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...