The Saints and Sinners 9.5 Literary Event opens with an evening of cocktails and readings from the anthology: Saints and Sinners 2012: New Fiction from the Festival. At this book launch/welcome party, finalists from the third annual Short Fiction Contest will read selections from or discuss their creative works. Live music by Raphael Bass.

Hosted by co-editor, Amie M. Evans with readings and/or discussion by contest finalists: J.R. Greenwell, George E. Jordan, Jeff Lindemann, Frank Perez, James Russell, and our winner, Jerry Rabushka.

All guests receive a copy of the book, published by QueerMojo, an imprint of Rebel Satori press, and can be the first to sample the anthology’s Saints and Sinners-themed stories. A special thank you goes out to our title sponsor for the contest and production of the Saints and Sinners anthology, The John Burton Harter Charitable Trust.

Join us for evening literary offerings amid the gorgeous art of Gallery Orange in the French Quarter. Festival authors William Holden, Jeff Mann, Radclyffe, J.M. Redmann, and Jerry Wheeler will read selections from their latest works for your listening pleasure. Hosted by humorist and author, Fay Jacobs. As always, there’ll be time for Q&As and lively discussion with authors and attendees afterwards. Cocktails and canapes will be served throughout the evening.

We’re accepting submissions of 2-4 original, unpublished poems as contest entries. Deadline (postmark) for submissions is August 15, 2012.

Read our full submission guidelines and FAQ.

The winner — to be chosen by Ava Leavell Haymon (pictured), author of poetry collections Kitchen Heat and The Strict Economy of Fire — will receive a grand prize of:

• $1,000
• A VIP All-Access Pass ($500 value) for the 27th annual Festival (March 20-24, 2013)
• Publication in Louisiana Cultural Vistas magazine
• A public reading on a literary panel at the 2013 Festival

The top ten finalists will receive a panel pass ($75 value) to attend the 2013 Festival, and their names will be published on www.tennesseewilliams.net.

Entry fee: $20 per entry.

The contest results will be announced by January 15, 2013.

We look forward to reading your work!

What does your New Orleans background contribute to your life as a poet?
The fact that I am from New Orleans does not just contribute to my life as a poet — it is the very bones, blood, and breath of my life as a poet. I come from a family that has been in New Orleans for generations; my family has stood on the same corner for Mardi Gras since before my dad was born. All my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, fake aunts, and uncles — they all still live here. As a result, my life has always been deeply, fundamentally tied to this area, its environments, and its culture. Along the same lines, family and traditions are as much a part of the landscape of New Orleans and southeast Louisiana as bayous and marshes — whether its fishing spots handed down from father to son, recipes from mothers and grandmothers, or Saints games on Sunday. In many ways, family and place are inextricably bound in my work. 

You draw from our musical heritage in your work, don’t you?
I was blessed to have parents who exposed me early and often to New Orleans music. I grew up on Professor Longhair, the Nevilles, Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas… anyone from here can fill in the rest of the list. A part of this musical culture that always intrigued me, even as a child, was the immense mythology of Louisiana music, peopled by characters such as John Henry, Stag O’Lee, and countless others.

I went to college in Massachusetts, majored in classics, and started seriously focusing on my poetry. Somewhere along the way, I realized that all the mythic personalities in the music I grew up with was the mythology of America, or at least the Deep South. With that, I embarked on an ongoing series of poems that connect the mythic characters of Louisiana’s musical heritage with the myths of ancient Greece, using the meters and rhyme schemes of the songs themselves to reinterpret both the stories of the characters in the songs and the ancient myths that, in my mind, are echoed in their lyrics. My intent with these poems is to evoke the idea that while the characters may have different names, and while Stag O’ Lee’s dice playing may not on the surface seem to have anything to do with Achilles in the Iliad, the underlying motifs and meaning of their stories are connected.

Nephilim, the poem cycle that was the winner, has a special place in your work and family history, doesn’t it?
“The Nephilim” poems are probably the most important poems I have ever written, in my mind. They tell the story of returning to my grandmother’s flooded house in Chalmette after Katrina, and trying to find her wedding ring in ruins. I didn’t write the cycle until 2010 — five years after the storm — because it took me that long to figure out what the experience had meant to me and to my family. I knew when we were shoveling mud in the 100 degree heat and the unearthly silence of the flooded house that something very important and deeply human was happening; it just took me several years to figure out what it was and how to say it. “The Nephilim” poems were my attempt to recreate and distill what we felt on that day. These poems were meant as a tribute to and a relic for my family — and particularly my grandmother — of that profound experience. As a result, I was overwhelmingly humbled when they were selected as the grand prize winner in the Tennessee Williams Festival poetry contest.

Would you tell us a bit about the reading at the Festival? You had a very special audience member!
The reading was a fantastic experience, and I did have a very special guest — namely, my grandmother, who is in some sense the central character in the poems, and to whom the poems are dedicated. Given that “The Nephilim” was really meant as a sort of gift to her and my family, the fact that she was able to hear them read at the festival was wonderful.

That said, the reading event as a whole was a lot of fun — Julie Kane and Amy Hempel were great hosts, and Kent Wascom (the winner of the fiction contest) was a hilarious counterpoint to the serious subject matter of my poems.

You write very intricate, formal poems that are still lovely and accessible, a wonderful combination of qualities. Who’s influenced you? What teachers? 
I think that for a very long time — and arguably with good reason — readers in general have come to view poetry as some arcane and totally abstract form that only a select few can understand — a sort of literary philosopher’s stone. This goes against everything I believe about poetry.

At one time (think Homer, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, etc.) poetry was the most popular, most accessible, and most democratic art form known to man — all you needed was a mouth to compose it and ears to listen. Somehow, this aspect of poetry has been lost to a large extent in modern poetry, and most people on the street would tell you that poetry is for the most part like a foreign language to them. In my own poetry I strive first and foremost to make sure that everything I write is accessible — that is, I try to make sure that anyone who comes to one of my poems can read it once and say “this is what this poem is about.”

At the same time, I also strive to write poems that are layered and dense, so that a second or third reading may stir up meanings, images, or themes that may not have been apparent in a casual first reading. But ultimately, if there were one adjective that I would hope could be applied to my poems, it would be accessibility — because without accessibility, the act of writing is nothing more than a shout echoing in an empty cave.

That said, I have been influenced profoundly by my friend, fellow poet, and poetic mentor John Freeman, who has fostered my writing for the better part of ten years now. Likewise, Professor Steven Pearce, my high school Latin and Greek teacher, instilled in me a love for the classics, which resonates to this day in nearly everything I write.

What poets do you read for pleasure?
I have a copy of Robert Penn Warren’s selected poems on my nightstand. He is, in my opinion, the exemplar in modern poetry for depth of vision combined with accessibility. Seamus Heaney’s early work is also in this category. I have also been reading several Italian poets (most often Salvatore Quasimodo and Eugenio Montale) whose simple — sometimes stark — language and imagery are haunting. And while he certainly does not fall into the accessible category, I always go back to the work of Dylan Thomas, whose language is pound for pound probably the most powerful in the modern English canon.

I make it a point to read Louisiana poets as well as poetry by other young writers. Currently, I am enjoying former Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrel Bourque’s selected poems (In Ordinary Light) as well as the fantastic Louisiana volume of the Southern Poetry Anthology — a must have for anyone in Louisiana who is serious about reading poetry. Finally, I have been reading and re-reading three collections of poems by an astoundingly good poet — and good friend — William Wright, whose most recent book Night Field Anecdote (out of Louisiana Literature Press) is starkly beautiful.

How do you combine poetry with your day job? Most lawyers are trying to be the next John Grisham!
This may sound odd, but in many ways I view legal writing and poetry to be very similar — in practice if not substance. When I write poems, I try to make sure that I am very clearly portraying my images and themes with language that is tight and syntactically interesting. When I am writing legal briefs, I strive for the same goals — clarity, tight language, and a flow that keeps the reader reading and (hopefully) understanding my arguments. There is a very long and rich poetic tradition of lawyer poets (Wallace Stevens is the one most people recognize), which bears out the idea that poetry and the law are not necessarily strange bedfellows. That said, I wouldn’t complain if my poems wound up on the bestseller shelf alongside the next John Grisham novel.

Based on a true story, The Moon in the Mango Tree chronicles the life of Barbara Bond and her struggles between what she wants and what she needs. The book is set in the Roaring Twenties when young women were lobbying to get the right to vote and forge new ground. Barbara is faced with a decision to follow her own dream of becoming an opera singer and her responsibility to follow her husband to Siam, present day Thailand. When she chooses her husband, Barbara finds herself on a journey to the jungles of Siam to take on the role of missionary doctor’s wife. There she encounters the local people and Buddhist culture and the missionary workers trying to bring Jesus to this remote location.

The NLAPW, founded in 1897 is a professional organization for women artists, composers and writers founded in 1897 headquartered in the historic Pen Arts Building, formerly the home of Todd Lincoln, in Washington, D.C.

Listen to Pamela Binnings Ewen discuss her novel, Dancing on Glass, on Susan Larson’s The Reading Life.

Tennessee Williams courtesy of The Times-Picayune.

See you next year!

It was a whirlwind weekend: Tom Sancton and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band tugged at our heartstrings at the Song for My Fathers gala (Pictured, photo by Ride Hamilton); audiences were spellbound by a conversation with Piper Laurie, Bryan Batt, and Christian LeBlanc; rumbling bellies were appeased at Home is Where the Heart Is: Cooking for the Family with Chef John Besh; and the city’s most lauded jazz musicians brought down the house at Swinging the Hippest of the Standards.

Missed the Festival? Check out the 2012 Program to see our panels and Master Classes. We’ll have audio recordings of selected events available for purchase very soon in our audio store. We’ll also send out a newsletter to let you know when they’re ready. Meanwhile, peruse the many inspiring downloads available from years past.

Want to get a jumpstart on planning your next Festival? Mark your calendars for the 27^th Festival on March 20-24, 2013.

• 8,000+ audience seats filled at 34 panels, 8 theater performances, 8 special events, 8 master classes, 6 walking tours, the Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference, and writeNOW, our educational outreach program
• 150+ authors, thespians, musicians, chefs, and performers (including opera singers, belly dancers, and burlesque performers)
• 180 invaluable volunteers who helped take tickets, sell concessions, register guests, and man the info desk and box office
• 33 generous sponsors and 160 Friends of Tennessee who keep the literary arts vibrant and accessible
• 25 exceptionally loud Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest contenders (Pictured: Nicole Martin, whose powerful pipes earned her the top prize. Photo by Earl Perry.)
• 60 gallons of mint juleps dispensed at our booth at the Road Food Festival
• 50+ autographed books by Festival authors given to the grand prize winner of our first-ever Festival raffle