• Zoe Caldwell shares her memories of Broadway with excited audience members at the Broadway in the Big Easy panel

  Frances Sternhagen laughs at an amusing tale of the Great White Way,

  Tony Award-winning actresses Marian Seldes, Frances Sternhagen, and Zoe Caldwell and Tony-winning playwright John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation) shared their personal experiences of the Great White Way at the panel “Give My Regards to Broadway.”  Sternhagen and Caldwell also helped kick off the Festival with actor Doug Tompos at “Broadway in the Big Easy: A Night of Literary Revelry to Benefit the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival” and with author James Grissom at the Festival Opening Night Gala.

• David Simon and Eric Overmyer, creators and writers of HBO’s The Wire and Treme, the latter of which is set in post-Katrina New Orleans, spoke at “Better Than Your Regularly Scheduled Program: Elevating Television to a Higher Art,” discussing their experiences writing and producing for television.

• John Berendt, the acclaimed author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, taught a Master Class on “capturing the character of place,” discussing how the element of place can be as important for writers as character and plot.

• Puliter Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford judged the first annual Fiction Writing Contest.  The winner, Robin Martin , read from her piece at the Festival.

• The Southern Gothic literary panel was a smash hit; so many people turned out to hear authors John Berendt, Amanda Boyden, Rick Bragg, and Tim Gautreaux discuss the tradition that attendees had to be turned away at the door.

• Chris Hedges, author of the bestselling American Fascists and War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, was a huge hit in “The Story Behind the Story: The Art and Craft of Feature Writing,” offering insider-tips on feature-writing techniques to master and pitfalls to avoid.

• Bestelling mystery writer Laura Lippman discussed the art of crime writing and the quest for justice within a novel with fellow women of mystery Nevada Barr and Julie Smith.

• High-school students had the chance to learn from professional writers at writing workshops taught by television writer David Simon, mystery writer Laura Lippman, literary agent Liza Dawson, and debut novelist and head of Iowa Young Writers Workshop Stephen Lovely.

• The Festival featured a full day of classic New Orleans music at the Palm Court Jazz Café.  Vernel Bagneris, Rich Look, and The Last Straws performed.

• The Festival also witnessed the return of the hit actors’ competition, “Tennessee’s Got Talent!”  In the second annual competition, Janet Shea and A.J. Allegra stole first prize as “Amanda” and “Tom” in The Glass Menagerie.

• This year’s Festival activities included the first annual Literary Late Night: a Poetry Slam hosted by Nick Fox and a performance by improv comedy troupe the National Comedy Company. "Literary Late Night" attracted a full house at a new Festival venue, the Dragon's Den.

• The Cripple Creek Theater Company made its festival debut with a production of Tennessee Williams’ Kingdom of Earth, a rarely seen work from the playwright’s later period.

• Scholars’ Conference Chair Robert Bray delivered a touching tribute speech to Tennessee Williams’ brother, Dakin Williams, who passed away on May 20, 2008. A frequent visitor to the Festival over the years, Dakin joined in the activities year after year and chatted with Festival guests. He was in the panel of judges for the first Stella! contest; at the last contest he judged, he surprised everyone by walking to the front of the stage at Le Petit Theatre and declaring, “I've always wanted to do this..... STELLAAAAAAA!”  He will be greatly missed.

• Award-winning actress and Grande Dame of American Theater, Marian Seldes joins the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, sharing her years of experiences and her indomitable charm in an interview conducted by Broadway legend and long-time colleague Terrence McNally.

• Legendary actor Wright King, one of two remaining cast members from the 1951 film version of Streetcar Named Desire, joins the Festival for the first time this year for an engaging and entertaining interview conducted by Rob Florence, a New Orleans author, actor and long-time fan of King’s work.

• A Festival first – Tennessee’s Got Talent! 10 teams of actors perform brief duos from Williams’ plays, and are scored American Idol-style by a panel of celebrity judges, Stephanie Zimbalist, Rex Reed, and Terrence McNally. Only one performance can take the grand prize, and the audience makes the final call, awarding honors to Sean Glazebrook and James Bartelle for their rendering of Don Quixote and Sancho from Williams’ Camino Real.

• Poet Laureate of California, Al Young, debuts at the Festival, teaching master classes, giving public readings, and spending an inspiring afternoon with local high school students involved with the Neighborhood Story Project.

• Best-selling authors Lee Smith, Hal Crowther, Joseph and Amanda Boyden, and Jim Wilcox join the Festival program, sharing insights and experiences. Renowned editor Dan Menaker discusses the publishing world, and literary agents Mitch Douglas and Lisa Bankoff share observations and strategies for both aspiring and established writers.

• Brooklyn On Foot, a New York City-based theater troupe delivers Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real, bringing their youthful energy and street-style performance to the main stage at Le Petite Theatre.

• Grammy-nominated singer songwriter Tift Merritt headlines the successful Songwriting track of the 2008 Festival, which culminates in Songs for a Sunday Afternoon, held at the Palm Court Jazz Café. Artists Paul Sanchez, Spencer Bohren, Tom Sancton, Michael White, Jim McCormick, Sonia Tetlow, Rich Look, Mark Fernandez and others share their stories; their songwriting styles, strategies and inspirations; and of course, their music.

• Festival Board and Staff take part in Long Range Planning Committee meetings throughout the year to create a strategic plan looking forward to the next 20 years and beyond.
• Katrina doesn’t stop us! Festival Board President said, “If we have to shine flashlights at the stage, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival will take place as scheduled.”  The Festival is the first major festival in New Orleans produced post-Katrina.
• Pulitzer Prize winners Rick Bragg and Robert Olen Butler and literary stars Dorothy Allison, Elizabeth Berg, Kent Haruf, John Barry, Elizabeth Dewberry, and Douglas Brinkley, among others, lend their talents to the Festival.
• Tab Hunter draws an enthusiastic crowd for “Tab Hunter Confidential:  The Making of a Movie Star.”
  Blanche and Beyond stars Richard Thomas, directed by Steve Lawson, takes a look at Tennessee’s years of international fame.
• Librix Continuum presents the Festival with TENNESSEE, a limited edition art bookbinding, followed by a reading of These Are the Stairs You Got to Watch, a recently discovered play by Williams which was first printed in this unique folio.
• Partnering with the Louisiana Book Festival, the Festival adds a full day of Children’s Storytelling to the program, free and open to the public.
• K.A.R.E.S., Katrina Arts and Relief Emergency Support, is created to reach out to local artists affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to offer mini-grants and relief in the literary community.
• The Festival takes on the additional name of The New Orleans Literary Institute to better represent the full scale of what the Festival has grown into over the past 20 years: Writers in the School Program, Literary Functions throughout the year, Coffee and Conversation Series and K.A.R.E.S., in addition to the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.

• Tennessee in the Quarterfeatures five previously unpublished scripts with four world premieres—Thank You, Kind Spirit, Interior: Panic, Escape, and Mister Paradise—and the New Orleans premiere of And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens
• Actor Jeremy Lawrence makes his Festival debut in his one-man show, Talking Tennessee.
• Author and columnist Steve Roberts and his mother-in-law, former U.S. ambassador Lindy Boggs, discuss the current political scene and reflect on their famous family.
• John “Spud” McConnell performs as Ignatius Reily in a staged reading of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces.
• Dave Eggers makes his Festival debut.
• Author Ellen Gilchrist, novelist Kaye Gibbons, and biographer/novelist Gavin Lambert return to the Festival.
• The Tennessee Williams Scholars’ Conference celebrates its 10th Anniversary.  Chairman is Dr. Robert Bray.
• A “Scavenger Hunt” relating to the works and life of Tennessee Williams debuts.

• The Festival produces the Williams classic A Glass Menagerie and the rarely seen A House Not Meant to Stand.
• Authors Robert Morgan, Michelle Tea, Sarah Vowell, Michael Perry, and Sister Helen Prejean make their Festival debut.
• Food experts Sara Moulton and John T. Edge are interviewed by Randy Fertel for the annual “Words to Eat By:  New Orleans Cooks and Books” panel.
• Jelly Roll Morton experts Butch Thompson, Dr. Michael White and Howard Reich pay tribute to the New Orleans-born jazz pioneer at the Festival’s “Drummer and Smoke” event.
• CBS anchorman Bob Schieffer is interviewed by Errol Laborde concerning his career and reflections on the current political and media scenes.
• New Yorker film critic David Denby makes his Festival debut.

• Author and historian Douglas Brinkley interviews author George Plimpton.
• Novelists Dorothy Allison, Valerie Martin, and Rick Bragg, along with science fiction writer David Gerrold are among the participants in literary panels.
• Movie critic Rex Reed interviews Dick Cavett and his wife, actress Carrie Nye.
• Actress Lois Chiles, Cavett, and Nye share their memories of Tennessee Williams during the “I Remember Tennessee” panel.
• The Festival produces Rose Tattoo and Vieux Carre.  In conjunction with Mesa Productions, there is also a production of Small Craft Warnings.

Pictured: Carrie Nye and Dick Cavett

• Actress Patricia Neal and actor Will Lyman perform a staged reading of two of Williams’ one-act plays:  The Lady of Larkspur Lotion and Portrait of a Madonna.
• Actor Richard Thomas reads from the Collected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Vol.1 in a stage presentation, A Distant Country Called Youth, directed by Steve Lawson.
• The Festival produces Sweet Bird of Youth and Suddenly Last Summer.
• Authors Rick Bragg, Roy Blount Jr., Jonathan Yardley, and Marie Arana make their Festival debuts.
• “New Orleans Cooks and Books” event includes a panel on the history of the cocktail.  Panelists include William Grimes, restaurant critic for The New York Times and the author of Straight Up and On the Rocks. Also appearing on the panel are Michael Green, wine consultant to Gourmet magazine, and Kerri McCaffety, author of Obituary Cocktail.
• The debut of “Tennessee Sips:  A Wine and Word Pairing” created and hosted by Gourmet’s Michael Green.  Hosted by Brennan’s Restaurant.

Pictured. left to right: Patricia Neal, Dakin Williams