The Festival schwag shop

Now you can save room in your luggage for books and mail-order souvenirs from the Festival's online store.

T-shirts, baseball jerseys, messenger bags, mugs, aprons, clocks, hats, cups, and totes are all available...even dog clothes. (Mint juleps still available onsite only.)

Profile: Grace Zabriskie

Edited to add: Due to illness, Grace Zabriskie will not be attending the Festival.

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Grace Zabriskie, a New Orleans-born actor, is coming home to perform the role of the infamous French Quarter madam Norma Wallace in Carl Walker and Jim Fitzmorris' The Last Madam, an adaptation of Chris Wiltz' biography of Wallace.

Zabriskie is one of those character actors whom you've seen in everything (the IMDB lists more than 80 films to her credit!), though she's probably most known to TV watchers for three memorable characters: the mother of Susan (George's fiancee who dies from licking envelopes) on Seinfeld; the matriarch on HBO's Big Love; and Sarah, the mother of doomed Laura Palmer, in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. She's also an accomplished artist--check out some of her spectacular boxes.

She's the perfect choice to play Norma; Zabriskie grew up in the French Quarter, and her father operated both Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and Café Lafitte in Exile, two of the Vieux Carré's liveliest bars. As Zabriskie remembers in an HBO interview:

It was reputedly where Jean and Pierre Lafitte, the pirate brothers, had their blacksmith shop upfront, smuggling activities in back. We were living in the attic when I was born. People like Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote came by and brought me dolls....

I always felt guilty about bringing up my children in relatively restrained suburban life in Atlanta. I was third-generation bohemian. My parents lived in the Quarter before it was even remotely popular. New Orleans harbors every reverse prejudice; I was 30 before I thought someone who took care of a lawn was okay.

Here's Zabriskie in one of her most famous roles, Sarah Palmer in Twin Peaks:


Sat., Mar. 31, noon: "The Last Madam: A Colorful and Decadent Reading with Grace Zabriskie" ($25)

One-Act Play winner announced

The winning play in the 2007 One-Act Play Contest is Weird by Brett Ryback of Los Angeles. The University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theater, and Communication Arts presents a staged reading of Weird on Sunday, April 1st at 10:00 am at Muriel’s Cabaret, Le Petit Théâtre, followed by a full production of last year’s winning play, Cary Pepper's Small Things, at 11:00 am. Brett will also receive a $1000 cash prize, and Weird will appear as a full production at next year’s Festival.

140 plays were submitted for the 2007 competition. The runners-up (who will each receive panel passes to this year's festival) are:

• 3DB Inside (Cynthia Ferrell, Oak Park, CA)
• On the Permanence of Fugitive Colors (Cyd Casados, New Orleans, LA)
• A Roz by Any Other Name (Brett Ryback, Los Angeles, CA)
• The Secret Museum (Lynne Kaufman, San Francisco, CA)
• Down the Lane (Clodagh Ann Mulvey, New York, NY)
• Into the Sun (Susanne Karsten, Cologne, Germany)
• In the Rare Event (Douglas Reitinger, Sheridan, WY)
• Kissing Jennifer in the Moonlight (Peter Hardy, Atlanta, GA)
• Green (Bekah Brunstetter, Brooklyn, NY)
• Hoops (Demetra Kareman, New York, NY)

Profile: Haven Kimmel

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Okay, I fell half-in love with Haven Kimmel 20 pages into her astonishing memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, and immediately went out and found her debut, She Got Up Off the Couch. Both were tales of growing up in the Midwest in a weird family, and both would be greatly appealing to anyone who enjoyed Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors (the wonderful book, not the mediocre movie); it's no surprise that Burroughs is a huge Haven Kimmel friend and fan.

Here's an interview that Ms. Kimmel did with Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. One telling quote:

For a while I thought that Zippy might be my ultimate experiment in terms of what can be done with first person narration. I was interested, first of all, in how long it's possible to sustain a child's voice intelligibly, meaningfully, and without losing the interest of the reader. It turns out you can do it a damn long time. The comment I get most often about Zippy is, "I wish it were four hundred pages longer."

I agree--it was one of those books that I hated to see end.

Sat., Mar. 31, 11:30 am:
"Writers Read"

Sun., Apr. 1, 10 am:
"Writing From Memory: An Insider's Look at Autobiography"

Sun., Apr. 1, 11:30 am:
"Wild At Heart"

You're invited...

Come finish off the Fest with some free food and drink over Jackson Square after a panel discussion for the release of Louisiana in Words! Many of the 110 authors involved in the much anticipated anthology will be there to sign, read, chat and celebrate, including John Biguenet, Andrei Codrescu, Bev Marshall and many others.

Never before has a book sought to capture a state with words like this. Created from submissions received from the world over, the book offers an authentic diary of Louisiana featuring 120 nonfiction selections from known and unknown writers, each one minute in time.

Where: The Cabildo in Jackson Square, 2nd floor gallery
When: Sun., Apr. 1, 4 pm (following the 2:30 pm panel discussion)
Sponsored and hosted by: The Cabildo

Schedule changes

A few alterations to the printed schedule (which can be downloaded here in PDF format):

• There will be no Sunday performance of The Last Madam
• Amy Guth has replaced Earnest Hill in the Saturday Writers Read panel
• A Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa has been moved to Saturday at 2:30 pm
• New Orleans as a Home for Writers ... Still has been moved to Saturday at 11:30 am

Profile: Michael Lewis

A look at some of the personalities at TW Fest

Michael Lewis went to Newman. I didn't know that, but in New Orleans where you went to high school trumps all; it probably means more, locally, than the fact that he went to Princeton and then the London School of Economics. He hit the big time with Liar's Poker, which was one of the big three 1980s go-go greedfest stories that seemed to sum up the decade (along with The Bonfire of the Vanities and Oliver Stone's Wall Street).

Fortunately for readers, he left Salomon Brothers and followed a writing career; he's now a contributor to the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and he's written a slew of books, including The New New Thing (a look at Silicon Valley) and Moneyball (about the hapless but somehow successful Oakland A's). Right now Michael lives in Berkeley and Paris with his family.

Oh, and remember Tabitha Soren, the anchor from MTV News back in the day? His wife.

Thu., Mar. 29, 3:15 pm:
"Michael Lewis: Behind the Zeitgeist" (master class)
Sat., Mar. 31, 1 pm:
"Politics as Theater/Theater as Politics"

The Times-Picayune on the Fest

Susan Larson, longtime book editor of The Times-Picayune, has a short article up about this year's Fest. There's sure to be more coverage at nola.com before Mar. 25.

Profile: Yusef Komunyakaa

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Yusef Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, La. (a couple hours' drive north from New Orleans) and served in the Army during the Vietnam War--two experiences that inform his Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry (he won in 1994 for his collection Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems). One of his most famous poems, "Facing It," is a meditation on the Vietnam Veterans' War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He is currently a professor at Princetown University.

Komunyakaa is credited with bringing the syncopations of jazz and Southern music into poetry; he is supposed to be a terrific speaker and a mesmerizing reader. The Academy of American Poets says:

Komunyakaa has long been inspired by the black musicians of the 1950s and 1960s who overcame obstacles of prejudice, crossed color lines in their choice of bandmates, and were embraced by the population as a whole, despite ongoing racism in the culture. To Komunyakaa, their careers demonstrate the ability of music to humanize and unite people, evidence of "democracy in action."

Click here to hear Yusef Komunyakaa read his poem "My Father's Love Letters."

* * *

Fri., Mar. 30, 3:15 pm:
"Yusef Komunyakaa: All That Jazz" (master class)

Sat., Apr. 1, 2:30 pm:
"A Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa"

Profile: Calvin Trillin

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Calvin Trillin is a staff writer at The New Yorker, with more than 25 books to his credit (the ones I've read have been about family and food - he's a great food writer). His first book, published in 1964, was a look at the integration of the University of Georgia; his latest book, About Alice, is a look back at his late wife, partner, and inspiration, and it's gotten rave reviews everywhere. Trillin is also a syndicated columnist, and has written more articles for The Nation than any other writer.

Here's a fascinating interview with Mr. Trillin on salon.com, which includes the following factoid:

But despite publishing 16 books (including two novels and a volume of short stories), Trillin didn't debut on the bestseller list until 1993, with Remembering Denny.

Sad for Mr. Trillin, but that should be inspirational to any writer: keep plugging.


Sun., Apr. 1, 10 am:
"Writing From Memory: An Insider's Look at Autobiography"

Sun., Apr. 1, 2:30 pm:
"A Conversation with Calvin Trillin"

Fest in the press

Patti Nickell, another New Orleans expatriate, has a nice story in the Lexington Herald-Leader about this year's TW Fest. She's scheduled to be there too.

Festival schedule is set

The official Fest schedule came out today - you can download a copy here.

And it looks great! Besides the panel discussions, there's a lot of theater this year, as well as food events, parties, etc.

I'm still going through it, but a few quick first impressions...

THU. MAR. 29 - Master classes with Barry Gifford and Michael Lewis. Gifford has written more than any three authors you could name - plus he collaborated with David Lynch on the movies Wild at Heart and Lost Highway. And Lewis "blogged" the 1996 presidential campaign before there were blogs in his very funny Trail Fever.

FRI. MAR. 30 - The first big day of the Fest. There are big conversations with Sharyn McCrumb and Richard Ford, two plays, the Scholar's Conference, and a lot of panels. One that I won't miss is "Southern Culture on the Skids?" (1 pm), which has two very funny men: Chris Rose, the columnist for The Times-Picayune, and my old neighbor Mike Swindle, who's like Hunter S. Thompson back when he was still good (and alive, I suppose).

SAT. MAR. 31 - More panels: first novelists, coastal erosion issues, "Noir: New Orleans Style" (another can't-miss), Grace Zabriskie performing The Last Madam (directed by my old friend Carl Walker), talking cooking with chef John Besh, and talking Tennessee with Kenneth Holditch and John Waters....and quite a bit more.

SUN. APR. 1 - "An Insider's Look at Autobiography," with Calvin Trillin and Haven Kimmel? I'm there. Same with the desserts panel (and tasting) at the Ritz-Carlton, featuring one of New Orleans' real culinary treasures, Mrs. Leah Chase. And at 4 pm, the annual Stanley/Stella Shouting Contest in Jackson Square (by which time a number of participants will be drunk, or nursing hangovers) - perfect for April Fool's Day.

That's just some of it - read the whole catalog...