Author Archives

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Conversation with Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham launched his career by publishing short stories in ”The Atlantic Monthly” and ”Paris Review”. His debut was an impressive feat for a student still in the midst of his MFA program at Iowa’s Creative Writing Workshop. Cunningham’s early successes were telling omens of what lay ahead — six novels, a Pulitzer Prize, a film adaptation of his novel ”The Hours” starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore, as well as many awards and fellowships. Novelist and former journalist Amy Stolls interviews Cunningham to get the stories behind his path to literary success. Expect an engaging discussion of literature and the writing life.

Location: Hotel Monteleone Queen Anne Ballroom
Included in: All-Access Pass, Literary Panel Pass, Student Panel Pass, Teacher/Senior Citizen Literary Panel Pass, One Day Festival Panel Pass, Single Panel Ticket (only available on site)
Price: $10 (Single Ticket Event: only available on site), or included in All-Access Pass ($500), Festival Panel Pass ($75), or Day Panel Pass ($30)
Ticket Code(s): AllAccessPass, LitPanelPass, StudentPanPass, Sr/TeachPanPass, DayPanelPassSun

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Fringes of the festival

Once you buy a panel pass for the TWLF, I understand that you might then feel compelled to squeeze every dime from it, running from one room to the next, checking off workshops, circling possibilities, slowly scanning the merchandise table in a spare moment, sure that the right gift for your literary friends is here. I have been guilty of that. 75 bucks doesn’t come that easily to me and so often I equate value with quantity, like so many Americans. I do, after all , shop at the dollar store.
Luckily, with age comes experience (let’s not talk about the bad eyesight and odd aches- what DID I do to my arm?) and so I have grown more aware of my choices, at least those that are available with a panel pass.
I could sit in the uncomfortable chairs of a ballroom or a museum through the post-breakfast to cocktail hours, hoping that the gentleman behind me would realize that his throat clearing is not discreet at all, but incredibly well-timed to cover the bon mots that most likely were what the rest of the audience was chuckling over when my ambient hearing returned. I could do that and have.
Or, I could pack up when I feel the energy lagging at the 12:10 mark and head for a fortifying gumbo lunch at the most appropriately named restaurant for a Tennessee festival goer (I believe in you. you CAN decipher this) followed by a cheap cocktail from the oddly agreeably afternoon haunt of the Chart Room, ultimately heading to Crescent City Books for an afternoon of lessons.
Once there, you meet Isabel, their traumatized but healing cat and talk of books and John Boutte with local author and bookseller Michael Z.
You head upstairs and immediately find a book that has no reason to be prominently displayed (this visit it was “Farmers Last Frontier: Agriculture 1860-1897, which is an astounding find this month), sit with your discreet, illicit cocktail and thumb through it while viewing books and book lovers, pausing to think of calliopes on steamboats and why people honk their horns so often and how creaking stairs can be both frightening and comforting.

And salute Tennessee and his devotees who bring you to the Quarter this fine day.

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Southern Gothic for breakfast

This morning, we are starting with a discussion about Southern Gothic in novels with
Barton Palmer, Annette Saddik, Harvey Young with mod Robert Bray.

At least sitting in the Williams Research Center evokes a bit more mystery and ambience than the Queen Anne Ballroom of the otherwise lovely Monteleone Hotel.
There is a small cartography exhibit in the anteroom, which is a pleasant way to prepare for sitting for an hour or more. The “oilmen” map is a particular good example of the lovely and profane and so might be the best example of Gothic out there.

For me, Southern Gothic smacks of Mississippi and Alabama more than New Orleans, except of course for Tennessee himself, who we must always remember, was actually born in Mississippi.
Romantic and grotesque is always an appropriate way to describe any part of the South or any area really that has as many defeated people yet the abundance that we have.

Pat Conroy said “All southern writing can be traced to this one statement: On the night that the hogs ate Willie, momma died when she heard what daddy did to sister.”

Or, unfortunately, what one panelist this morning did to the others by taking more than half of the time allotted this panel.

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Civil code in New Orleans

Researchers at TWLF talk about the differences in New Orleans civil law (derived from Napoleonic law) from English common-law states:

1. Daughters and sons inherited equally
2. Woman never lost family name even after married. “Marie Laveau, wife of Paris.”
3. Unmarked or widow could conduct business
4. Married woman retained control of what she brought to marriage and half of community property acquired in her marriage.
5. Married woman could petition for separation of property in case of husbands bad business dealings.

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Friday on the sliver

As I read through my TWLF schedule to plan my day, I treat myself with a breakfast at Satsuma in the Bywater. Green egg sandwich, wheat grass shot (grown by a MidCity neighbor Jeff on his screened porch) and an immune booster juice.
There is a special delight in spending a day on the streets along the Mississippi, with their graceful curves and views of massive ships slowly passing at eye level. Narrow sidewalks open to old dusty brick walls and uneven stairs with acoustics that encourage fascinating side conversations and allow odd snippets to be overheard…
“Do you know the history of Utah and the Mormons before US intervention?”

“Did you replace the whole machine or just the part that was dripping?”

“I could use a Bloody Mary; actually I would abuse a Bloody Mary right about now…”

“I think that bag would work great for sneaking stuff into JazzFest.”

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Tennessee Returns To The Quarter

Ah my favorite weekend is here. Time to head to the Quarter and immerse myself in all things literary and of Tennessee. 4 days of workshops, plays, walking tours, shouting contests and mint juleps.
Hope to see you there, and if not, look for my blogs from the Fest.

http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/festival/schedule

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Quarter Stitch

One of the longstanding needlepoint shops in the city has moved-slightly. Quarter Stitch which had withstood the Alpine Bar as a neighbor, the on again off again repairs due to a historical building owned by the state, has finally moved into new space right across the street from their old location. You can now find them on the “lake side” of Chartres between Wilkinson and the Square. The new location seems more spacious and certainly is no worse than the last as far as location, and once the gutting and constructing of Dickie Brennan’s new restaurant at Le Petit Theatre is over, things should be delightful for the wonderful yarn store we all love.