Category Archives: books

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Time for Tennessee

Every year, I find time in my busy spring work schedule to get to the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, which is my favorite festival of the year. It offers a healthy slice of tidbits for working writers, for lovers of New Orleans  readers of good books and performances for theatergoers.

Their digital schedule is handy, but just go to the Monteleone Hotel today thru Sunday to get a paper schedule, buy tickets, purchase books or concessions (you may find me there volunteering on Friday) and soak up the vibe.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!

.”>Tickets are ON SALE NOW!

Tickets are ON SALE NOW!

We know you might have your favorite way of viewing our 5-day schedule of events, so here are some options so you can check out all of our panels, master classes, theater, and special events and plan your Festival experience.

  1. Hover over FESTIVAL on the menu bar at the top of our website and you’ll see dropdowns to view the events by category, see all the speakers (whose pages list their events), and a schedule that shows you the daily version.
  2. Or you can view and download our full color program.
  3. Or maybe you’d just like a printer-friendly descriptive program that you can peruse at your leisure.
  4. Or peruse our full color program with digital links.

Check out 2tender4house: an indie lit fest in New Orleans also happening this week.

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Nola Files: The First 20 Stories

The Nola Files is preparing stories of the most influential people and places in New Orleans history. To do this history project justice we need to first focus on the people and places that had the widest impact and connected with most of the city. Please look through some of these options and vote for those you think need to be our focus first.

In this survey you will vote on PEOPLE who stories must be told.

 

The First 20 Stories

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Writers Resist New Orleans

Writers Resist New Orleans is being held in collaboration with PEN America, as part of a international day of readings championing freedom of speech, and the power of expression to change the world.

Representatives from New Orleans’ diverse writer’s community will be reading selections from great political, activist, and literary works of our past including words from:

Martin Luther King, Jr
James Baldwin
Audre Lorde
Allen Ginsberg
Angela Davis

and many more to come.

We hope to provide a space for the New Orleans community to come together during this time of national anxiety. We view this as an opportunity to connect, seek solace, and rebuild. We welcome ALL.

A note from the national organizers:
Writers Resist is not affiliated with a political party. We wish to bypass direct political discourse in favor of an inspired focus on the future, and how we, as writers, can be a unifying force for the protection of Democracy. In order for us to heal and move forward, individually and as a nation, we believe people need something to be for in this anxious moment. The only thing we “resist” is that which attacks or seeks to undermine those most basic principles of freedom and justice for all.

http://writersresist.org/

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Guidebooks to Sin

Join THNOC on Friday, February 3, for the release of Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans by Pamela D. Arceneaux. Between 1897 and 1917, a legal red-light district thrived at the edge of the French Quarter, helping establish the notorious reputation that adheres to New Orleans today. Though many scholars have written about Storyville, no thorough contemporary study of the blue books–directories of the neighborhood’s prostitutes, featuring advertisements for liquor, brothels, and other goods and services–has been available until now.
Arceneaux’s examination of these rare guides invites readers into a version of Storyville created by its own entrepreneurs. A foreword by the historian Emily Epstein Landau places the blue books in the context of their time, concurrent with the rise of American consumer culture and modern advertising. Illustrated with hundreds of facsimile pages from the blue books in THNOC’s holdings, Guidebooks to Sin illuminates the intersection of race, commerce, and sex in this essential chapter of New Orleans history.
The book, which retails for $50, will be available for purchase at The Shop at The Collection, local independent bookstores, and national online retailers beginning Friday, February 3. The book release event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Email wrc@hnoc.org or call (504) 523-4662 to make reservations.
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Friday, February 3

5:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Lecture with
Pamela D. Arceneaux, THNOC senior librarian/rare books curator, at the
Queen Anne Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal Street
6:30 – 8 p.m.: Reception and book signing
The Historic New Orleans Collection
533 Royal Street
Admission is free, but reservations are required. Email wrc@hnoc.org or call (504) 523-4662 to make reservations.
The Historic New Orleans Collection presents
February 4, 2017
Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal Street
Registration is required to attend the symposium, and early registration is available through Friday, January 13, with rates ranging between $40 and $75. Rates will increase to $50 – $85 on Saturday, January 14, and registration will remain open as long as space is available. Register online or call (504) 523-4662 to register via telephone.
Though the citizens of New Orleans may not have known it at the time, the year 1917 was a pivotal moment in the city’s history. The first jazz recording, “Livery Stable Blues,” was released, and Storyville, the famed red-light district, closed. One hundred years later, the 2017 Williams Research Center Symposium, Storyville and Jazz, 1917: An End and a Beginning, examines the ways in which the neighborhood and the musical movement have shaped perceptions of New Orleans around the world. A schedule of talks is available online. Early registration is available through Friday, January 13.
The 22nd annual Williams Research Center Symposium is presented by The Historic New Orleans Collection with support from Hotel Monteleone and ClearBridge Advisors, Inc. Additional support is provided by St. Denis J. Villere & Co.; Becker Suffern McLanahan, Ltd.; AOS Interior Environments; Baptist Community Ministries; Bywater Woodworks, Inc.; Exterior Designs, Inc.; Milling Benson Woodward, LLP; Waggonner & Ball Architects; New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau; New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation; Premium Parking; and Solaris Garage.
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Interview with editor of N.O Lit: 200 years of New Orleans Literature

Listen to The Anthology of Louisiana Literature‘s 2-part interview with Dr. Nancy Dixon, editor of one of the necessary books for any New Orleans scholar or armchair historian: N.O. Lit: 200 Years of New Orleans Literature. Even if this brilliant woman wasn’t my pal, I’d still be urging you to get a copy. I open it up again and again to read her selections from different authors.

The 560 pages includes a well-curated set of short fiction and plays that reflect the city’s literary history, from Paul Louis LeBlanc de Villeneuve’s 18th-century play The Festival of the Young Corn, or The Heroism of Poucha-Houmma to Fatima Shaik’s 1987 short story “Climbing Monkey Hill.”

Dixon provides informative introductions to each author’s section, placing the works and their creators within the context of the city’s history and the history of its literature, making the anthology both an enjoyable artful artifact and an important academic resource.

Part 1

Part 2

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Crescent City Books moves to 124 Baronne

Spread the word. Crescent City Books will be moving to 124 Baronne St. (across the street from The Roosevelt Hotel/Domenica Restaurant). Will reopen by, if not before, March 1st.

 

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