critics were especially harsh toward ARABIC- AND ENGLISH-SPEAKING CULTURES Memoirs even though it was a New York Times bestseller, and what the This panel features contributors to Meena, a bilingual Arabic/English art playwright’s infamous candor tells us about him. In 2007, 32 years after and literary journal based in the port cities of New Orleans and its initial publication, panelists will bring some much-needed perspective Alexandria, Egypt (“meena” means “port” in Arabic). Participants will to this fascinating book and to the ever-growing public understanding of read selections from the magazine and discuss the intersection between the life of Tennessee Williams. these two cultures and languages. The program will also feature music Panelists: Kenneth Holditch, David Kaplan, and John Waters. and artwork from Meena’s first two issues. Moderator: Thomas Keith. Participants: John Biguenet, Rikki Ducornet, Fady Joudah, Laura Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Mullen, and James Nolan. Music by Stuart LeBlanc. Sponsored by the Zemurray Foundation. Moderators: Khaled Hegazzi and Andy Young. The Cabildo, Jackson Square 4 P.M. This program is provided by New Orleans Center for Creative Arts|Riverfront EVERYONE EXPECTS ME TO WRITE ANOTHER “STREET- under the direction of Creative Writing Department chair Andy Young. CAR”: ANOTHER EVENING WITH THE PLAYWRIGHT (THEATER) 3 P.M. Jeremy Lawrence, famed for his popular one-man show, Talking Tennessee, BORN ON THE BAYOU: explores Williams’ life in the darker years when writing continued ... but suc- COOKING LOUISIANA cess did not. GOURMET WITH CHEF Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret, $25 JOHN BESH Join Chef John Besh (2006 Iron Chef 8 P.M. Champion and 2006 Best Chef: MIRRORS OF CHARTRES STREET: FAULKNER IN NEW Southeast, James Beard Foundation) and ORLEANS/NEW ORLEANS IN FAULKNER (THEATER) New Orleans cultural historian Peggy “An atmosphere of richness and soft laughter,” is only one of the many Scott Laborde for a talk about preserv- ways William Faulkner described New Orleans. This one-man show, ing and reinventing the best of starring Ryan Reinike, directed by Perry Martin, and adapted by Rob Louisiana’s culinary resources. Besh will Florence, opens windows not only onto the Vieux Carre, but also onto conduct a cooking demo and provide Faulkner. samples of his “new” New Orleans cui- Le Petit Theatre Mainstage, $25 sine, including signature dishes from his award-winning establishment, John Besh 15 Sunday, April 1, 2007 9 A.M. 11:30 A.M. FESTIVAL TICKET SALES, BOURBON ORLEANS LOBBY WILD AT HEART Continues throughout the day. Since Grace Metalious published Peyton Place in 1956, the imaginative world of American women has never been the same. Metalious’ biographer BOOK FAIR, BOURBON ORLEANS BALLROOM is joined by memoirists and novelists to explore the ways in which women’s Local independent bookseller, Garden District Book Shop, will offer books lives went off the chart in the second half of the 20th Century. for sale by Festival authors, along with special books about Louisiana and all Panelists: Judy Conner, Haven Kimmel, Louise Shaffer, and Emily Toth. things Tennessee. Moderator: Paula Morris. Bourbon Orleans Ballroom CONCESSIONS AND SOUVENIRS, BOURBON ORLEANS BALLROOM 11:30 A.M. Book bags, note cards, T-shirts,and more-exclusive to the Festival. DEMYSTIFYING THE CLASSICS: AN IN-DEPTH LOOK INTO THE SOUND AND THE FURY In William Faulkner’s 1929 masterpiece The Sound and the Fury, the story does not really unfold; rather, the reader must look for it under each word. Literary Panels Join this panel of literary “excavators,” who combine their abilities as writers, and Theater Events editors, and scholars, to help us discover what lies below the surface of this haunting, elusive novel. Entrance to all literary panels is included in the Festival Panel Pass, $60. Panelists: Kenneth Hoditch, Field Maloney,and Noel Polk. Admission fees to other events indicated below. Moderator: Richard Louth. Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant 10 A.M. Sponsored by Eugenie & Joseph Jones Family Foundation. WRITING FROM MEMORY: AN INSIDER’S LOOK AT AUTOBIOGRAPHY 11:30 A.M. Why do people write memoirs? Why do we read them? How do writers CANAL STREET: NEW ORLEANS’ GREAT WIDE WAY elect what to tell us about their lives and what to leave out? What is the role Stretching from the riverfront to the cemeteries, Canal Street has served as a place of humor and humility in autobiography? What makes memoir as enjoy- for meeting, shopping, protesting, and parading since its creation in 1807. The able—or more so—than fiction? Join journalist Calvin Trillin, writer/photog- recently published Canal Street: New Orleans’ Great Wide Way, by WYES-TV rapher Margaret Sartor, and fiction writer Haven Kimmel as they examine producer Peggy Scott Laborde and Historic New Orleans Collection curator the process of recollecting and reporting their personal experiences. John Magill, explores the experiences and events—from the regal to the rou- Panelists: Haven Kimmel, Margaret Sartor, and Calvin Trillin. tine—that have occurred on the city’s main thoroughfare. Join the authors as they Moderator: Rodger Kamenetz. discuss the fascinating history of New Orleans “Main Street.” Bourbon Orleans Ballroom The Cabildo, Jackson Square Sponsored by Fidelity Homestead. 10 A.M. NO SHORT CUTS: STORIES FROM SOURCE TO PRINT— 12 P.M. THE OFTEN-LONG PROCESS OF WRITING SHORT FICTION DRUMMER AND SMOKE: NEW ORLEANS JAZZ IN THE ’50s Three successful, prize-winning short story writers discuss the process of AND ’60s creating short stories, shaping them, and, finally,bringing them to print. New Orleans native Tom Sancton, author of Song For My Fathers: A New Particular attention will be paid to the importance of finding the right narra- Orleans Story in Black and White, recounts his early life among the leg- tive voice for a particular story. endary jazzmen of his hometown. Sancton—a longtime Paris correspondent Panelists: Moira Crone, Tim Geautreaux, and Mark Powell. for Time and author of the best-selling Death of a Princess and the new Moderator: Candace Perry. Armageddon Project—will be interviewed by Tulane University Jazz Archive Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant curator Bruce Raeburn. The conversation will be enhanced with music from the era, provided by the Clive Wilson Jazz Band. 10 A.M. Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: THEATER IN PROCESS Made possible by the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. Narrated by Tennessee Williams, this documentary traces the develop- ment of his play The Red Devil Battery Sign from its opening press con- 12 P.M. ference to its first performances at Boston’s Schubert Theater in June SMALL THINGS, BY CARY PEPPER (THEATER) 1975. The film offers an unusual look behind the scenes at a different The University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theatre and kind of drama—the process of bringing theater to life. What we see and Communication Arts presents the premiere performance of the winner of hear in the film is what makes the play possible. We witness the the 2006 Festival One-Act Play Competition. rehearsals, follow the revisions, and encounter the problems Williams Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret. Free with Festival Pass or $5 at the door. faced in bringing the work to stage. The film reveals the work in Sponsored by the University of New Orleans. progress—the collaborative effort between the writer, director, and actors—that is the creative process of theater. 1 P.M. The Cabildo, Jackson Square WRITING OUTSIDE THE BOX: OUTRAGEOUS FICTION What do a mob boss, a foul-mouthed redneck, and a sideshow freak have in 10 A.M. common? Learn the answer from the three authors on this panel who have STAGED READING OF THE 2007 FESTIVAL ONE-ACT PLAY written fiction that is way,way outside the box. If you’re up for some laughs COMPETITION WINNER (THEATER) and gasps, this is the panel for you. The University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theatre and Panelists: Ace Atkins, John Pritchard, and Sydney Thompson. Communication Arts presents a reading of the winning entry in the Moderator: Amy Guth. 2007 Festival’s national One-Act Play competition. The Creative Bourbon Orleans Ballroom Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans administers and coordinates competition judging. The winning playwright receives a 1 P.M. $1,000 cash prize. WRITERS READ Le Petit TheatreMuriel’s Cabaret. Free with Festival Pass or $5 at the door. Come hear Festival authors read from their latest works. Join Jason Berry, 16 Ernest Hill, Judy Merrill Larsen, Joe Longo, and Alison Peligren as they rape crisis counselor, an award-winning novelist, a poet and NPR commen- thrill, entertain, educate, and stimulate the literary mind with that most pow- tator, and the editor—will provide an insider’s look into a state fractured into erful instrument: the written word. regions more disparate than any other in America. From Tallulah to Muriel’s Jackson Square Restaurant Thibodaux, Bastrop to Barataria, New Iberia to New Orleans, they’ll reflect on what distinguishes their homes from each others and from a homoge- 1 P.M. nized American landscape, while celebrating the mosaic of landscape, THE OUTSIDERS OF NEW ORLEANS: LOUJON PRESS humor, heritage, talk, and traditions of Louisiana—a place so often romanti- This work-in-progress documentary explores the history of the Loujon cized, demonized, adored, pitied, and patronized. Press, a 1960s-era independent publisher that made its name in the French Panelists: Lee Barclay, John Biguenet, Joshua Clark, Andrei Codrescu, Quarter before migrating about the American West and South.Loujon’s cat- and GiO. alog includes fine-press books by Charles Bukowski and Henry Miller, and Moderator: Bethany Bultman. the literary journal, The Outsider. The star of the film is Louise Webb who, Reception to follow. with her late husband, Jon Edgar Webb,took on the monumental task of The Cabildo, the Gallery building this imprint from the ground up and making it one of the leading small publishers of its day.The film includes revealing French Quarter inter- 4 P.M. views with Louise and people who have known her since the 1960s, and ODE TO TENNESSEE commentary from Douglas Brinkley,the noted historian and Tulane Over the last several years, there has been an out- University professor. pouring of interest in the playwright’s poetry—at The Cabildo, Jackson Square least two theatrical evenings have been created using Williams’ poetry,and there is now a paper- 2 P.M. back edition of The Collected Poems of Tennessee IGNATIUS ON STAGE (THEATER) Williams that includes a CD of the author reading. A stage reading of scenes from John Kennedy Toole’s New Orleans classic A If Williams had never written a single play,he Confederacy of Dunces. Scenes edited by W.Kenneth Holditch. Directed by would still be known as a distinguished poet. The Perry Martin. compassion, lyricism, and humor that epitomize Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage, $25 his writing for the theater are also found in his poetry.As a tribute to Williams Sponsored by the Louisiana Lottery Corporation. the poet, actors Jeremy Lawrence and Grace Zabriskie join author Louise Schaffer and professor Kenneth Holditch in reading some of their favorite 2 P.M. Tennessee Williams poems. NEW ORLEANS’ CLASSIC DESSERTS: A DISCUSSION AND Panelists: Jeremy Lawrence, Louise Shaffer, and Grace Zabriskie. TASTING FEATURING CHEF LEAH CHASE OF DOOKY Moderator: Kenneth Holditch. CHASE RESTAURANT Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage Join Chef Leah Chase—a New Orleans classic herself—and cookbook author Kit Wohl as they talk with Times-Picayune food editor Judy Walker 4 P.M. about New Orleans’ sweet tooth and the myriad decadent delicacies invent- STANLEY AND STELLA SHOUT- ed or made famous here. They are joined by featured chefs and dessert fans ING CONTEST PRELIMINARIES including Herbsaint’s Donald Link, Arnaud’s Tommy DiGiovanni, the Ritz- Contestants vie to rival Stanley Carlton’s executive pastry chef Gary O’Hanlon, and restaurant critic and Kowalski’s shout for “STEL- author Tom Fitzmorris.Sample a variety of desserts from Wohl’s new cook- LAAAAA!!!” in the unforgettable scene book, New Orleans Classic Desserts, a treasure trove of 50 signature dishes from A Streetcar Named Desire. Women from famed New Orleans restaurants. Ticket price includes discussion, contestants are welcome to try a little dessert samples, and a complimentary copy of New Orleans Classic Desserts. role reversal and yell for Stanley.Free The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, Library Lounge, 921 Canal Street, $35. and open to the public. Prizes will be Sponsored by The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, and Pelican Publishing Company. awarded. A special thanks goes to Linda Nix for organizing this event. 2 P.M. Jackson Square THE LAST MADAM: COLORFUL AND DECADENT READ- This event is spon- ING WITH GRACE ZABRISKIE sored by Whitney Acclaimed actress Grace Zabriskie channels Norma Wallace, New National Bank. Orlean’s legendary bordello queen, reading from The Last Madam, the hit play by Jim Fitzmorris and Carl Walker, adapted from Christine Wiltz’s 5:30 P.M. best-selling biography by the same title. STANLEY AND STELLA SHOUTING CONTEST FINAL Le Petit Theatre, Muriel’s Cabaret, $25 JUDGING While we’re waiting for the judges to tabulate the winners, enjoy Candace 2:30 P.M. Perry’s A Hurricane Called Katrina, a short, short play which revisits Stanley A CONVERSATION WITH CALVIN TRILLIN and Blanche after the storm. New Yorker columnist, humorist, and roving gourmet Le Petit Theatre, Mainstage Calvin Trillin returns to the Festival to discuss his travels, family,early days as a reporter covering the 5:30 P.M. Civil Rights movement, Louisiana culinary discover- TEA WITH TENNESSEE ies, and more. New Orleans Magazine editor Errol Our 21st annual salute honoring the Laborde conducts the interview. Festival’s presiding spirit. Tea,cake, Bourbon Orleans Ballroom and ice cream, a round of toasting, and a hearty “Happy Birthday to 2:30 P.M. Tennessee”—a proper close to a festive LOUISIANA IN WORDS weekend. Free and open to the public. There are more clichés about Louisiana than there are Le Petit Theatre, Courtyard bayous, but these authors, all from the new anthology, Sponsored by Haagen-Dazs New Louisiana In Words —a Bourbon Street stripper, a Orleans and the Gumbo Shop. 17 The New Orleans Literary Institute K.A.R.E.S. Katrina Arts Relief and Emergency Support

Who K.A.R.E.S.? We do!

The New Orleans Literary Institute is the umbrella organization that’s responsible for producing (among others) the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, the New Orleans Writers in Schools program, and the Jefferson Parish Library Series, in which writers read from and discuss their work before suburban New Orleans audiences. The institute’s newest program, created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is called K.A.R.E.S.—or Katrina Arts Relief Emergency Support. At first, K.A.R.E.S. provided emer- gency financial support to writers most affected by the hurricane and its devastat- ing aftermath. Today, although the fund no longer provides such emergency support, it continues to assist writers affected by the storm both via grants and exposure— i.e., showcasing New Orleans authors and literature, thus promoting the area’s strug- gling literary community as well as con- tributing to the education of our city’s next generation of writers. K.A.R.E.S. is funded through several sources. For example, every copy sold of French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America’s Oldest Bohemia (Light of New Orleans Publishing; $16.95 paperback) generates a $2 donation to K.A.R.E.S. (For more information about buying the book, visit www.frenchquar- terfiction.com, or send a check for $16.95 made out to K.A.R.E.S./TWNOLF to Light of New Orleans Publishing, 828 Royal St./Box 307, New Orleans, LA 70116.) Other individual and corporate friends, such as writer Julie Smith and Akashic Books, lend support to the fund. But more needs to be done! If you are someone who really K.A.R.E.S., please consider making a donation your- self through the donation page of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Web site (www.tennesseewil- liams.net), or by sending a generous check made out to TWNOLF (please note that the money is for K.A.R.E.S.) to Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, 938 Lafayette St./Suite 514, New Orleans, LA 70113. Please note that all K.A.R.E.S. funds directly support the people and programs that make up the New Orleans literary community. By donating to K.A.R.E.S., you can, too. Participants Ralph Adamo’s munity education and training, legal The Tennessee Endowment for the Humanities’ sixth book of advocacy,and crisis intervention Williams 2006 Book of the Year Award, and poetry,the new counseling in New Orleans and Scholars’ Time and Place in New Orleans, the and selected vol- southeast Louisiana. She is currently Conference. He 2002 New Orleans—Gulf South ume editing the New Orleans Hope and is also the Book of the Year. A former Peace Waterblind,was Heritage anthology,a collection of author of Corps Volunteer and wilderness published in essays devoted to preserving New dozens of arti- ranger, Campanella worked previ- 2002; he was Orleans culture. Barclay lives and cles and entries ously as a senior scientist at NASA awarded an writes in the Faubourg St. John. on Williams, as Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, NEA fellowship in creative writing well as the new volume released this and now lives with his wife, Marina, the following year. In addition to a Jason Berry’s month by Cambridge Scholars in the Upper Ninth Ward. parallel career as a journalist, he has latest work is Publishing, Tennessee Williams and taught creative writing at the Last of the Red His Contemporaries. Leah Chase has University of New Orleans, Tulane, Hot Poppas,a been cooking in LSU and Loyola (where he edited political comedy Douglas New Orleans New Orleans Review in the ’90s) about Brinkley cur- since 1946 at and in New Orleans public schools. Louisiana. He rently serves as Dooky Chase’s He is currently working on a book has published director of the Restaurant. She about public education in the city. landmark inves- Theodore has received the tigations of the Catholic clergy Roosevelt Center Candace Thomas P. abuse crisis, Lead Us Not Into and professor of Award, the Adler is a pro- Temptation and Vows of Silence, the history at Tulane Freedom Foundation Award, the fessor of English subject of a new documentary. His University.He is NAACP Human Understanding at Purdue play Earl Long in Purgatory won a the author of biographies of James and A.P.Tureaud awards, the Times University, Big Easy award. He received a Forrestal, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Picayune Loving Cup, and the where he has Guggenheim fellowship for a work and Henry Ford, among others. His Weiss Award from the National taught modern in progress on jazz funerals. recent book, the best-selling The Conference of Christians and Jews. drama and film Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, for almost 40 John Besh was New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Joshua Clark, years. His numerous publications named “Best Coast,was selected as a 2006 New founder of Light on Williams include a monograph, Chef: York Times Notable Book of the Year. of New Orleans “ A Streetcar Named Desire: The Southeast” by Publishing, edit- Moth and the Lantern”; two chap- the James Beard Bethany Ewald ed French ters in his book American Drama, Foundation in Bultman has Quarter Fiction 1940-1960: A Critical History; and May 2006, and spent her career and other an essay in The Cambridge in February as an ethno-his- books, most Companion to Williams. 2006, he won torian eagerly recently the Iron Chef America champi- peaking through Louisiana In Words, and his writing Allain C. onship against Mario Batali. He the lace curtain at appears in many newspapers and Andry,III is a owns Restaurant August and Besh the extraordinary magazines. Simon & Schuster will native New Steakhouse in New Orleans, and aspects that publish his memoir of surviving Orleanian, a recently purchased La Provence in define the pun- Katrina and life in its disaster zone, practicing attor- Lacombe, La. gent cultural gumbo of Louisiana. In Heart Like Water, in Fall of 2007. ney, and a addition to articles on cuisine and Savings and John Biguenet music that have appeared in publica- Andrei Loan executive. is the author of tions, such as Town & Country, Codrescu is a He and his wife, The Torturer’s House & Garden, and the London poet, novelist, Judy,are residents of the French Apprentice: Times, she is the author of The and essayist. He Quarter, where their three children Stories and Reflections of the South,Redneck is the and nine grandchildren enjoy visit- Oyster, a novel, Heaven,The Compass Guide to New MacCurdy ing. Their family summer home in as well as the Orleans, and The Compass Guide to Distinguished Pass Christian, Miss., which was plays The Vulgar the Gulf South.The Jazz Journalists of Professor of the source of Louie the Buoy,was Soul and Rising America recently presented Bultman English at totally destroyed during Katrina, Water, winner of the National New with its Lifetime Achievement Award Louisiana State University and a and “Louie” is missing again. Plays Network Commission Award for her work with the New Orleans regular commentator on National for 2006. An O. Henry Award-win- Musicians’ Clinic, the first compre- Public Radio. He also writes a Ace Atkins ner and New York Times guest hensive health-care service in the U.S. weekly column for the Gambit. His earned a Pulitzer columnist, he is the Robert Hunter for musicians. latest book is New Orleans, Mon Prize nomination Distinguished Professor at Loyola Amour: Twenty Years of Writing for his work cov- University in New Orleans. Richard from the City. ering crime for Campanella is a The Tampa Arin Black is a geographer who Judy Conner,a Tribune. He’s the writer living in researches and Southern author of five grit- New Orleans. maps the histori- humorist, pro- ty,Southern noir Her work has cal geography of duced the hilari- novels, including his latest, White appeared in the New Orleans ous 2004 mem- Shadow. His short story,“Angola The Album, region, and oir Southern South,” is featured in the newly Ellipsis, Siren, serves as associ- Fried Divorce. released collection, New Orleans Noir. TeenPeople ate director of the Center for Still in progress, He lives and works in Oxford, Miss. Magazine, Bioenvironmental Research at due to Katrina- and various newspapers. Tulane University.He has produced brain delay,is its follow-up, Southern Lee Barclay has been recognized by three critically acclaimed books, Fried Secrets. She and the Brown the Louisiana Foundation Against Robert Bray is the founding editor including Geographies of New Dog live in Uptown New Orleans, Sexual Assault for her work toward of The Tennessee Williams Annual Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the where they’ve been fielding frequent ending sexual violence through com- Review and the founding director of Storm, winner of the Louisiana inquiries regarding movie rights. 19 Participants Moira Crone Writers; Southern Local Color: the American Library Association, Ernest Hill is a has published Stories of Region, Race and Gender; the Writers Guild of America, and critically the story collec- and Voices of the American South: the Christopher Isherwood acclaimed writer tion Dream An Anthology of Southern Foundation. Director David who holds State, and the Literature. Lynch’s film Wild at Heart, based degrees from the novel A Period of on Gifford’s novel, won the Palme University of Confinement. Richard Ford is d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in California at Her latest work the Pulitzer 1990, and Gifford’s novel Perdita Berkeley,Cornell is What Gets Into Prize-winning Durango was made into a feature University,and Us, a novel-of-stories set in the author of The film by Spanish director Alex de la UCLA. He is the author of five nov- Carolinas. The winner of fellow- Sportswriter, a Iglesia in 1997. He cowrote, with els, Satisfied With Nothin’, A Life for ships from the NEA, the Bunting former Lynch, the film Lost Highway and, a Life,Cry Me a River, and It’s All Institute at Harvard, and the Guggenheim fel- with director Matt Dillon, City of About the Moon When the Sun Ain’t ATLAS program, Crone’s fiction low,the winner Ghosts. Other works include The Shining. His fifth novel, A Person of has been selected for the annual of a PEN/ Phantom Father, named a New Interest, was released in Fall 2006. prize anthology New Stories from Faulkner award for fiction, the recipi- York Times Notable Book of the The South five different times. The ent of two NEA grants, and an Year; and Wyoming, named a Los Kenneth New Yorker and Mademoiselle have American Academy of Arts and Angeles Times Novel of the Year, Holditch is a published her work, along with Letters Award winner. Ford grew up and which has been adapted for the professor emeri- many other journals. In 2004, she in Jackson, Miss., across the street stage and film. tus at the won the Faulkner Wisdom Prize for from Eudora Welty; he served as University of Novella; in 1993, for short story.She pallbearer at her funeral. His other GiO spent 17 New Orleans. lives in New Orleans. works include the short story collec- years, mostly An expert on tions, Women with Men and Rock naked, on both the city of Allison Dickens Springs, and the novels A Piece of My Bourbon Street, New Orleans is senior editor Heart, Independence Day,Wildlife, where she con- and Tennessee Williams and his with Plume and and The Ultimate Good Luck. He tinues to be plays, he is the coeditor of Tennessee Dutton, divi- now resides in New Orleans. known as “The Williams: Plays, 1957-1980; sions of Penguin. Burlesque Tennessee Williams: Plays, 1937- Formerly an edi- Tim Queen of New 1955; and Tennessee Williams and tor at Ballantine Gautreaux’s Orleans.” She was kicked off the the South; as well as three books and Random fourth book, a radio twice, following threats by the about New Orleans: In Old New House, she novel titled, The Christian Coalition to picket adver- Orleans, The Grandissimes, and acquires mostly women’s fiction Clearing, is set tisers of The Passion Show in 1996 Galatoire’s: Biography of a Bistro. with some memoir and narrative in 1920s and Bedroom Politics in 2003. GiO, Holditch was a recipient of the nonfiction. Louisiana. His the 1995 Queen of Krewe du Louisiana Endowment of the fiction has Vieux, has a Bachelor of Industrial Humanities Lifetime Achievement John Egerton’s appeared in Design from Pratt Institute of Award in 2001. life work has been Atlantic, Harpers, GQ, Zoetrope, Technology in New York and a following the Best American Short Stories, New Masters of Education from the Gregory social and cultur- Stories from the South, O. Henry University of New Orleans. Johnson is a al, political and Prize Stories, and various universi- graduate student economic trends ty textbooks. Amy Guth at Southeastern that forever have writes a monthly Louisiana made the Carol socio-feminist University and American South Gelderman is column and is has studied with the unique place that it is, for better the author of 75 currently tour- the New York and worse. Until the publication of Ali articles and nine ing to pimp her State Writers Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves, all his books, including new novel, Institute at Skidmore College. His published writing, including more One, All the Three Fallen work has been published in than 15 books, had been classified as Presidents’ Women, while Louisiana Literature,Outsider Ink, nonfiction. He calls his new book “a Words, The Bully finishing up her second. Her work Beginnings Magazine,BIGnews, and fable... a parable... a cautionary tale” Pulpit, and the has appeared in The Believer, Microcosm. He was selected as a in the genre of “political science-fic- Creation of the Virtual Presidency. Monkeybicycle, Hungry Chicago, finalist for Glimmer Train’s Short tion,” and he claims that he “did not Her writing has led to an unusual Four Magazine, The Complete Story Award for New Writers. so much author it as synthesize it variety of lecture venues, from the Meal,and PerformInk Magazine, from hundreds of sources, compile it, White House to the Smithsonian, among others. She has collaborated Rodger and become by default the one to pre- from the Heritage Foundation to on a few shows within Second Kamenetz is the sent it to the reading public.” Williams College, from the City’s Training Center, and is a con- author of nine American Enterprise Institute to the tributing editor of an upcoming books of poetry Barbara C. Democratic Leadership Council. online literary magazine. and nonfiction. Ewell is the The Jew in the Dorothy H. Barry Gifford is Greg Herren is Lotus is an inter- Brown Professor a screenwriter, the author of five national best- of English at playwright, nov- critically seller. Harper Loyola elist, poet, and acclaimed mys- Collins will issue a new anniversary University New essayist. His teries set in New edition this fall, along with Orleans. Her book Night Orleans. He also Kamenetz’s latest book, The History publications People was works as the of Last Night’s Dream. have covered topics from awarded the senior editor of Renaissance poetry to feminist ped- Premio Brancati the Harrington David Kaplan directs plays in agogy and Kate Chopin. She’s also in Italy,and he has been the recipi- Park Press. A longtime resident of Europe, Asia, and the United co-edited several anthologies, ent of awards from PEN, the New Orleans, he has no plans to States. His Tennessee Williams including Louisiana Women National Endowment for the Arts, relocate. Ever. directing credits include staging 20 Participants The 12 books of boards and been chairman of the Michael Ledet Eccentricities of poetry,among Tennessee Williams/New Orleans is a native New a Nightingale in them Neon Literary Festival and Le Petit Theatre. Orleanian, Hong Kong; Vernacular: New artist, book Suddenly Last and Selected Peggy Scott designer, and Summer in Poems, which Laborde has partner with Samara, Russia; won the Pulitzer produced over Richard Stewart Frosted Glass Prize. His 15 New Orleans in 2 Martini Coffins in Thieves of history docu- Press. Recently Birmingham, Ala.; Talk to Me Like Paradise and Talking Dirty to the mentaries for he edited and produced Capturing the Rain in New York City; and Gods were finalists for the National public television Oak Alley, designed Charting The Chalky White Substance for this Book Critics Circle Award. Other station WYES. Louisiana for The Historic New year’s New Orleans Tennessee honors include a Ruth Lilly Poetry She was presi- Orleans Collection, and currently Williams Festival. He is author of Prize, the William Faulkner Prize dent of the Tennessee Williams/ is designing Destrehan Plantation the book Tennessee Williams in from the Université de Rennes, the New Orleans Literary Festival for and Louisiana Colonial Furniture. Provincetown, and serves as curator Hanes Poetry Prize, and fellowships 11 years and is co-author of the He also designed Louie the Buoy for the Provincetown Tennessee from the National Endowment for recently published Canal Street: by Allain Andry and the Gumbo Williams Theater Festival. the Arts. He is Professor and New Orleans’ Great Wide Way from Shop Cookbook by Richard Stewart. Distinguished Senior Poet at New Pelican Publishing. In September 2006, 2 Martini Thomas Keith York University,and served as a Press released Joe Simmmer’s is an editor at Chancellor for the Academy of Henry C. Creole Slow Cookin’, the first cook- New Directions American Poets from 1999 to 2005. Lacey, a mem- book to adapt Creole cooking to Publishing in His most recent book is Gilgamesh, ber of the board the crock pot. In Fall of 2007, 2 New York, a verse play,published by Wesleyan of the Tennessee Martini Press will release Joe where he has University Press in November 2006. Williams/New Simmer’s Healthy Slow Cookin’. edited books by Orleans Literary Dylan Thomas, Mari Festival, has Michael Lewis is John Gardner, Kornhauser,an moderated the author of sev- and Jimmy Santiago Baca, among independent film- numerous panels eral bestsellers, others, as well as plays, poems, and maker, lives in over the years. Retired Presidential including prose writing by Tennessee New Orleans and Professor of English and former Vice Moneyball, a No. Williams, most recently the reissue teaches screen- President for Academic Affairs at 1 hardcover and of Memoirs. Keith has written and writing at Dillard University,he is author of To paperback lectured on the work of the Scottish Louisiana State Raise, Destroy, and Create: The national best- poet Robert Burns, and will partici- University.A Poetry, Drama, and Fiction of seller; The New pate in the Saints & Sinners UCLA Film School graduate, she has Imamu Amiri Baraka (Whitston New Thing,which focused on Jim Alternative Literary Festival in New written for various studios and pro- Press) and numerous scholarly arti- Clark, a new capitalist adventurer in Orleans this May. ducers as well as written and copro- cles. He is also jazz historian of the Silicon Valley; and Liar’s Poker, based duced two independent features, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage in part on his own experience work- Kaitlin Zandalee, starring Nicolas Cage, and Festival Foundation Board. ing as an investment banker for Ketchum is a The Last Ride,starring Mickey Salomon Brothers. Lewis is currently young writer Rourke. In 2000, she made her direc- Judy Merrill a contributing writer to The New York from San torial debut with the independent fea- Larsen taught Times Magazine, and his articles have Francisco and a ture Housebound,starring Peter high school also appeared in The New Yorker, junior at Loyola Sarsgaard, which she also wrote. English in Gourmet,Sports Illustrated,Foreign University New Currently,she is in development for Wisconsin and Affairs, and Poetry Magazine. Lewis Orleans. her next film, Lovers, to be shot in Missouri for 15 has served as editor and columnist for New Orleans, and is also shooting her years. Her debut the British weekly The Spectator and Haven Kimmel first nonfiction piece, Finding Home novel, All the as senior editor and campaign corre- wrote the No. 1 Again, focusing on post-Katrina life Numbers, was spondent for The New Republic.He New York Times and reconstruction in New Orleans. published in 2006, and she is current- has filmed and narrated short pieces bestseller A Girl ly at work on her second novel. She for ABC’s Nightline as well as a docu- Named Zippy,a Errol Laborde is currently lives in Kirkwood, Mo., with mentary for the BBC. He grew up in memoir about the editor-in-chief her husband and their five children. New Orleans, and currently lives in her childhood in of Renaissance Berkeley with his wife, Tabitha Soren, Mooreland, Ind. Publishing Jeremy and their three children. She Got Up off Company.In that Lawrence is a the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts capacity he serves playwright and Joe Longo is the from Mooreland, Indiana picks up as editor/associ- an actor. His cofounder and the family saga where Zippy leaves ate publisher of plays have been senior editor of off. With quirky humor, deft story- New Orleans performed in NOLA telling, and unexpected poignancy, Magazine and editor/publisher of regional theatres Fugees.com,an Kimmel’s family portraits have gar- Louisiana Life Magazine.The winner in the U.S., Internet maga- nered rave reviews and invited com- of more than 20 New Orleans Press Great Britain, zine that began parisons to David Sedaris. She is Club awards, Laborde is a three-time and Sweden. His adaptations of the in the aftermath the author of two works of fiction, winner of the Alex Waller Award, the cabaret songs of Weimar Berlin of Hurricane Something Rising (Light and Swift), highest given in print journalism by have been recorded by Ute Lemper Katrina. An anthology of writing and the best-selling The Solace of the Press Club. His most recent and other artists. As an actor he has from the magazine, Year Zero: One Leaving Early. Kimmel studied books are Krewe: The Early Carnival worked in theatre, television, and Year of Reporting from Post-Katrina English and creative writing at Ball from Comus to Zulu and Marched the film. His one-man show, Talking New Orleans, has been published by State University,and currently lives Day God,a history of the Rex organi- Tennessee, has toured about the Lavender Ink Press. in Durham, North Carolina. zation. Laborde holds a Ph.D. in country,as has his one-man Political Science from the University Einstein show, Albert in Richard Louth,a professor of Yusef Komunyakaa is the author of of New Orleans. He has served on the Wonderland. English at Southeastern Louisiana 21 Participants University,teach- Radio. He is also author of the Beauty, Hibiscus The Sun, es courses on Encyclopedia of American Food and Coast, and the Volume II; A William Faulkner Drink and the Dictionary of Italian forthcoming Sense of Place, and Southern lit- Food and Drink, as well as America Trendy But Volumes I and erature, and is Eats Out, an illustrated history of Casual. Hibiscus II; and Cape director of the food service in the U.S. Coast, a literary Cod Women. Southeastern thriller set in She is also a Louisiana Bev Marshall is Auckland and playwright Writing Project. the author of Shanghai, has whose work has He has published nonfiction in Walking Through been optioned for film and long-list- been performed throughout the Louisiana in Words, fiction and poet- Shadows,Right ed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary country.Her short play, A ry in Louisiana Literature, and edit- As Rain, and Hot Award. She teaches creative writing Hurricane Named Katrina,was ed Katrina: In Their Own Words,an Fudge Sundae at Tulane University. first produced for the Provincetown anthology of student and teacher Blues. She serves Tennessee Williams Theater writings on the hurricane, distributed on the board of Iga Mrozek is a Festival in 2006. by the National Writing Project. directors for the senior at Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Benjamin Diana Pinckley John Magill is a Literary Festival and is the writer-in- Franklin High writes a regular curator at The residence at Southeastern Louisiana School in New mystery book Historic New University.She lives with her hus- Orleans and a review column Orleans band in Ponchatoula, La. Level III creative for the Times- Collection, writing student Picayune. She where he is also Sharyn at NOCCA| also serves on head of research McCrumb is a Riverfront. Her creative work has the boards of services at the New York Times been published in Umbra,Riverbend several organiza- Collection’s best-selling nov- Review, and Cargoes literary maga- tions covering women’s issues, chil- Williams Research Center.He was elist who hails zines. Mrozek is the head editor of dren’s issues, and community devel- brought up in California and attend- from the moun- Umbra this year, and hopes to pur- opment. She is the co-author of New ed the University of New Orleans, tain South, a sue a career in writing. Orleans: River Region Renaissance. where he received a Master’s Degree region whose in history.His field of study has been legends and Jennifer Brittany Polk is a student at Edna the urban growth of New Orleans, songs inspire her writing and where Paddock is the Karr High School and and he has written and lectured many of her fictional works are set. author of two NOCCA|Riverfront in New extensively on the subject. His arti- Her novels include St. Dale, Ghost novels, A Secret Orleans. She is a Level III creative cles have appeared in publications Riders, If I’d Killed Him When I Word and Point writing student, a spoken-word such as New Orleans Magazine, Met Him, The Hangman’s Clear. She lives artist, and competes with the New Gambit,Preservation in Print, Beautiful Daughter, The in Point Clear, Orleans junior slam team in nation- Cultural Vistas,and The Historic Songcatcher, and She Walks These Ala., with her al competitions. She has been writ- New Orleans Collection Quarterly. Hills. A New York Times and Los husband, ing creatively at NOCCA going on He has contributed to several books, Angeles Times Notable Book of the writer Sidney Thompson. four years. including Charting Louisiana: 500 Year honoree, and acclaimed author Years of Maps,Classic New Orleans, of the Elizabeth MacPherson novel Alison Pelegrin Noel Polk is Marie Adrien Persac: Louisiana series and the Ballad novel series, earned an MFA professor of Artist, and, with Peggy Scott McCrumb has also received numer- in Poetry from English at Laborde, has most recently written ous honors for her outstanding con- the University of Mississippi Canal Street: The Great Wide Way. tributions to Appalachian literature. Arkansas in State University Fayetteville, and editor of Field Maloney Laura Miller where, for two The Mississippi has worked in grew up in years, she served Quarterly.He the fiction Jackson, Miss., at as director of the has published department of the foot of Arkansas Writers in the Schools and lectured widely on William the New Yorker English teachers, Program. Pelegrin’s second collec- Faulkner, Eudora Welty,and other for the past six which she credits tion, Big Muddy River of Stars, won American authors. He has just fin- years, editing for her interest in the Akron poetry prize, and is forth- ished editing Faulkner’s novels for such writers as writing. Some coming from the University of the Library of America, and recent- Umberto Eco, times using the Akron Press in Fall 2007. She is also ly edited a new edition, from the David Gates, Lara Vapnyar, Cate pen name “Laura Lane,”her poetry the author of The Zydeco Tablets and typescript, of Robert Penn Warren’s Kennedy,George Saunders, Rebecca has appeared in Magazine and Voix three prize-winning chapbooks, the All The King’s Men. Recent books Curtis, and Curtis Sittenfeld. Since du Vieux, and a song she wrote and most recent of which is Squeezers. include Eudora Welty: A 2000, Maloney has written reported sang was used in the film No Witness. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Bibliography of Her Work; Children pieces and essays for The New York She has contributed articles to the Ploughshares, and The Southern of the Dark House: Text and Context Times “City” section, the “Talk of University of Southern Mississippi’s Review, and she is the recipient of in Faulkner; and Outside the the Town” section of the New Yorker, Student Printz and Offbeat Magazine. fellowships from the Louisiana Southern Myth. and Slate as well as reviews for the Currently earning an MFA in Poetry Division of the Arts and the New York Times Book Review. from the University of New Orleans, National Endowment of the Arts. Mark Powell is she works as a graduate assistant to Currently, she serves as a member of the author of the John Mariani is the Tennessee Williams Festival and the English Department at novels Blood a food and travel as a bartender on Frenchmen Street, Southeastern Louisiana University. Kin and columnist for where the supply of outrageous mate- Prodigals.He Esquire rial never runs low. Candace Perry’s short stories have has received fel- Magazine and appeared in Ms. Magazine, The lowships from wine columnist Paula Morris is the author of three Sun, The Roanoke Review, and The the National for Bloomberg novels, all published by Penguin in Cape Cod Review. Her work has Endowment for News and her native New Zealand: Queen of been anthologized in The Best of the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers’ 22 Participants Conference. Born and raised in in Innsbruck, Austria. A native of representation agency based in for Documentary Studies at Duke South Carolina, he now lives in Texas, he resides in New Orleans. Bronxville, N.Y.Among her fiction University,and is the editor of three New Haven, Conn., where he is a clients are authors Pat Conroy,Ron books, most recently What Was student at Yale Divinity School. Curtis Rash, Arthur Phillips, Debra Dean, True: The Photographs and Robinson, a Judy Merrill Larsen, Cassandra King, Notebooks of William Gedney. John Hayes Washington Thirty Umrigar, and Lisa Tucker. Pritchard, Jr. is D.C.-based jour- Her nonfiction list includes works by Louise Shaffer the author of nalist, has spent the NBC Today Show’s psychiatrist graduated from Junior Ray, his the last two years Dr. Gail Saltz, history by Alice the Yale School first book. Three producing a Kaplan, and memoirs by Patricia of Drama, songs he cowrote documentary Hampl and Kris Ohlson. appeared on and were recorded by film exploring off Broadway, major artists, and the legendary Loujon Press, which Tom Sancton and won an his poetry has was born in New Orleans and pub- was raised in Emmy for her been published in minor journals. lished the likes of Charles Bukowski New Orleans work in the Born in the Mississippi Delta, and Henry Miller. Working with and educated in soaps. Then, having passed the age Pritchard currently lives in Memphis, Colorado-based Wayne Ewing local public of 40, she was told she was too old to where he has taught English for most Films, Robinson is tracing the links schools. He act and turned to her first love: writ- of the last 32 years. from the French Quarter to the rest graduated from ing. She is now the proud author of of the Beat world. He is a partner at Harvard College The Three Miss Margarets and The Bruce Boyd Qorvis Communications, the largest in 1971 and Ladies of Garrison Gardens. Her Raeburn, cura- independent political affairs firm in attended Oxford University as a new book, Family Acts, will be pub- tor of the Hogan Washington. Rhodes Scholar. He worked at Time lished next autumn. She lives with Jazz Archive at Magazine for 22 years, most recently her husband and many spoiled pets Tulane Norman as Paris Bureau Chief. Sancton co- in the Hudson River Valley,and con- University,is a Robinson has authored the 1998 international best- siders herself a poster child for the specialist on the lived in the seller Death of a Princess: The phrase “Life Begins at 60.” history of New Crescent City for Investigation, which examined the Orleans jazz and 28 years and has circumstances surrounding Princess Julie Smith is jazz historiography.He is a contribu- spent the last 16 Diana’s death. His acclaimed mem- the author of two tor to The Oxford Companion to Jazz in the WDSU oir, Song for My Fathers: A New mystery series, and other publications, wrote the News Channel 6 Orleans Story in Black and White, both set in New liner notes booklet for the Mosaic newsroom. recounts his early life among the leg- Orleans, where boxed set “The Atlantic New Robinson is the main anchor for the endary jazzmen of his hometown. she lives. A for- Orleans Jazz Sessions,” and has 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts and “6 On His latest book, The Armageddon mer reporter for served as an historical consultant Your Side LIVE” for WDSU-TV, Project,is a political thriller set against the New Orleans with on-camera interviews for various the NBC network affiliate in New the backdrop of the war in Iraq. Times-Picayune media projects, including Ken Burns’ Orleans. Robinson has been a and the San Francisco Chronicle, she Jazz and Don McGlyn’s Louis Prima broadcast journalist for 30 years, and Michael won the 1991 Edgar Allan Poe — The Wildest.”Raeburn has also was a member of the White House Sartisky has Award for Best Novel. worked as a drummer in New Press Corps as a correspondent for been president Orleans for the past 37 years, per- CBS News. and executive Richard forming and recording with artists director of the Stewart is the such as James Booker, Earl King, Chris Rose is a Louisiana president and Clark Vreeland, the Pfister Sisters, columnist for the Endowment for coowner of the and Shot Down in Ecuador, Jr. Times-Picayune, the Humanities Gumbo Shop. an essayist for for the past 27 His Gumbo Ron Rash is the The NewsHour years. During this period the LEH Shop: A New author of three with Jim Lehrer, has awarded more than 2,000 grants Orleans novels, three and a commen- and projects totaling in excess of $37 Restaurant story collec- tator for National million. Sartisky is a trustee for Sarah Cookbook has sold over 45,000 tions, and three Public Radio’s Lawrence College, and serves on the copies. He’s taught cooking classes books of poetry. “Morning Edition.” He was a finalist Rhodes Scholarship Selection at Tulane and the University of New His awards for the Pulitzer Prize for Distin- Committee for Louisiana. The Orleans, and has been in the restau- include Fiction guished Commentary in 2006, and founding editor of Louisiana rant and catering business for 25 Book of the Year won a Pulitzer for his contributions Cultural Vistas magazine, he has years. A native of New Orleans, he from the Southern Book Critics to the Times-Picayune’s Public won the Ashton Phelps Memorial has two children. Circle and the James Still Award Service Award. He is the author of 1 Award for Editorial Writing three from the Fellowship of Southern Dead in Attic, a collection of stories times as well as six first and second Michael Writers. He teaches at Western recounting the first four harrowing place awards for editorial writing Swindle is the Carolina University. months of life in New Orleans after from the New Orleans Press Club. author of Katrina. He lives in New Orleans-on Mulletheads and Gary Richards high ground — with his wife, Kelly Margaret Slouching is the author of and their three children. Sartor,a writer Towards Lovers and and photograph- Birmingham. Beloveds: Sexual Marly Rusoff,a er,is the author His current Otherness in former publish- of Miss work-in- Southern ing executive at American Pie: A progress is Bombs Bursting in Air: Fiction, 1936- Houghton Diary of Love, Some Thoughts on the Passing of Dr. 1961. An associ- Mifflin, Secrets, and Hunter S. Thompson, The ate professor at Doubleday and Growing up in Heartland, Hurricane Katrina, the University of New Orleans, he William Morrow, the 1970s. Her photographs have and Snorting the Last Line of the teaches English, African studies, and is currently presi- been widely published and exhibited American Dream. women’s studies. Richards also rou- dent of Marly and are in many museum and private tinely teaches in a summer program Rusoff & Associates, Inc., an author collections. She teaches at the Center Helen Taylor is Professor of 23 Participants English, Emily Toth action, but says his warnings went received national acclaim. Her lat- University of holds a Ph.D. unheeded. est cookbook, New Orleans Exeter, UK. She from Johns Classic Desserts, is the first in a is the author of Hopkins John Waters, series about New Orleans classic Gender, Race, University and is renowned film- cuisine. and Region in professor of maker, artist, the Writings of English and and author, is Steve Grace King, Women’s best known for Yarbrough Ruth McEnery Studies at his distinctive wrote the short Stuart, and Kate Chopin; Scarlett’s Louisiana State University.A 1990 filmmaking style story collec- Women: Gone With the Wind and Pulitzer Prize nominee and National celebrating the tions Veneer Its Female Fans; and Circling Dixie: Endowment for the Humanities absurd and and Mississippi Contemporary Southern Culture award recipient, Toth is an expert always challenging conventional History, and Through a Transatlantic Lens; as on the life and works of Kate notions of people, lifestyle, and the the novels The well as coeditor of Dixie Debates: Chopin and the author of several world. His films include Pink Oxygen Man, Perspectives on Southern Cultures books on the subject. She also wrote Flamingos, Female Trouble, Polyester Visible Spirits, Prisoners of War, and editor of the forthcoming The The Curse: A Cultural History of (in Odorama), Cry Baby, Serial and The End of California. Daphne du Maurier Companion. Menstruation, Ms. Mentor’s Mom, Cecil B. Demented, and A Yarbrough received an NEA fel- She is currently writing a book Impeccable Advice for Women in Dirty Shame. In 2002 his film lowship for fiction writing and about transatlantic representations Academia, and Regionalism and the Hairspray was made into a hit won a Pushcart Prize for nonfic- of New Orleans’ notorious prostitu- Female Imagination, plus hundreds Broadway musical. Waters has tion. Raised in Indianola, deep in tion district, Storyville. of articles on popular fiction, acade- authored his own memoir, Shock the heart of the Mississippi Delta, mic women, Chopin, and more. Value, and wrote the introduction to he has called his home state “the Sidney Tennessee Williams’ recently reis- best place in the world for a writer Thompson is Calvin Trillin sued Memoirs. to grow up...a place where books the author of is a staff writer still matter.” Sideshow, a col- for the New Charles Reagan lection of sto- Yorker, and the Wilson is the Kalamu ya ries. He lives in author of 25 director of the Salaam is a Point Clear, books. He has Center for the New Orleans- Ala., with his often written Study of based editor, wife, writer about New Southern writer, film- Jennifer Paddock. Orleans. His Culture and pro- maker, and latest book is About Alice. fessor of teacher, and Margaret Southern founder of the Bradham Nathaniel Usrey Studies and History at the University Neo-Griot Thornton is the is 22 years old of Mississippi. He is the editor in Workshop, an African-American editor of and originally chief of the New Encyclopedia of writers group focusing on text, Tennessee from northern Southern Culture,author/editor of recordings, and videos. He is also Williams’ Illinois. He’s a six other books, and the editor of the director of Listen to the People, a Notebooks, pub- senior at Tulane New Directions in Southern Studies New Orleans oral history project; lished by Yale studying series with the University of North moderator of e-Drum, a listserv University Press. English, political Carolina Press. for black writers; and comodera- Her work has appeared in The Paris science, and phi- tor, with his son Mtume, of Breath Review, The Seattle Review, The losophy,and upon graduation plans Chris Wiltz is of Life, a black music website. Times Literary Supplement, and to teach English in China. the author of Salaam is also the digital video World Literature Today. The Last instructor and the codirector of Ivor van Madam: A Life Students at the Center, a writing- Mike Tidwell is Heerden has in the New based program in the New an environmen- been described Orleans Orleans public school system. tal and travel by the PBS sci- Underworld, a writer. Tidwell ence program biography of Grace predicted in Nova as “the New Orleans Zabriskie born vivid detail the man who madam Norma Wallace. Madam, andraised in Katrina hurri- knew,” due to her first work of nonfiction, was New Orleans. cane disaster in his accurate named Book of the Year by New Her father, his critically predictions on the devastation a Orleans/Gulf South Booksellers Tom Caplinger acclaimed 2003 book Bayou hurricane would wreak upon New Association, and has recently started and ran Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Orleans. As deputy director of the been adapted for the stage. Wiltz both Lafitte’s Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. LSU Hurricane Center, and one has written four other books, all Blacksmith He recently finished his follow-up of the leaders of the Hurricane novels set in her native New Shop and Lafitte’s in Exile. Her book, The Ravaging Tide: Strange Pam exercise of 2004, he led a Orleans. daughter is the painter Marion Weather, Future Katrinas, and the team studying the health impacts Lane. Zabriskie’s acting credits Coming Death of America’s Coastal of a major hurricane hitting New Kit Wohl is an include Norma Rae, The Big Cities, which was published on the Orleans. Author of The Storm: author and Easy, Twin Peaks, and the on- first anniversary of Katrina. A What Went Wrong During artist with a going HBO series, Big Love. She National Endowment for the Arts’ Hurricane Katrina — the Inside passion for the now appears in David Lynch’s fellow and winner of two Lowell Story from One Louisiana culinary arts. Inland Empire. Thomas Awards, Tidwell has also Scientist, van Heerden describes She works with published articles in National the geological effects and conse- chefs, restau- Geographic,Reader’s Digest, and The quences and tells of his repeated rants, and Washington Post. Raised in attempts to urge officials, includ- hotels across Tennessee and Georgia,he now ing FEMA and the US Army the country. Her first book, resides in the Washington, D.C. area. Corps of Engineers, to take Arnaud’s Restaurant Cookbook, 24 The 21th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Funding Support for the Festival The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is a non-profit arts organization made possible by many kindred spirits who take an active role in keeping the literary arts vibrant and accessible. The Friends of Tennessee are all of the people and organizations that make this event happen. We most gratefully acknowledge their vital help, encouragement, and support on these pages. Major Funding Provided By:

Louisiana Endowment for provided a tranquil setting in which students of literature can share new ideas and the Humanities learn from each other. Major funding for the Festival is made possible through a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, state affiliate Muriel’s Jackson Square of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since the Festival’s inception, the Restaurant Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities has provided vital support to our orga- Muriel’s Jackson Square continues its rela- nization, facilitating the Festival’s literary program, assuring essential funding for tionship with the Festival as a major sponsor panel discussions, as well as working with the Writers in the Schools program. by hosting several of our literary panels and special events. Located on Jackson LEH celebrates the many cultures of Louisiana and shares the Festival’s goals of Square in the French Quarter, Muriel’s offers fine cuisine and quintessential New promoting literacy and cultural curiosity. Orleans charm. The Arts Council of New Orleans WLAE This program is supported in part by a Community Arts WLAE is committed to providing quality, value- Grant made possible by the City of New Orleans as admin- based educational programs and services to the istered by the Arts Council of New Orleans. We value the citizens of New Orleans and is proud to support continued support of the Arts Council of New Orleans and the 2007 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. their continued efforts to expand the opportunities for artistic expression which bring the community together. Harrah’s New Orleans Casino and Hotel We would like to thank Harrah’s New Orleans for its Louisiana Division of the Arts continued support. This year Harrah’s New Orleans We thank the Louisiana Division of the Arts and for their con- generously funded travel expenses for the Festival’s tinued efforts to encourage the expansion of audiences and largest familiarization tour for press and media. stimulate public participation in the arts in Louisiana while developing Louisiana’s cultural economy. The Louisiana The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation, Office Division of the Arts grant went toward providing support for of Cultural Development our literary program. We would like to thank the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation for its support of the Festival’s 21st anniversary celebration. We appreciate its efforts in supporting The Louisiana Cultural the development and enhancement of the unique cultural industries of Louisiana. Economy Foundation We would like to thank the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation for provid- The Zemurray Foundation ing operating support for the Festival’s 21st anniversary celebration. The Festival is deeply thankful to the Zemurray Foundation, whose contributions in support of operations enable the ongoing stability of our organization. University of New Orleans As an institute of higher learning, the The Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation University of New Orleans understands the The Festival thanks the Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation which con- importance of nurturing new intellectual tinues to support education and New Orleans arts organizations and hospitals. ideas in the arts. Since 1987, UNO has generously provided administrative services and professional production values while working with the Festival to Booth-Bricker Fund make its One-Act Play Competition a success. Liaising the strengths of the The Booth-Bricker Fund is a general-purpose foundation that makes grants Creative Writing Workshop and the Department of Film, primarily for the purpose of promoting, developing, and fostering religious, Theatre and Communication Arts, UNO seeks to foster new charitable, scientific, literary, and educational programs. The Festival gives talents while upholding standards of literary excellence. thanks for its support for the 2007 Festival. The Historic New Orleans Collection U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Embracing the past, sustaining the future, the Historic New The Festival would like to thank the SBA and its New Orleans office for their Orleans Collection maintains its partnership with the Festival as a dedication to small business concerns, which help to rebuild and strengthen co-sponsor of the Master Class series. For 21 years, the rich cul- the overall economy of New Orleans. We are happy to have the support of the tural backdrop of the HNOC’s courtyard and lecture hall have SBA for our 2007 Festival. Additional University Support is Provided By:

Southeastern Louisiana University Studies, English Education; and Master of Arts in the unique qualities of our location in New Continuing its tradition English, Literary Studies, and Creative Writing. Orleans and our continual aspiration to be a truly of support, the College distinctive international university. of Arts and Sciences at Tulane University Southeastern Louisiana Tulane pursues this mission by culti- Xavier University University has co-spon- vating an environment that focuses The ultimate purpose of Xavier sored the Master Class series—a program which serves on learning and the generation of University is the promotion of a the needs of serious writers and readers—at this year’s new knowledge; by expecting and more just and humane society. To festival. Located in Hammond, LA, SLU is home to a rewarding teaching and research of this end, Xavier prepares its students fine creative writing program, and publishes the extraordinarily high quality and impact; and by to assume roles of leadership and service notable literary journal, Louisiana Literature. The fostering community-building initiatives as well as in society. This preparation takes place in a plural- Department of English offers minors in English, scientific, cultural, and social understanding that istic teaching and learning environment that incor- Creative Writing,Professional Writing,Gender integrate with and strengthen learning and porates all relevant educational means, including Studies; Bachelor of Arts in English, Liberal Arts research. This mission is pursued in the context of research and community service. Festival Underwriting and Support is also provided by these valued sponsors and individuals: Adelaide Benjamin Haagen Dazs New Orleans St.Charles Avenue Alyson Books Randy Fertel AT&T Latter and Blum, Inc. Brennan’s Restaurant Librix Continuum Louisiana Lottery Corporation The Ritz-Carlton, Larry L. Murray, The Capitol Group New Orleans The Besh Steakhouse at Harrah’s New Orleans Jazz National Whitney National Bank Historical Park

Deville Books New Orleans Magazine Windsor Court Hotel Fidelity Homestead Pelican Publishing Company Glazer’s Distributors

* Due to publication deadline, only gifts Friends of T ennessee received by February 1st could be listed. Tennessee Williams tragic heroine, Blanch DuBois, was fond of saying she relied on the kindness of strangers. The festival took her advice years ago and, as a result, continues to grow and expand with every season. But we go Blanche one better — we invite all kind strangers to become our friends. If you are interested in becoming a Friend of Tennessee please see our Web site www.tennesseewilliams.net or call (504) 581-1144.

Full Panel Underwriter Scott Hutchinson Warren Atchison Maris Miles Eugenie Joseph Jones Family Foundation Peggy & Errol Laborde Ellen Baker, Ph.D. Dick Miller Latter & Blum Inc/Realtors Priscilla & John Lawrence Janara Bornstein Rod Mills Thomas B. Lemann Bev & Butch Marshall Chyrell Botts Linda McKay Andrew L.& Diane Plauche Jr. Sam Brown S.J.McNamara Literary Panel Sponsor Ralph Cadow Linda Nix Juanita Arbour Journalist Nancy Claitor Warren Perrin Adelaide Benjamin Lynn Adams Joshua Clark Karen Pfeifer Michael Ledet Tiki Axelrod Sheila Davlin Bill Pugh Louisiana Lottery Dorian Bennett Steven Ecton Janet Rieger Natt Simmons — Company Systems Doug Brantley Robert Edmundson Mike Reilly Integrations Ann Maylie Bruce Gerald Faris Louise Schiavone The Weilbaecher Family Foundation Jackson Bryer Marjorie Firmin Francine Segal Virginia Burke Faye Flanagan Deanna Smith Publisher Albert Carey Raymond & Cherie Forster Judith Smith Judy & Allain Andry Jeffrey Clark John Fuegi Linda B. Smith Patricia Brady Patricia Curtis Gabrielle Restaurant Pamela Smith Robert Bray Albert & Nel Davis Dr.& Mrs. George Greenberg Sherry and Charles Spooner Brobson Lutz Maureen & Bill Detweiler Tom Goodwin S.J. Staniski Danella Hero Jessica Dorman Herbert Holmes David & Deborah Strevy Michael Moffitt Martha Edmonds Helene Inatian Dr. Jim Storm Julian Mutter — Doerr Furniture Mary Ramsey Evans Dr. & Mrs. Bernard Jaffe Alison Teal Earl Retif Eleanor Farmsworth Jim Johnson Barbara Dykes Vaughn Mr.& Mrs. Joe D. Smith — Deming Patricia Friedmann Margaret Johnson Christine Wiltz Foundation Kathy Higgins Rebecca Klemm Linda Yarr Robert & Sharon Weilbaecher — The Steve Hirst Fred Lawson Lynne Yockey Weilbaecher Family Foundation Jane Hobson George Long Katie Ziglar Molly Travis — Tulane English Ellen Johnson Russell Luke Department Diana Jones Tulane University John Kemp Robert & Sharon Weilbaecher — The Amy Kirk Very Special Thanks to These Generous Contributors, who Weilbaecher Family Foundation Bill & Jaqueline Koenig give in-kind and individual gifts of time and expertise: Tom & Glenna Kramer Editor Gail Lemarie Carol Antosiak, Maple Street Bookstore LouAnn and Robin Morehouse Elizabeth & Johnny Barron Brigitta Malm Joy Bollinger Pontchartrain Vineyards Katherine Bradley Adelaide Martin Dave Brinks, Goldmine Saloon Joycelyn Reynolds Mark Fernandez Elsie B. Martinez Dr. Paul Boskind Michael Sartisky Susan Hoskins Dominic Massa Nina Buck, Palm Court Jazz Café Al Shea Henry Lacey Betty McDermott Mike Carr, Whole Foods Market Sandy Shilstone Helen Madden Duane Paige Shirley Trusty Corey Cheryle Sims Patricia Mason Judy Palmer David Cuthbert Kathy Slimp Gary Matus Clare Beth Pierson Brian & Constance Nelson Maureen Pimley Sheila Davlin Julie Smith, Akashic Books Dr. Michael Sartisky Nancy Pond Dunn and Sonnier Flowers Richard Stewart, The Gumbo Shop David Simon Hal Reed Tom Erhardt, Casarotto Ramsay,Ltd Fred Todd Josephine Ricks Dave Gajee Britton Trice Novelist Calvin Sanders Rick Gratia University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee Fredrick Barton Larry Skinner Scott Hutcheson Civil Sheriff Paul Valteau and the Janis & Richard Britson Guy & Tommiann Smith Thomas Keith, New Directions Publishing Reserve Deputies Association Dr. & Mrs. Phillip Brewer Claude Summers Karen Kern Dakin Williams David Bourdreaux Leah Todd Susan Larson Windsor Court Hotel Mary Williams Cavalas Merle Walker Light of New Orleans Publishing WYES-TV Linda Conway Bonnie Warren Louisiana Public Broadcasting WWNO-FM Sharon Donovan Maris Wicker Margaret Dziedzic Margaret Wilson Brobson Lutz WWOZ-FM Richard Nesbitt Terry Verigan Peter A. Mayer Advertising WRBH-FM Arlene Manguno Cathy Young Rod Mills, Louisiana Book Festival Lea Young Harry Freeman & Bebe Roberts Jennifer Mitchel and the entire Louisiana Louise Hoffman Bibliophile Endowment for the Humanities Staff David Hoover Kate Alexander 27 28