TWFest Schedule – 2025

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS & NEW ORLEANS LITERARY FESTIVAL

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Sunday, March 23 – Sunday, March 30

Tickets are on sale NOW!

Sunday, March 23
2 – 3:15 PM
STELLA SHOUTING CONTEST
Our beloved Stella Shouting Contest KICKS OFF our Festival on Sunday! Join us in Jackson Square for the annual competition to see who can best impress our judges with their rendition of Stanley Kowalski’s iconic line. Contestant signup begins at 1:30 and we take the first 25. We’re excited to have Bryan Batt as our emcee with Beth Bartley d’Amour and Todd d’Amour as our Stella and Stanley. Plus, we’re once again making the Shouting Contest an awareness-raising and fundraising campaign for the New Orleans Family Justice Center, a partnership of agencies dedicated to ending domestic violence. The NOFJC provides access to free crisis services and shelter, legal aid, advocacy and case management, trauma counseling, and prevention education. 
Sponsored by the Goldring Family Foundation.
Jackson Square, free and open to the public.

Wednesday, March 26
5 – 6:15 PM—Culinary
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
MISTER GREGORY’S SHRIMP BOIL CABARET
Festival President Mister Gregory invites you to join him and long-time TWFest favorites, Delta Revues, for an old-fashioned Shrimp Boil and roots music experience. An intimate dinner party awaits at our French Quarter shrimp shack (actually the faded front parlor of an 1820s Creole Cottage). Tastings of local blue crab, fresh black drum from Lake Pontchartrain, and crawfish will tempt your tastebuds before a big pile of wild-caught Louisiana gulf shrimp hit the table. A little storytelling, a lot of music, and a light dessert, all wrapping up just in time to enjoy a stroll back to the Hotel Monteleone for the opening night show.
Mister Gregory’s Shrimp Boil Cabaret, 830 North Rampart Street, $100. Not available with VIP Pass.

Wednesday, March 26
7:30 PM – 9 PM
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
MINK STOLE AT THE MONTELEONE—OPENING NIGHT
Midnight movie idol, John Waters’ muse, Tennessee Williams’ leading lady from the rarely staged The Mutilated, and underground legend, Mink Stole returns to TWFest! She has had one of the most interesting careers you can imagine in show business, and she intends to dish it with song and anecdotes. Mink will be accompanied by New Orleans legend, pianist and marionettist Harry Mayronne with a special appearance by Dr. Sick of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. There is no greater starlet in the alternative arts and film underground than Mink Stole. Her unique brand of star quality led to her characters often being imitated, along with their memorable catchphrases. An entire universe of Internet memes is devoted to her most notable roles, including Connie Marble from Pink Flamingos and Peggy Gravel from Desperate Living. TWFest is proud to feature, not Connie nor Peggy, but the real Mink Stole for this one-night-only celebration. “If Susan Sontag had written notes on camp in 1974 instead of 1964, Mink Stole surely would have been the first entry on the list.”— Gregory Gajus, President of the Tennessee Williams Fest.
Doors open at 7 PM. Raise a glass to celebrate Tennessee Williams’ birthday at our cash bar.
This event is sponsored by Joy and Boysie Bollinger. 
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $35 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
9 AM—Special Event
THE NEW ORLEANS WRITING MARATHON
Jumpstart your writing with the New Orleans Writing Marathon! Hosted by founder Richard Louth, participants write their way across the French Quarter in cafés, pubs, bookstores, and anywhere a small group of writers can sit, write, and share their work. It’s all about writing in the moment, writing for the joy of it, and finding inspiration in one’s place. We start at the Hotel Monteleone before going out to explore the French Quarter as writers. Visit www.writingmarathon.com and see THIS HANDOUT for more details, and for questions, contact the NOWM at info@writingmarathon.com. 
Writing Marathons begin at 9 AM on Thursday and Sunday. You can end your writing marathon at whatever time best fits your schedule.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, free and open to the public but please register at https://tennesseewilliams.net/new-orleans-writing-marathon/

Thursday, March 27
10 AM – 12 noon—Walking Tour
HANDS THAT ROCKED THE CREOLE CRADLE: WOMEN OF THE FRENCH QUARTER
Join Dianne “Gumbo Marie” Honoré on this intriguing tour about the fierce women who nurtured the building of New Orleans and the creation of an indelible culture along the Mississippi River. You’ll meet the Baroness Pontalba, nuns including Henriette Delille and Mother Cabrini, medicine women, Voodoo practitioners, businesswoman Eulalie de Mandéville, Black Storyville Baby Dolls, female musicians, the first women to purchase property in today’s Tremé neighborhood, as well as Catiche Destrehan and Elizabeth Werlein. Women stirred the early pots that would become today’s gumbo and jambalaya, grew herbs for healing, faithfully prayed for and tended the sick, fought to create spaces for orphans, ran highly successful businesses, made music that inspired some of New Orleans’ most famous musicians, owned property, influenced the development of Jazz, tended births and funerals at home, and more.
Other dates are Friday, March 28, 10 AM – 12 noon and Saturday, March 29, 1 – 3 PM.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
10 AM – Noon—Walking Tour
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN HIS OWN WORDS
Tom Williams was very open and candid about his life through his letters, journals and memoirs. While some of what he had to say should be taken with a grain of salt, much can be traced and verified. In the 1930s, the French Quarter was a decadent mud puddle in the gutter of Southern gentility, perfectly suited for a decadent young man. Award-winning tour guide, Randy Bibb, will take you through the French Quarter visiting the sites and hangouts of Tennessee Williams. See the buildings in which he lived, where boiling water was poured through the cracks of the floor, where a plethora of vagrants, miscreants, artists, and society girls came and went through the architecture and art of his muse, the Vieux Carré. And hear his story as he told it. Randy’s knack for double entendre presents a narrative which puts a Chinese lantern over a naked light bulb with subtle humor. Randy is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived only blocks away from the Glass Menagerie apartment. He gave his first tour in New Orleans in 1988 and his commitment to historic accuracy has earned him three Global Guide Awards from TourHQ and the Cultural Preservation Award for tour guiding from the Black Storyville Babydolls. He has served as president of the Tour Guide Association of Greater New Orleans, Inc. and teaches Professional Tour Guiding and the History of The French Quarter at Delgado Community College. Randy is also a playwright and composer; his musical play Onepiece has enjoyed six productions in St. Louis and New Orleans.
Other dates are Friday, March 28 – 1:30 – 3:30 PM; Saturday, March 29 – 1:30 – 3:30 PM; and Sunday, March 30, 10 AM – Noon.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal A, $40 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
10 – 11:15 AM—Writer’s Craft Session
JUSTIN MAXWELL—ADAPTATION AND THE LOVE OF CRAFT
Adaptation is about love: Love of content. Love of craft. Love of genre. Come by and we’ll take some time to be wildly in love with language. Adaptation can help us take the things we love and explore them with a newfound intimacy. It can help beginners hone their craft and help unestablished writers sell their work. It can help experienced writers connect with new methodologies and help anyone explore a new genre. It’s a great way to start writing and a great way to grow as a writer. Adaptations can let us come back to ourselves and our craft from a new perspective. We’ll ask a lot of bonding questions: Why adapt something from one genre to another? How do we pick what to adapt? What is source material to us, and why do we want to work with it? How do we pick what genre to adapt source material into? We’ll spend time with the slippery-yet-empowering transition when the adaptation becomes our own artwork!
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
10:30 AM – 12 Noon—Walking Tour
WRITERS IN NEW ORLEANS: FINDING THEIR PLACE, DEFINING THE CITY
For some authors, New Orleans has been a place that freed them to become the writers we know. Tennessee Williams said, “In New Orleans…I found the kind of freedom I had always needed, and the shock of it—against the Puritanism of my nature—has given me a subject, a theme, which I have never ceased exploiting.” Jimmy Buffet put it more simply: “You find as a writer that there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.” For others, the city itself became the subject—Lafcadio Hearn, for example, who Frederick Starr proposes “invented” the image of New Orleans that has long lured nascent writers and continues to influence the way visitors see the city. Award-winning geographer Richard Campanella has written 11 books and a multitude of articles examining the city under his microscope, always interested in how the city’s reality diverges from the popular conceptions held by citizens and visitors. There are simply too many writers associated with New Orleans to reference them all in a two-hour tour, but we will cover quite a number as we stroll through the French Quarter, starting at the Hotel Monteleone, walking downriver for a number of blocks and then circling back to end up in Jackson Square. We’ll be looking at places where writers lived or visited, where they wrote, and the locations mentioned in their work. Your guide, Dana Criswell, will include writers who are from here (John Kennedy Toole, Anne Rice, George Washington Cable, Maurice Carlos Ruffin), moved here (Tom Piazza, Richard Ford), lived here for a long or short while (William Faulkner, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams) or lived elsewhere but visited frequently and used the city, to some extent, as a setting (Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, John Steinbeck).
Other dates are Friday, March 28; Saturday, March 29; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 10:30 AM – 12 Noon.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass

Thursday, March 27
11 AM – 12:30 PM—Walking Tour
LGBTQ+ FRENCH QUARTER TOUR
This leisurely stroll through the French Quarter focuses on New Orleans’ enchanting past with an emphasis on the neighborhood’s queer history and its rich literary heritage. See where writers lived and wrote and learn about the incredible contributions lesbians and gay men have made to the city over its 300-year-old history. The tour is guided by long-time French Quarter resident Frank Perez, a local historian and professional tour guide who has written six books about French Quarter history. Perez also serves as the executive director of the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana.
Other dates are Friday, March 28, 3:30 – 5 PM and Sunday, March 30, 1 – 2:30 PM.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
E.M. TRAN—MAKE IT WEIRD: CRAFTING THE UNCANNY OR ABSURD INTO SCENE
Have you ever had a character live their lives in everyday spaces—the office, the grocery store, their house, the car—and feel that what you are writing is simply pushing your character through the tedious motions of life? In some ways, fiction is poignant because it can reflect reality and open vistas of understanding through realistic perspectives. But isn’t reality also weird? Sometimes the best way to invigorate a scene is to do just that: make it weird. In this session, we will discuss ways to inject the uncanny and absurd into our writing, how to notice and compile the strangeness we see in our daily lives, and exercises we can do if we feel our stories are stuck in the mundane world.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM–Writer’s Craft Session
ADRIAN VAN YOUNG—STRAW INTO GOLD: HOW TO WEAVE FAIRY TALES INTO YOUR FICTION
Once upon a time—but when?! And they all lived happily ever—never! The fairy tale, that most venerated form among all fantastical narratives, has been with us from the start, though in truth fairy tales are far more than just bedtime stories for children, fodder for Disney adaptations, or bleak German cautionary tales with unaccountably violent endings. Fairy tales transport us to wondrous realms with a twisted logic all their own. They’re scary, and oddball, and achingly human. They also provide us with a unique and valuable framework through which to observe the complexities of our own modern world in all its absurdity, heartbreak, and horror. Through group discussion, targeted writing prompts, and examining excerpts from some of the original Grimms’ Fairy Tales (and sure, maybe one by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth), as well as the fiction of Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Carmen Maria Machado, Victor LaValle, Brian Evenson, and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, among others, this craft session with story writer and novelist Adrian Van Young will focus on revisiting, adapting and incorporating fairy tales and their archetypes to suit a modern adult readership. Spread your dragon’s wings and soar! 
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C, $25 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
1 – 3 PM—Walking Tour
QUEER UNDERGROUND
A critically acclaimed deep dive into the queer underbelly of New Orleans from lesbian street gangs in the sex industry to drag queens under the direct employment of the mafia to the rise of modern gay nightclubs in open rejection of the laws. With no censorship and no shame, follow the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who were instrumental in the creation of modern New Orleans, building whisper networks from the first days of the colony and eventually, taking over the streets.  A radical challenge to mainstream queer history and New Orleans history, the tour is a love letter to the New Orleans queer community with equal parts joy and heartbreak. Tours will be led by Quinn L Bishop.
Other dates are Friday, March 28; Saturday, March 29; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 1 – 3 PM.
Crossing Bar, 439 Dauphine Street, $35 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
1:30 – 2:45 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
JACOB BUDENZ—MERGING WORLDS: TAROT AS EKPHRASIS FOR CREATIVE AND REFLECTIVE WRITING
Although ekphrasis is most commonly posited as a poetic tool—poetry responding to visual art—the practice of ekphrasis at its heart is a merging of worlds in which an artist of any medium interprets a work in a different medium. Likewise, a Tarot reader interprets imagery and symbolism through the medium of speech, applying old archetypes and images to unique new problems or questions. In this generative workshop, author and multi-disciplinary performer Jacob Budenz will give a primer on Tarot and discuss its uses as an ekphrastic writing tool. Participants will pull a Tarot card and do their own freewrites, followed by discussion and reflection.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
3 – 4:15 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
CHIN-SUN LEE—PROSE FROM IMAGERY
Stories come to us from many sources, the most common being from memory, a conversation, or an image. The opening pages of Chin-Sun Lee’s debut novel Upcountry were initially inspired by a singular image: a drained and decayed swimming pool enclosed by a chain-link fence. In this workshop, we’ll focus on the ways that images can provoke associations that in turn, become compelling narrative. We’ll spend the first half of the workshop reading and discussing some examples of potent imagery and description. Then we’ll have a writing session based on an image—provided by Chin-Sun or participants can use any of their own—with sharing (for those inclined) and brief critiques to follow afterward.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
3:30 – 4:45 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
KARISMA PRICE—AFTERMATH AND CONVERSATION
Usually, as writers, we really want to build up to that big important part of a poem, but what’s really interesting is what happens AFTER that. Usually when people think of endings, they think of silence, a completely closed, shut-off  ending. But there’s so much power in what happens after we’ve said what we think we need to say. In this poetry craft session, we’ll talk about art, writing, memory, music, and how all of that can conjure memories, and how we can start writing about an event—but also what happens after that and the feelings that occur that can make our writing more powerful.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C, $25 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
4 – 5:30 PM—Culinary Event
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
CHEF ERIC COOK—INTERVIEW AND BOOK SIGNING
Join Chef Eric Cook for an interview and signing of his first cookbook Modern Creole: A Taste of New Orleans Culture and Cuisine. Held at his award-winning restaurant, Saint John, the event includes tastings and cocktails from the book, plus a conversation with Cook led by Darren Chabert, Chef de Cuisine at Saint John. Modern Creole features over 200 pages of food and cocktail recipes focused on Southern, Cajun and Creole cuisine. The book fulfills home cooks’ desire for dishes that are accessible and straightforward enough for an everyday meal, yet impressive enough for company or the holiday table. 
Saint John, 715 St. Charles Avenue, $50 includes a copy of the book or $40 for the event only. Not available with VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
5:30 – 7:15 PM—Walking Tour
FRENCH QUARTER GHOSTS AND LEGENDS
Join acclaimed local author and storyteller Ariadne Blayde for an immersive twilight walk exploring the dark local history and lore of the historic French Quarter, considered one of the most haunted districts in America. Learn about true crime, yellow fever, pirates, ghosts, and the city’s fascinating colonial history through visits to the Quarter’s most haunted places, including the infamous LaLaurie Mansion, the historic Mississippi riverfront, New Orleans’ oldest and most haunted bar, and more. Feel free to bring a drink!
Other dates are Friday, March 28, 5:30 – 7:15 PM; Saturday, March 29, 7:30 – 9:15 PM; and Sunday, March 30, 5:30 – 7:15 PM.
Rodrigue Studios, 730 Royal Street, meet outside, $30 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
6:30 – 9 PM—Special Event
TRIBUTE READING: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN ONE ACT—THE BEST 50 YEARS OF HIS SHORT PLAYS
“The peak of my virtuosity was in the one-act plays. Some of which are like firecrackers in a rope,” Williams wrote to director Elia Kazan in 1950. One-act plays were ever present in Tennessee Williams’s creative life. His first one-act won a prize at the University of Missouri when he was a freshman in 1930. His final one-act (considered to be his last play) is dated January 1983, a month before his death. He never stopped writing one-acts, and there are currently over 75 by Williams in print today. This year our tribute will take a look at short Williams plays from every decade—1930s through 1980s. To his college friends, he referred to his short plays as “fantasies.” Many of them are funny and take place in fairy, sci-fi, or otherwise mythic locations, including The Gnädiges Fräulein, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, The Chalky White Substance, Ten Blocks on The Camino Real and A Recluse and His Guest. Others share the poetry and grit of his most famous dramas, such as 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Mister Paradise, I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow, and Green Eyes. You’ll hear excerpts from the familiar, as well as some hidden gems. The event is curated by Festival Director Paul J. Willis and Williams editor Thomas Keith (who also hosts). Readers this year will include Festival luminaries Maureen Corrigan, Michael Cunningham, Beth Bartley d’Amour, Jewelle Gomez,  Joan Larkin, Tim Murray, John “Ray” Proctor, and Mink Stole.
The annual Tribute Reading is presented by a grant from the New Orleans Theatre Association (NOTA).
Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at 6:30 PM; Performance at 7:30 PM.
New Orleans Jazz Museum, 400 Esplanade Avenue, $45 or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
7 – 8:15 PM—Theatre
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
HAROLD AND ST. CLAUDE
A reimagining of the Classic film Harold and Maude. In 1982 at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, young Harold is coming OUT and meets Claude, an older drag queen. Together they explore life, death, and love. We have a band, but it’s not a musical. And we encourage the audience to come dressed like it’s the 1980s. 
The Twilight Room, 2240 St. Claude Avenue, $35 cocktail table, $20 general admission, or VIP Pass.

Thursday, March 27
7:30 – 10 PM—Theatre
THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS THEATRE COMPANY OF NEW ORLEANS PRESENTS:
ORPHEUS DESCENDING BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Orpheus Descending is a Southern gothic allegory about death, new life, testing wills, and tempting the fates. It takes place in a general store in a Mississippi Delta town during a dreary spring when a strange musician drifts onto the scene and excites the interest of the local women…and the ire of their husbands and brothers. This production will take place in the Marquette Theatre at Loyola University New Orleans and will coincide with the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival.
Performance Schedule: Thursday – Saturday, March 27 – 29 at 7:30 PM; Sunday, March 30 at 3 PM.
The Marquette Theatre is on the campus of Loyola University New Orleans, 6363 St. Charles Avenue. Tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35398/production/1216005. Available with VIP Pass but must book in advance at info@tennesseewilliams.net.

Thursday, March 27
7:30 PM DOORS, 8 PM PERFORMANCE—Theatre
THE MUDLARK PUPPETEERS PRESENT:
A RECLUSE AND HIS GUEST BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS 
In a cruel village at the top of the world, where women are sometimes strung like sails from the trees in a midnight forest, a mysterious stranger comes wandering under the cold northern lights, seeking refuge in the home of a bitter recluse. This is a meditation on madness, a fable of patterns and disruptions where there may yet be hope for tenderness among outcasts. Told through rod puppetry, marionettes, and dimensional shadows. 
Performance Schedule: Thursday – Saturday, March 27 – 29 at 8 PM.
The Mudlark Public Theatre, 1200 Port Street, $20. Not available with VIP Pass. Tickets available at https://www.themudlarkneworleans.com/merchandise/p/a-recluse-and-his-guest

Thursday, March 27
9:30 – 10:45 PM—Theatre
THE LAST BOHEMIA  PRESENTS:
FAUXNIQUE. SO RELEVANT
You’ve always relied on being a cool kid. What happens when you wake up one day and realize you’re neither cool, nor a kid? You think, You’re not a kid anymore, I don’t think you’ll ever be a kid again, kiddo. (55-year-old Sondheim reference.) What if you were never cool? What happens when time marches on, and you have been left chasing the parade? Can you redefine what it means to be cool? Fauxnique. So Relevant is a hard-hitting and hilarious romp of songs, storytelling, and real-time on-stage crisis management. It’s art therapy served up with Fauxnique’s signature blend of sardonic wit and vulnerability. From the legendary lady drag queen and published author who brought you the solo shows, Faux Real with Fauxnique and The F Word, and the memoir Faux Queen: A Life in Drag, whose work has been called “engaging, critically serious, counter-culturally crucial,” (Author Michelle Tea) and “hilarious,” with an “intellectual spark” and “enough to make a girl want to revisit her Susan Sontag.” (SF Chronicle)
The Twilight Room, 2240 St. Claude Avenue, $35 cocktail table, $20 general admission, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE:
9 – 9:15 AM
Welcome and opening remarks from conference codirectors Margit Longbrake, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and Bess Rowen, Villanova University.
9:15 – 10:30 AM—Literary Discussion
EXPERIMENTAL WILLIAMS: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Emerging scholars from the US and France bring fresh perspectives to Williams’s experimental works in discussions of “plastic” acting, the uncanny, and castration as a surprising step toward wholeness in the late plays.
Moderators: Bess Rowen, Villanova University, and Matthew P. Smith, Tulane University. Panelists: Matthew Minor, City University of New York, Graduate Center; Jennifer Tsuei, City University of New York, Graduate Center; Anaïs Umano, Université de Lorraine.
Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, $10 or Scholars Conference Pass, LitPass, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
10 AM – 12 noon—Walking Tour
HANDS THAT ROCKED THE CREOLE CRADLE: WOMEN OF THE FRENCH QUARTER
Join Dianne “Gumbo Marie” Honoré on this intriguing tour about the fierce women who nurtured the building of New Orleans and the creation of an indelible culture along the Mississippi River. You’ll meet the Baroness Pontalba, nuns including Henriette Delille and Mother Cabrini, medicine women, Voodoo practitioners, businesswoman Eulalie de Mandéville, Black Storyville Baby Dolls, female musicians, the first women to purchase property in today’s Tremé neighborhood, as well as Catiche Destrehan and Elizabeth Werlein. Women stirred the early pots that would become today’s gumbo and jambalaya, grew herbs for healing, faithfully prayed for and tended the sick, fought to create spaces for orphans, ran highly successful businesses, made music that inspired some of New Orleans’ most famous musicians, owned property, influenced the development of Jazz, tended births and funerals at home, and more.
Other dates are Thursday, March 27, 10 AM – 12 noon and Saturday, March 29, 1 – 3 PM
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
10 – 11:15 AM—Writer’s Craft Session
MILES HARVEY–WRITING THE VOID: THE ROLE OF ABSENCE IN STORYTELLING
This craft session examines the ways in which writers build stories out of things not there—missing people, lost dreams, misplaced memories, and narrative gaps, as well as various other specters, shadows, hallucinations and dark holes. Miles Harvey’s debut short story collection, The Registry of Forgotten Objects, probes the mysterious relationship between human longings and the secret lives of inanimate objects. This session will be helpful for fiction and nonfiction writers, and will include some writing time.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
NEW ORLEANS NOVELS
During this discussion, New Orleans fiction writers C. Morgan Babst, Alex Jennings, and E.M. Tran join moderator Megan Holt to explore the concept of the New Orleans novel. The panel will delve into how the culture of New Orleans—its musical traditions, diverse communities, and complex history—shapes the narratives of novels set here. It will also highlight the ever-changing idea of what a “New Orleans novel” is and how this idea has evolved in the first 25 years of the 21st century.
Supported by the Herman and Ethel Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
10:30 AM – 12 Noon—Walking Tour
WRITERS IN NEW ORLEANS: FINDING THEIR PLACE, DEFINING THE CITY
For some authors, New Orleans has been a place that freed them to become the writers we know. Tennessee Williams said, “In New Orleans…I found the kind of freedom I had always needed, and the shock of it—against the Puritanism of my nature—has given me a subject, a theme, which I have never ceased exploiting.” Jimmy Buffet put it more simply: “You find as a writer that there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.” For others, the city itself became the subject—Lafcadio Hearn, for example, who Frederick Starr proposes “invented” the image of New Orleans that has long lured nascent writers and continues to influence the way visitors see the city. Award-winning geographer Richard Campanella has written 11 books and a multitude of articles examining the city under his microscope, always interested in how the city’s reality diverges from the popular conceptions held by citizens and visitors. There are simply too many writers associated with New Orleans to reference them all in a two-hour tour, but we will cover quite a number as we stroll through the French Quarter, starting at the Hotel Monteleone, walking downriver for a number of blocks and then circling back to end up in Jackson Square. We’ll be looking at places where writers lived or visited, where they wrote, and the locations mentioned in their work. Your guide, Dana Criswell, will include writers who are from here (John Kennedy Toole, Anne Rice, George Washington Cable, Maurice Carlos Ruffin), moved here (Tom Piazza, Richard Ford), lived here for a long or short while (William Faulkner, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams) or lived elsewhere but visited frequently and used the city, to some extent, as a setting (Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, John Steinbeck).
Other dates are Thursday, March 27; Saturday, March 29; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 10:30 AM – 12 Noon.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass

Friday, March 28
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM—Literary Discussion
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE:
QUEER CONTINUITIES
What does queerness in Williams’s texts have to do with 20th-century Tangier, the religion of early America, and a remarkable 21st-century Australian horror film? Join a panel of scholars from the US and Germany as they put a wide range of times, places, and forms in conversation.
Moderator: Annette J. Saddik, Graduate Center and City Tech, City University of New York. Panelists: Stephen Cedars, City University of New York; Benjamin Gillespie, City University of New York; Bess Rowen, Villanova University; Basil Wiesse, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, $10 or Scholars Conference Pass, LitPass, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
VICTORIA KELLY—BEYOND THE BOOK: INSIDER SECRETS ON HOW TO GET NOTICED, FROM A PR EXEC
We’re sorry, but this event has been cancelled. 

Friday, March 28
11:30 – 12:45 PM—Literary Discussion
WELCOME TO ROMANISTAN: CONVERSATIONS ON ROMANI CONTRIBUTIONS TO POP CULTURE 
Join Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele, authors of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling, alongside Ylva Mara Radziszewski, author of A Practical Guide for Witches and co-author of The Living Altar Oracle Deck with Kiki Robinson, for an enlightening exploration of Romani art and culture’s influence on contemporary literature, art, and new age spirituality. This panel will recontextualize harmful tropes that overshadow Romani contributions to modern culture, with a focus on postmodern spiritual practices, while highlighting invisibilized obstacles faced by minorities within creative industries. We will examine the connections between popular fortune-telling methods—tarot, palmistry, and tea leaf reading—and their origins within the Romani diaspora. Additionally, we will highlight the often-overlooked contributions of the Romani people—commonly misidentified by the derogatory term “Gypsies”—to popular culture. Having faced centuries of persecution within their diaspora from India, the Romani developed various survival trades, including fortune telling, performance art, handicraft, and storytelling which helped preserve their cultural identity. This panel discussion will address how Romani traditions have shaped widely recognized divination practices, whose origins are frequently obscured in mainstream narratives. We will also explore the representation and misrepresentation of Romani culture in popular media, challenging stereotypes that contribute to misunderstandings about the Romani people.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
1 – 3 PM—Walking Tour
QUEER UNDERGROUND
A critically acclaimed deep dive into the queer underbelly of New Orleans from lesbian street gangs in the sex industry to drag queens under the direct employment of the mafia to the rise of modern gay nightclubs in open rejection of the laws. With no censorship and no shame, follow the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who were instrumental in the creation of modern New Orleans, building whisper networks from the first days of the colony and eventually, taking over the streets.  A radical challenge to mainstream queer history and New Orleans history, the tour is a love letter to the New Orleans queer community with equal parts joy and heartbreak. Tours will be led by Quinn L Bishop.
Other dates are Thursday, March 27; Saturday, March 29; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 1 – 3 PM.
Crossing Bar, 439 Dauphine Street, $35 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion
ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY
How do you turn authentic experiences into universally relatable stories? This panel takes the voices of journalists, memoirists, and novelists and explores how they use personal stories as a vessel to carry larger, societal themes. They’ll discuss the craft of the personal essay, how essay writing differs from other forms of nonfiction, and how they’ve used the form to turn true stories into works that engage and inspire readers. Maegan Poland will moderate the discussion. Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years and is the author of My Life as a Villainess, a collection of essays exploring motherhood, family, and friendship. Kirsten Reneau is the author of Sensitive Creatures, a memoir in essays that explores trauma through the lens of the natural world. Desiree Richter is the author of The Presence of Absence, a collection about parenting, leaving fundamentalism, and living with loss. Julia Ridley Smith is the author of The Sum of Trifles, a memoir about grief and losing one’s parents. 
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
1:30 – 3:30 PM—Walking Tour
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN HIS OWN WORDS
Tom Williams was very open and candid about his life through his letters, journals and memoirs. While some of what he had to say should be taken with a grain of salt, much can be traced and verified. In the 1930s, the French Quarter was a decadent mud puddle in the gutter of Southern gentility, perfectly suited for a decadent young man. Award-winning tour guide, Randy Bibb, will take you through the French Quarter visiting the sites and hangouts of Tennessee Williams. See the buildings in which he lived, where boiling water was poured through the cracks of the floor, where a plethora of vagrants, miscreants, artists, and society girls came and went through the architecture and art of his muse, the Vieux Carré. And hear his story as he told it. Randy’s knack for double entendre presents a narrative which puts a Chinese lantern over a naked light bulb with subtle humor. Randy is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived only blocks away from the Glass Menagerie apartment. He gave his first tour in New Orleans in 1988 and his commitment to historic accuracy has earned him three Global Guide Awards from TourHQ and the Cultural Preservation Award for tour guiding from the Black Storyville Babydolls. He has served as president of the Tour Guide Association of Greater New Orleans, Inc. and teaches Professional Tour Guiding and the History of The French Quarter at Delgado Community College. Randy is also a playwright and composer; his musical play Onepiece has enjoyed six productions in St. Louis and New Orleans.
Other dates are Thursday, March 27, 10 AM – 12 Noon; Saturday, March 29, 1:30 – 3:30 PM; and Sunday, March 30, 10 AM – Noon
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $40 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
1:30 – 2:45 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM—ALL THE LITTLE SECRETS
Join Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham for an immersive, audience-involved workshop on the ways writers create dramatic scenes, often using outwardly undramatic exchanges and situations. Fiction comes most fully to life when its characters tell readers a little more than they’d consciously intended to. For this session, Cunningham will stage a spontaneous public conversation with a volunteer from the audience, and then discuss as a group the ways a fiction writer might have used the conversation’s content as the basis for a scene in a novel or short story—everything from offhand remarks to unconscious physical gestures. The choices a writer makes—even at the fundamental level of deciding on which details to include versus which to omit—can make a crucial difference in the tone and mood of a scene. A fiction writer can, essentially, use the same fundamental material to write a scene that will play as comic, or ominous, or whatever other mood contributes to the writer’s more general intentions.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
2 – 3:30 PM—Literary Discussion
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE:
ROOM TO WORK: DIRECTORS TAKE ON GAPS IN THE PLAYS AND PROSE
Seasoned director-scholars describe fragmented source texts and perspectives missing from the plays and their productions—and reframe those gaps as directorial opportunities.
Moderator: Mark Charney, Texas Tech University. Panelists: Lurana Donnels O’Malley, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; Tom Mitchell, University of Illinois, Urbana, emeritus; John “Ray” Proctor, Tulane University.
Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, $10 or Scholars Conference Pass, LitPass, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
2:30 – 3:45 PM—Literary Discussion
ALL ABOUT COLOR IN NEW ORLEANS’ HISTORIC ARCHITECTURE
New Orleans is a place drenched in color, from its subtropical landscapes to its historic buildings. But why has the city always embraced such a vibrant style? The authors of Painting the Town: The Importance of Color in Historic New Orleans Architecture explored that question as they sought to capture the city’s exuberant spirit. In this session, award-winning photographer Chris Granger will present a slide show and discuss some of his images that illustrate this book published by the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. Three of his collaborators—Danielle Del Sol, Susan Langenhennig, and John Pope—will cover such topics as why some of the city’s Creole cemeteries had colorfully painted tombs, the sources and symbolism of historic architectural colors, distinctive local buildings, the stunning watercolor architectural paintings stored in the New Orleans Notarial Archives, the stories behind the distinctive façades of Commander’s Palace and Brennan’s restaurants, and the only-in-New Orleans color that has come to be known as K&B Purple.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28 – MOVED TO SAT, 3/29, 1 – 2:15 PM, Hotel Monteleone Royal Salon
3 – 4:15 PM—Writer’s Craft Session
MEGAN ABBOTT—INSPIRATION, THE MUSE AND GETTING WORDS ON A PAGE
Writers are always asked, where do you get your ideas from? But maybe the better question is how we move from ideas to consistent writing, and to an active manuscript (whether building toward a story, novella, novel or script). This workshop will focus on specific techniques and strategies for getting past self-doubt and procrastination in the writing process. Bring a pen and notepad for brief in-workshop writing exercises.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D, $25 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
3 – 4:15–Writer’s Craft Session
KATHERINE FAUSSET—ASK AN AGENT!
No matter what stage you may be in with your writing, it’s important to learn about the publishing process. And typically, the first person you’ll encounter on the road to getting published is a literary agent. Katherine Fausset, a Senior Agent and Vice President at Curtis Brown, Ltd., will share her tips and advice on what you can do to improve your chances of signing with an agent before you even start the querying process; how to find an agent who’s right for you; what to include in the all-important query letter; and what the writer-agent relationship looks like and how to make the most of it. This is a chance to ask an agent anything—whether it’s about a specific question about the querying process or a general one about the publishing industry—so please feel free to come with questions.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
3:30 – 5 PM—Walking Tour
LGBTQ+ FRENCH QUARTER TOUR
This leisurely stroll through the French Quarter focuses on New Orleans’ enchanting past with an emphasis on the neighborhood’s queer history and its rich literary heritage. See where writers lived and wrote and learn about the incredible contributions lesbians and gay men have made to the city over its 300-year-old history. The tour is guided by long-time French Quarter resident Frank Perez, a local historian and professional tour guide who has written six books about French Quarter history. Perez also serves as the executive director of the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana.
Other dates are Thursday, March 27, 11 AM – 12:30 PM and Sunday, March 30, 1 – 2:30 PM
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
3:45 – 5:15 PM—Theatre
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE:
STAGED READING: WILLIAMS FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE AND “GOD IN THE FREE WARD”
Theater director and educator Tom Mitchell and members of the University of Illinois theater company present a staged reading that interweaves HNOC’s newly acquired letters by Tennessee Williams’s beloved and tragic sister, Rose, with diary entries by his mother and excerpts from his letters and his previously unpublished short story “God in the Free Ward.” 
The reading is introduced by HNOC curator and historian Mark Cave and HNOC editor and conference codirector Margit Longbrake, who discuss HNOC’s acquisition of Rose’s letters, and by director Mitchell, who offers insight into his process of combining the texts from various sources.
Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, $10 or Scholars Conference Pass, LitPass, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
4 – 5:15 PM—Featured Conversation
EMPTY SHELVES: A HISTORY, DISCUSSION, AND READING OF BANNED BOOKS
Books have the power to inspire, entertain, and inform. They are also targets of parent groups, school officials, and sometimes entire governments who see them as dangerous or offensive. These book challenges and outright bans often claim to protect younger readers; however, objecting to a book’s subject matter frequently crosses over into issues of freedom of speech, leading to legal battles and, in recent years, social media attacks on writers, teachers, and librarians. Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air book critic and Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown, wrote and filmed a Wondrium/ Great Courses lecture series on banned books, and will lead this conversation with a group of award-winning writers, including Michael Cunningham, Margot Douaihy, and Jewelle Gomez. Included in the conversation will be readings from the panelists’ favorite banned books.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
5:30 – 7:15 PM—Walking Tour
FRENCH QUARTER GHOSTS AND LEGENDS
Join acclaimed local author and storyteller Ariadne Blayde for an immersive twilight walk exploring the dark local history and lore of the historic French Quarter, considered one of the most haunted districts in America. Learn about true crime, yellow fever, pirates, ghosts, and the city’s fascinating colonial history through visits to the Quarter’s most haunted places, including the infamous LaLaurie Mansion, the historic Mississippi riverfront, New Orleans’ oldest and most haunted bar, and more. Feel free to bring a drink!
Other dates are Thursday, March 27, 5:30 – 7:15 PM; Saturday, March 29, 7:30 – 9:15 PM; and Sunday, March 30, 5:30 – 7:15 PM.
Rodrigue Studios, 730 Royal Street, meet outside, $30 or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
7 – 8: 15 PM
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
SEEKING ASYLUM 
Written by Mari Kornhauser and directed by Reese Johanson, Seeking Asylum is an immersive one-act, two-character play (starring Jyna Roots and Kathy Randels). A climate change exploration, it takes place in a speculative world of 2040 in what once was the United States. Based on the original 29 questions immigrants filled out on the ships’ manifests in the early 20th Century and then used in interviews at Points of Entry, the play explores how citizenship is not guaranteed. No one is immune. It can happen to anyone, even people in power. One minute they’re in, the next, they’re out, and so are you as the political borders of nations change.
The Twilight Room, 2240 St. Claude Avenue, $35 cocktail table, $20 general admission, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
7:30 – 10 PM—Theatre
THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS THEATRE COMPANY OF NEW ORLEANS PRESENTS:
ORPHEUS DESCENDING BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Orpheus Descending is a Southern gothic allegory about death, new life, testing wills, and tempting the fates. It takes place in a general store in a Mississippi Delta town during a dreary spring when a strange musician drifts onto the scene and excites the interest of the local women…and the ire of their husbands and brothers. This production will take place in the Marquette Theatre at Loyola University New Orleans and will coincide with the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival.
Performance Schedule: Thursday – Saturday, March 27 – 29 at 7:30 PM; Sunday, March 30 at 3 PM.
The Marquette Theatre is on the campus of Loyola University New Orleans, 6363 St. Charles Avenue. Tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35398/production/1216005. Available with VIP Pass but must book in advance at info@tennesseewilliams.net.

Friday, March 28
7:30 PM DOORS, 8 PM PERFORMANCE
THE MUDLARK PUPPETEERS PRESENT:
A RECLUSE AND HIS GUEST BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS 
In a cruel village at the top of the world, where women are sometimes strung like sails from the trees in a midnight forest, a mysterious stranger comes wandering under the cold northern lights, seeking refuge in the home of a bitter recluse. This is a meditation on madness, a fable of patterns and disruptions where there may yet be hope for tenderness among outcasts. Told through rod puppetry, marionettes, and dimensional shadows. 
Performance Schedule: Thursday – Saturday, March 27 – 29 at 8 PM.
The Mudlark Public Theatre, 1200 Port Street, $20. Not available with VIP Pass. Tickets available at https://www.themudlarkneworleans.com/merchandise/p/a-recluse-and-his-guest

Friday, March 28
9 – 10:15 PM
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
THE NIGHT FIONA FLAWLESS WENT MAD 
A Dark Comedy Drag Musical by Trey Ming 
Meet Fiona Flawless. Breathtaking drag queen. Talented chanteuse. Admitted murderess. After turning herself in for a double homicide, Fiona and her psychiatrist dive through convoluted memories in search of that pivotal moment when her otherwise flawless mind disconnected from reality…the night she went mad. A dark musical comedy for certain, The Night Fiona Flawless Went Mad is an exploration into the issues of Queer identity, loneliness, and the reclamation of self-love. 
Written and directed by Trey Ming. Cast: Laveau Contraire, Prince Octavian, Sebastien E’toile, Bette Tittler
The Twilight Room, 2240 St. Claude Avenue, $35 cocktail table, $20 general admission, or VIP Pass.

Friday, March 28
10:30 – 11:45 PM
THE LAST BOHEMIA PRESENTS:
KITTEN ON THE KEYS IN LANGUE DE CHAT
International cabaret pianist and singer Kitten on the Keys introduces her latest cabaret show, Langue De Chat. Named after her favorite French patisserie, Langue De Chat translated from French is “the cat’s tongue.” Like many of Tennessee Williams’ characters, a cat’s tongue presents as soft but is coarse and rough. Kitten embraces numerous genres and eras and will accompany herself on piano and accordion. Expect stories and songs from her extensive songbook.
The Twilight Room, 2240 St. Claude Avenue, $35 cocktail table, $20 general admission, or VIP Pass.

Saturday, March 29
8:30 – 9:45 AM—Special Event
BOOKS AND BEIGNETS WITH GARY RICHARDS
The success of the ongoing horror television series based on Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire has created renewed interest in Rice’s bestselling 1976 debut novel. Rice was born in New Orleans in 1941, spent most of her childhood and teenage years here, and returned to the city in her late 40s, leaving again in 2005. Upon her death in 2021 at the age of 80, Rice was returned to her beloved New Orleans and interred in Metairie Cemetery. Led by southern literary scholar Gary Richards, the 2025 breakfast book club will return to this iconographic work within the canon of vampire literature to explore its New Orleans setting and to meditate on its savvy, provocative use of vampirism as an extended metaphor for sexual otherness. Readers are invited to purchase and/or read the standard paperback version (ISBN 978-0345337665).  
3rd Block Depot, 316 Chartres, $35 or VIP Pass.

Saturday, March 29
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
EARLY NEW ORLEANS  JAZZ AND ITS NEIGHBORHOODS
While no one would argue that the entire city of New Orleans was a hotbed of the music that would come to be known as Jazz, there are specific streets and areas where the music flourished. West End, South Rampart Street, and the Treme neighborhood are just a few areas of the city associated with the early years of Jazz. Panelists include Randy Fertel, John McCusker, and Fatima Shaik, who have each written about this topic in their various books. Moderated by Peggy Scott Laborde.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Saturday, March 29
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
INFLUENCES ON TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: STYLE, FANTASY, AND LANGUAGE
The writing and people who influenced Tennessee Williams are not always obvious. This year four Williams scholars will take a look at three distinct, often discreet, kinds of influence. Prof. Benjamin Gillespie, Baruch  College – City University of New York, will examine the impact of playwright Eugene O’Neill; Margit Longbrake, Managing Editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, will investigate where Shakespeare’s influence appears in Williams’s work; and David Kaplan, Curator, The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, takes a look at the surprising amount of influence the early sci-fi/fantasy magazine Weird Tales had on Williams. Thomas Keith will moderate the discussion.
Sponsored by Helen and George Ingram.
Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.

Saturday, March 29
10:30 AM – 12 Noon—Walking Tour
WRITERS IN NEW ORLEANS: FINDING THEIR PLACE, DEFINING THE CITY
For some authors, New Orleans has been a place that freed them to become the writers we know. Tennessee Williams said, “In New Orleans…I found the kind of freedom I had always needed, and the shock of it—against the Puritanism of my nature—has given me a subject, a theme, which I have never ceased exploiting.” Jimmy Buffet put it more simply: “You find as a writer that there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.” For others, the city itself became the subject—Lafcadio Hearn, for example, who Frederick Starr proposes “invented” the image of New Orleans that has long lured nascent writers and continues to influence the way visitors see the city. Award-winning geographer Richard Campanella has written 11 books and a multitude of articles examining the city under his microscope, always interested in how the city’s reality diverges from the popular conceptions held by citizens and visitors. There are simply too many writers associated with New Orleans to reference them all in a two-hour tour, but we will cover quite a number as we stroll through the French Quarter, starting at the Hotel Monteleone, walking downriver for a number of blocks and then circling back to end up in Jackson Square. We’ll be looking at places where writers lived or visited, where they wrote, and the locations mentioned in their work. Your guide, Dana Criswell, will include writers who are from here(John Kennedy Toole, Anne Rice, George Washington Cable, Maurice Carlos Ruffin), moved here (Tom Piazza, Richard Ford), lived here for a long or short while (William Faulkner, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams) or lived elsewhere but visited frequently and used the city, to some extent, as a setting (Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, John Steinbeck).
Other dates are Thursday, March 27; Friday, March 28; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 10:30 AM – 12 Noon.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Parlor, $30 or VIP Pass