Paul J. Willis, Executive Director

Paul J. Willis, Executive Director, has over 27 years of experience in nonprofit management. He earned a B.S. degree in Psychology and a M.S. degree in Communication. He started his administrative work in 1992 as the co-director of the Holos Foundation in Minneapolis, an alternative high school program for at-risk youth. Willis has been the executive director of the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival since 2004. He is the founder of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival (established in 2003), and has edited various anthologies including the annual Saints and Sinners: New Fiction from the Festival and  the award-winning Love Bourbon Street with his partner Greg Herren. He was the 2019 recipient of the Triangle Publishing Leadership Award, which recognizes contributions to LGBTQ literature by those who are not primarily writers, for his work with SASFest. Photo by Ride Hamilton.