Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 3/3/99
Contact: Christina Chapple 22
SLU CO-HOSTS FRENCH QUARTER LITERARY CONFERENCE
HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University and the Historic New Orleans
Collection will once again co-host the French Quarter Literary Conference in conjunction with
the acclaimed Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.
The conference will take place March 24-26 at the Historic New Orleans Collection, 529
Royal Street. Eleven master classes will feature authors, editors, agents, and playwrights, who
will share the lessons they have learned about living the literary life and earning a living at it.
In addition to parties and three days of stimulating classes, the conference offers
opportunities for networking and the chance to be inspired about writing. Classes may be taken
individually for $35 or as a complete literary conference for $375. The full conference fee also
includes a Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival panel pass and a ticket to the
festival's opening event and reception at 7 p.m. March 25 at the Le Petit Theatre.
Literary conference panelists include playwright and performer Ricky Graham, Times-
Picayune book editor Susan Larson, spiritual writer Gloria Wade-Gayles, novelist Valerie
Martin, agent Jonathan Dolger, author Julia Cameron, columnist Hal Crowther, author Lee
Smith, editors Shannon Ravenel and Jane Islay, creative writing professor and author Edmund
White and author Clyde Edgerton.
The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, an annual four-day celebration,
is scheduled for March 24-28. An annual Crescent City gathering of writers and readers, the
festival showcases local and regional scholars, writers, and performing artists. It also honors
Williams, America's legendary playwright, who called New Orleans his spiritual home and wrote
many of his distinguished plays, including "A Streetcar Named Desire," during his intervals in
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FRENCH QUARTER LITERARY FESTIVAL Add One
the Crescent City.
The festival's 1999 "Weekend Named Desire" will feature actress Kim Hunter, who won
an Academy Award for her 1951 film performance as "Streetcar's" Stella," as the star attraction.
Other highlights of the long weekend include more than two dozen literary panels, the festival's
production of Williams' "The Seven Descents of Myrtle," poetry readings, music and video
programs, a book fair and a variety of French Quarter walking tours.
Novelist and short story writer Tim Gautreaux and poet Jack Bedell, both members of
Southeastern's English department faculty, are among the festival panelists.
Bedell will moderate a panel on "Louisiana Journeys" at 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 26, at
the Le Petit Theatre. Louisiana writers Barry Ancelet, Frank DeCaro and Nick Spitzer share their
tales of feast days and festivals, great places to visit, and astonishing characters they have
encountered in their travels around the state.
At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 27, in the Royal Orleans Esplanade Room, Gautreaux will
participate in a panel entitled "Good for the circulation?: Menace in the short story." He will also
be featured in "Set in Louisiana," scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday, March 28, at Le Petit Theatre, a
session in which native Louisiana writers will tell how Louisiana's matchless scenery is a vehicle
for reflecting human behavior or atmospheric embellishment.
For additional information about the French Quarter Literary Conference and Tennessee
Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, call 504-581-1144 or email twfest@gnofn.org. A web
site is also available: www.gnofn.ofg/~twfest.
- SLU -
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