Susan Larson interviews Reine Dugas about next week’s Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival and the Saints and Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival and Desiree Richter about her new book, The Presence of Absence.
Here’s what’s on tap in the literary life this week:
Tel Aviv essayist Jennifer Lang will discuss “The Writing Life: where to start, what to write about, where to find inspiration,” Saturday, March 15, at 9:30 a.m. the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.
One Book One New Orleans presents a workshop about uncovering your family history with author Fatima Shaik, Saturday, March 15, from 10:30 a.m.-noon at the Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center. The workshop is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Register at Eventbrite.
Philip Hoose signs his children’s book, “Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now,” Saturday, March 15, at 10 a.m. at Octavia Books.
Larry Bagneris signs “Call Me Larry: A Creole Man’s Triumph over Racism and Homophobia,” Saturday, March 15, from 2-3 p.m. at the Historic New Orleans Collection Gift Shop.
Poets Brad Richard, Skye Jackson, and Julie Kane read from their new books Sunday. March 16, at 6 p.m. at The Domino, 3044 St. Claude.
Scholar Saidiya Hartman, author of “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments,” presents a lecture, “Critical Fabulation and the Tense of History,” Tuesday, March 18, at 6 p.m. at Xavier University’s Qatar Auditorium.
Genealogist Gaynell Brady will lead a presentation focusing on African American heritage at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 18, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.
New Orleans writers Marguerite Sheffer, author of “The Man in the Banana Trees,” Annell Lopez, author of “I’ll Give You a Reason,” and Vanessa Saunders, author of “The Flat Woman,” read Wednesday, March 19, at 5:30 p.m. at the Norman Mayer Library.
Sloane Crosley appears in conversation with Nathaniel Rich and signs her memoir, “Grief Is for People,” Wednesday, March 19 at 6 p.m. at Garden District Book Shop. This is a ticketed event.
Kayla Min Andrews appears in conversation with Maurice Carlos Ruffin to celebrate the paperback publication of “The Fetishist,” by her late mother, Katherine Min, the 4th annual Katherine Min Celebration, Thursday, March 20, at 6 p.m. at Octavia Books. Mary H.K. Choi, the 2025 recipient of MacDowell’s Katherine Min Fellowship, will also appear.
“Free for All: Inside the Public Library,” a new documentary that focuses on the value of public libraries in daily American life, will be screened at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 20, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie. The documentary was produced by Dawn Logsdon and Lucie Faulknor
