More press

Columnist Chris Rose, a panelist on this year's "Southern Culture on the Skids?" discussion, writes about the Stanley/Stella Shouting Contest in today's Times-Picayune.

Chris Rose and the Tennessee Ernie Ford Festival

Chris Rose is a columnist for The Times-Picayune, who underwent a metamorphosis from Britney-chronicler to Outraged Man of the City after the levees collapsed. Since then, he's been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize and become a contributor to both PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and NPR's Morning Edition, and his book of post-K essays, 1 dead in attic, has raised more than $25,000 for New Orleans musicians' charities.

Today's Rose column is about the incredible sights and sounds of spring in the Crescent City, but it also has this intriguing mention:

Springtime in New Orleans is when and where the highbrow Tennessee Williams literary festival concludes with a contest to see who can scream "Stella!" the best in a dirty T-shirt, and the Tennessee Ernie Ford Festival in a local juke joint around the corner serves as a cultural counterpoint, seducing unsuspecting tourists into drunken singalongs to "16 Tons."

A Tennessee Ernie Ford Festival? I am so there. But, Chris, which juke joint is it?

Fri., Mar. 30, 1 pm
"Southern Culture on the Skids?"

Panelists: Chris Rose, Mike Swindle, Helen Taylor, and Charles Wilson. Moderator: Joshua Clark.

The whole schedule

Susan Larson, books editor of The Times-Picayune, has done her usual excellent job chronicling the dozens of events on the schedule at this week's Festival. (The T-P's mystery critic, Diana Pinckley, will also be interviewing Sharyn McCrumb on Friday afternoon.) And Cheré Coen of The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La. has her own preview of the Fest as well.

Susan also has a rundown for Friday's Tennessee Williams Scholars' Conference, which includes the following anecdote:

Lest you think it may be too dry and scholarly, there are lots of anecdotes such as this one, told by Robert Bray: "Tennessee said of his own family, 'We're all crazy, but Dakin [Williams, Tennessee's brother] is the craziest of all of us.' And Dakin's rejoinder was, 'Well, maybe so, but I'm the one who got in the car and drove all of you to the mental institutions.' "

The Times-Picayune on John Waters on Tennessee Williams

David Cuthbert of The Times-Picayune has an extremely entertaining Tennessee-themed Q&A with filmmaker and panelist John Waters in today's paper. Waters has written the introduction for Memoirs, the TW biography that's just been reissued by New Directions Publishing.

There's also a great roundup of stories on the Festival's theater offerings, including Jeremy Lawrence in "Everybody Expects Me to Write Another Streetcar," Gregg Barrios' new play "Rancho Pancho," and a general roundup of Tenn-themed stage offerings.

Sat., Mar. 31, 4 pm
"Tennessee Williams' Memoirs: When the Playwright Had His Say"

Panelists: John Waters, David Kaplan of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, and Thomas Keith, editor of New Directions Publishing. Moderator: Kenneth Holditch.

NPR on Tennessee's notebooks

Last weekend, National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" had a feature on Tennessee Williams' Notebooks, which have been collected in a new volume by scholar Margaret Bradham Thornton. Actor Rick Foucheux read them aloud; you can listen to the broadcast here.

Press from all over the area

The Baton Rouge Advocate has a nice story about the Festival today by its books editor, Greg Langley. Among the things he says:

The Tennessee Williams/French Quarter Literary Festival is a great opportunity to go back to New Orleans, help out with the city’s recovery a little and get a whole lot back. It’s a high-profile literary event that spotlights the best of New Orleans. If you live in The Advocate’s circulation area, then you’re within no more than a couple of hours’ drive of New Orleans. Hop on the interstate and go. Make a day of it. Get some of that great food you remember. Be entertained. See some live theater. Get a book by a great writer and get a great writer to sign it. It’s a rare opportunity.

The Louisiana Weekly has a writeup on the appearance of Yusef Komunyakaa:

Komunyakaa is the author of 12 books of poetry, among them Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. His Thieves of Paradise and Talking Dirty to the Gods were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other honors include a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the William Faulkner Prize from the Universite de Rennes, the Hanes Poetry Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Professor and Distinguished Senior Poet at New York University and served as a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005. His most recent book is Gilgamesh, a verse play (concept and dramaturgy by Chad Gracia), published by Wesleyan University Press in November 2006.

Also, from Sunday's New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is among the 39 winners of the 2006 James Patterson PageTurner Awards, described in the citation as "a New Orleans literary festival that continues to bring excitement and fun to a community still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Katrina." The award includes a cash donation of $5,000.

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.

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.