Susan Larson interviews Mike Strecker about his comic novel, The Knights of Wade, and Kate Chopin scholar, Emily Toth, about the 125th anniversary of The Awakening.
Here’s what’s on tap in the literary life this week:
Melissa Jao presents a story time and signs her book, “The Hesitant Hedgehog,” Saturday, July 20 at 11 a.m. at Garden District Book Shop.
Local poets will celebrate the life of Martha McFerren by reading from her poetry at 2 p.m., Saturday, July 20, at the Old Metairie Library, 2350 Metairie Road.
Alexandra Vasti signs her romance novel, “Ne’er Duke Well,” Saturday, July 20, at 6 p.m. at Blue Cypress Books.
The Friends of the Jefferson Public Library will hold a Box Sale of Children's Books and Music CDs, Saturday, July 27, from 9 am to 4 pm or until sold out, at East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Avenue in Metairie. Boxes of children’s books will be sold for $5 each, as well as boxes of music CDs . Boxes are labeled as to what they contain (books or CDs), and cannot be opened prior to purchasing.
Also coming up: To celebrate the publication of “The 1619 Project” in paperback, Baldwin & Co. presents Nikole Hannah Jones in conversation with Daniel Black Saturday, July 27, at 4 p.m. at the Georges Auditorium, Dillard University. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.
And don’t forget, during these dogs of summer, most of our public libraries are doing double duty as cooling centers. Get yourself a free library card, pick up some books, and cool off at the same time.
Each Spring, LMNL invites submissions to its annual writing competition. Formerly the Words & Music Writing Competition, it has been rechristened the Patty Friedmann Writing Competition. The categories are poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, public high school short story, and “Beyond the Bars” (a multi-genre competition for incarcerated juveniles), associated with the Words and Music writers’ conference that takes place in November each year. Winners in all categories will be published in our 2025 LMNL Anthology and all runners-up, finalists, and all entrants will be considered for publication. Check out lmnlarts.com for complete info.
Check out tennesseewilliams.net for the guidelines for The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival’s and the Saints and Sinners LGBTQ Literary Festival’s writing contests for emerging writers. TWFest hosts contests in one-act playwriting, short fiction, poetry, and very short fiction. SASFest hosts contests in short fiction and poetry Submissions must be original work and not published in any way. The next Festival dates are March 26 - 30, 2025 (TWFest) and March 28 - 30, 2025 (SASFest).
