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These programs are supported
by grants from
The
Louisiana Division
of the Arts,
Office of Cultural Development,
Department of
Culture, Recreation
& Tourism
In cooperation with the
Louisiana State
Arts Council
and a grant from
the City of
New Orleans.



Both grants are
administered through
the Arts Council
of New Orleans

 

W&M 2011: Schedule at a Glance!


Wednesday, November 9

10:30 a.m. —  Tentatively, Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre
MASTER CLASS:
STUDENTS & TEACHERS, PART I

The Importance of An Interplay of the Arts to the Creative Process
Featuring jazz artist Irvin Mayfield and UNO Professor and musician/composer Victor Atkins, who will address the symbiotic relationships between the arts and the importance of these as inspiration.

11:15  a.m. 
MASTER CLASS:
STUDENTS & TEACHERS, PART I

What Makes A Winning Manuscript
Featuring
Tom Carson, Film critic for GQ Magazine and author of Daisy Buchanan’s Daughter, and a previous novel, Gilligan’s Wake. He will discuss the elements of writing which make a good short story and introduce this year’s winner, who will read a short excerpt from the winning manuscript.

Refreshments in the Courtyard will Follow

12:15 p.m. —Muriel's at Jackson Square: Cash Bar Opens, followed by
12:30 p.m.
LITERATURE & LUNCH
Life & Literature in the Global Village: Love Thy Neighbor
As has become our tradition, the first session of Literature & Lunch will take place at the charming French Quarter restaurant fronting on Jackson Square, Muriel's. In the shrinking village we call Planet Earth, it is becoming increasingly important to do unto others as we would have done unto us. One of our most unstable neighbors of the Global Village is Pakistan. Author James Farwell's new book, The Pakistan Cauldron, is just the ticket for getting a better handle on this particular neighbor. His special expertise includes cyberworld strategies for the 21st century.

2:30 to 3:30 p.m. — The Cabildo, Second Floor Gallery
MASTER CLASS: CREATING LITERATURE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Why Do Animals Make Such Great Characters for Children’s Literature?
Featuring Julie Smith, George Rodrigue, and Alex Beard.
What is it about animals that makes them so irresistible as characters for literature? Faculty will explore animal themes and how to make them appealing for both youngsters and adults who read with them.

4:00 to 5:30 p.m. — The Cabildo at Jackson Square
WORDS & MUSIC WRITERS ALLIANCE ANNUAL MEETING
Members of the Alliance and others will read from new work related to the Words & Music, 2011 theme: Life & Literature in the Global Village.   

5:30 p.m. — The Cabildo at Jackson Square: Refreshments

6:15 to 7:30 p.m. – The Cabildo at Jackson Square
MUSIC AS INSPIRATION FOR LITERATURE & VICE VERSA
The Important Symbiotic Relationship Between the Arts

8:00 p.m. – On the Town
EVENING FREE TO ENJOY THE FINE DINING OF NEW ORLEANS

Thursday, November 10

8 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom, East
CAFE AU LAIT & CROISSANTS Announcements

8:00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Bienville Room
WORDS & MUSIC BOOK MART
Operated by Faulkner House Books and Joseph J. DeSalvo, Jr., Co-Founder, Faulkner Society.

8:15 to 10:15 a.m. — Ursulines Room
LIMITED REGISTRATION WORKSHOP
Finding a New Angle for Old Subject Matter, Getting the Reader's Attention in the First Five Pages, and
Creating Charactors You Love and Love to Hate.
Featuring literary agent Michael Murphy, a former publisher of William Morrow, and Christopher Chambers, Editor, New Orleans Review.

8:30  a.m. — Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom, East
WELCOME New Orleans, Mon Amor
Featuring well known New Orleans poet, translator, and fiction writer, James Nolan, author of the new novel Higher Ground, set in New Orleans and being published concurrent with Words & Music, 2011. The unpublished manuscript won the Faulkner Society's gold medal for Best Novel in 2009.

10:00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans East
MASTER CLASS: LIFE & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
The Hyphenated-American Experience As Inspiration for Literary Art
Featuring Justin Torres, who is the hottest new writer going today with a tsunami of critical praise in the wake of his astounding debut novel, We the Animals, heralding the arrival of an important prose stylist. Torres will explore imagination versus reality in fiction, addressing the question of how to ground contemporary fiction in reality without grounding the imagination.

11:30 a.m. — Cash Bar Opens for Literature & Lunch Hotel Monteleone, Riverview Room (Roof)
NOON -- LITERATURE & LUNCH
Impact of The Exile Experience on Life & Literature in the Global Village
Introduced by Randy Fertel,and featuring Justin Torres, Oscar Hijuelos, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Lori Marie Carlson, and Andrew Lam, Vietnamese – American author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora.

1:45 p.m. —Hotel Monteleone, Royal Suites C&D
THE AESTHETICS OF LITERATURE
The Art of Turning Your Passion into Perfect Pieces of Fiction or Narrative Non-Fiction
Featuring New York Times bestselling author Robert Hicks znc his literary agent Jeff Kleinman. Jeff Kleinman will give pointers on following Robert’s example, recognizing that fiction which has some basis in fact can be one of the most attractive types of novel to be writing these days. Joining them will be Rosemary Daniell, atuhor of the southern classics of narrative non-fiction, Fatal Flowers and Sleeping with Soldiers. Rosemary is also author of Secrets of the Zona Rosa, a popular book for writers.

3:15 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
PERFORMANCE ART

An Afternoon with Oscar Hijuelos, Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Lori Marie Carlson, Americas Prize Winner 

5:30 p.m. — Front Entrance, Hotel Monteleone, 200 Royal Street
Bus for Uptown Welcome Event Leaves Hotel Monteleone

VISUAL ART:
6:00 to 7:30 p.m. — Cole-Pratt Art Gallery, 3800 Magazine St in the Uptown New Orleans Art District.

WELCOME PARTY 
Cocktail Party in honor of noted fine artist Joan Griswold, celebrating the opening of her exhibit of paintings at the Cole-Pratt Gallery of New Orleans, and also honoring Words & Music patrons. Ms. Griswold is creating a group of paintings focusing on literary venues in New Orleans, such as the Latter Library and Faulkner House, for this special exhibit of her work. Ms. Griswold will be introduced by her husband, beloved southern humorist and non-fiction author of 23 books, Roy Blount, Jr.

7:30 p.m. — Cole Pratt Art Gallery, 3800 Magazine St.
Bus leaves gallery for return trip to Hotel Monteleone

8:30 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
REMEMBERING THE FAULKNERS!
How to Read Faulkner and Love it, our traditional salute to our namesake, this year will be REPLACED by a memorial tribute to Dean Faulkner Wells, niece of Nobel Laureate William Faulkner. Ms. Wells died July 27 after being hospitalized for a collapsed lung. Ms. Wells was adopted and raised as a daughter by William Faulkner after her father Dean, Faulkner’s younger brother, was killed in an airplane crash. Ms. Wells, whose new book, Every Day by the Sun, A Faulkner Family Memoir was released this year, was the author of a number of works related to William Faulkner, including The Ghosts of Rowan Oak. Invited to join us for this tribute discussion is her husband, Lawrence Wells, also a fine writer, and owner of the Yoknapatawa Press in Oxford, MS; and W. Kenneth Holditch, scholar in southern literature and co-founder of the Faulkner Society. Dean's agent, Jeff Kleinman, will lead the remembrance.

Friday, November 11

8:00 a.m. — 10 a. m. — Hotel Monteleone, Iberville Room
CAFE AU LAIT & CROISSANTS

8:15 a.m. Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom

MASTER CLASS: NON-FICTION
Tailoring the Art of Essays, Creative Criticism, and Memoirs to the Requirements of Global Village internet Communications Will the art of narrative non-fiction be lost or are well constructed non-fiction narratives becoming the new gold standard coin for literate communication in the electronic village? Featuring the distinguished poet, playwright, fiction and non-fiction author and essayist John Biguenet, Andrew Lam, and Eric Liebetrau, Managing Editor and Non-Fiction Editor of Kirkus Reviews.

9:30 a.m. —
Hotel Monteleone, Room TBA
LIFE & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
The Impact of the Internet, Good & Bad, on Artists & The General Public
This session will feature: Andrei Codrescu, author of recent article on the danger of the internet in Publisher’s Weekly, Ted Mooney, who coined the concept of Information Sickness in his critically acclaimed first novel, Easy Travel to Other Planets and Chris Ruen, author of the new non-fiction book, Freeloading, also on the subject of artists and the internet, a 2011 release by OR Books.

10:45 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
LIFE & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
The Importance of Our Dreams to Our Lives and Our Creativity
This session will feature bestselling non-fiction writer and poet Rodger Kamenetz and internationally noted photographic artist and author Joséphine Sacabo. They will discuss the importance of dreams to the creative process and the importance of our dreams in harsh reality of today's shrinking village.

Noon — Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
THE CLASSICS REVISITED
Cash Bar for Literature & Lunch Opens
Authors will sign during cocktails and after their talk. Books will be for sale at the door.  However, those wishing books are encouraged to purchase them in advance from the
Words & Music Book Mart.
12:30 p.m.— Hotel Monteleone, Room to be Announced
LITERATURE & LUNCH
The Classic Works of Hemingway & Fitzgerald as Inspiration for Contemporary Fiction  
This session will feature authors who have figured out new angles on subjects which
have had hundreds of thousands of previous words written about them, fascinating new ways to titillate their readers with old subjects.  The guests for this session are:
Paula McLain, author of the wonderful new novel, The Paris Wife, based on Hadley Richardson, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway and their life together in The Moveable Feast era in Paris just after World War I; Tom Carson, author of the entertaining new novel, Daisy Buchanan’s Daughter and Kirk Curnutt, Ph.D., is invited to introduce the subject and set the scene for them. Dr. Curnutt is a a scholar in American literature, including the work of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and Chairman of the English Department at Troy University in Montgomery, AL. Kirk, a fine writer himself, has won a Faulkner Society gold medal for Best Essay and was a finalist in the novel category last year for Raising Aphrodite.

2: 30 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
LIFE & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
MASTER CLASS: FICTION
When is a Romance Novel a Guilty Pleasure and When is it Just a Literary Pleasure
This discussion will be introduced Michael Signorelli, literary editor at Harper Collins and will feature Elise Blackwell, who is author of four novels with romance at their core; Pulitzer Prize winning fiction writer Robert Olen Butler, author of the new novel, A Small Hotel, set largely in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Butler, author of 12 novels and six collections of short stories, is considered one of America’s very best writing teachers as well as one of its finest writers.

3:45 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
LITERATURE & LIFE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Celtic Faery Tales, Our Dreams, and Arabian Entertainments To Get Us Through The Night 
This session will feature Signe Pike, author of the new memoir, Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in the Modern World; bestselling non-fiction writer and poet Rodger Kamenetz, and Andrei Codrescu, noted poet, essayist, NPR commentator, and author of the new novel, Whatever Gets You Through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments. Invited to moderate the discussion is literary agent Brandi Bowles.

5:00 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
MASTER CLASS: MEET THE EDITORS & AGENTS
Well known editors and agents participating in Words & Music, 2011 will give pointers on how to get the right agent and working with the right editor

7:00 p.m. – Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
FAULKNER FOR ALL
The Faulkner Society’s annual meeting and salute to all great writers, past, present, and yet to come. Black Tie Gala

7:00 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
LIFE & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE: KEYNOTE ADDRESS

In Our Dramatically Shrinking World, Where Politicians Fear to Tread, Artists Must Use The Power of Their Talent in the Cause of Universal Human Rights
Featuring Armando Valladares
, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations for Human Rights, and author of the international bestselling memoir, Against All Hope, which details his 22 years as a prisoner of conscience in Castro’s Cuba. Ambassador Valladares will speak in an interview format with Cuban-American poet and filmmaker Amy Serrano interviewing him, posing questions.

8:00 p.m. – Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
FAULKNER FOR ALL GALA, HONORING ALL GREAT WRITERS
Cocktails, Dinner, Awards Ceremony, and Dancing.
Special Guests of Honor: Ambassador Armando Valladares & Words & Music, 2011 SponsorsFaulkner for All, the annual black tie meeting of the Faulkner Society will begin with cocktails, followed by dinner. The Society will announce its ALIHOT (A Legend in His/Her Own Time) Awards for achievement in literature, philanthropy, and social justice and will award its gold medals to winners of the 2011 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Attending competition finalists weill be recognized. The event will feature a Caribbean menu and Caribbean Music for dancing by La Rumba Buena.

Saturday, November 12

8:00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Iberville Room
CAFE AU LAIT & CROISSANTS Announcements

8:00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Bienville Room
WORDS & MUSIC BOOK MART

8:15 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Cathedral Room
MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUES CONTINUE

8:15 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
MASTER CLASS: WORKING WITH AN AGENT & EDITOR
Menage à Trois
       
Our annual session on the important three-way relationship between author, agent, and editor, this year will feature Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife; her agent, Julie Barer, who sold her book for a reputed $500,000-plus, and her editor, Susanna Porter, Executive Editor at Random House. They will discuss such topics as why agents and editors turn down perfectly good book proposals in favor of others and why the biggest dollar offer may not always be the best deal for an author

9:30 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
THE AESTHETICS OF LITERATURE
The Art of the Memoir, Giving It Universality of Appeal
Invited to introduce this session is literary agent Howard Yoon of the Ross-Yoon Literary Agency. He also teaches narrative nonfiction writing in the Masters of Journalism Program at Georgetown University. Invited authors include Randy Fetel, author of The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak; Signe Pike, author of Faery Tale: and Oscar Hijuelos, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

11:15 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
LIFE & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

The Old Verities of Story Telling Still Apply as Inspiration for 21st Century Literature
This session will be led by George Bishop, author of Letter to My Daughter and feature Pamela Binnings Ewen, author of Dancing on Glass; Mark Yakich, author of A Meaning for Wife. Invited to introduce is literary agent Elise Capron of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

12:15 —Hotel Monteleone, The Riverview Room, Roof
Cash bar for Literature & Lunch
Opens, Book Sales, Signing. Advance purchase of books at the Words & Music Book Mart is recommended.

12:45 p.m. — Riverview Room, Roof
LITERATURE & LUNCH: HUMOR!
Punditry in the Global Village
Laughing is the best antidote to the depression created by the new messages of woe and horror greeting us on the tube and internet daily. Introduced by Faulkner Society Tall Tales Champion Ken Wells, journalist, humorist, and author of the Meely Labauve series of novels. Featured authors will include Roy Blount, Jr. and Lee Papa, a Louisiana native better known as the "Rude Pundit."

2:45 p.m. — Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
MASTER CLASS: HISTORY & BIOGRAPHY
Making the Past Come Alive for 21st Century Audiences
Anka Muhlstein, winner of France's prestigious Goncourt Prize for biography and author of the new book Balzac's Omelette, will discuss how to present an old subject, such as French literary master Balzac,in a new context for modern readers. Joining her for the discussion will be Elise Blackwell, author of the novel Hunger, and Andrei Codrescu, author of Whatever Gets You Through the Night.

4:00 p.m. — Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
MUSIC & LITERATURE
The New Orleans Sound and Its Caribbean Roots
New Orleans jazz scholar Bruce Raeburn, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archives and Venezuelan author and expert on Salsa, Leopoldo Tablante, a writer in residence at Loyola University.

DRAMA
6:30 p.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
ANNA IN THE TROPICS
Performance reading from his Pulitzer Prize winning Play by Cuban – American Playwright
Nilo Cruz.

Nilo Cruz wrote his most famous work, Anna in the Tropics. The play was selected for the Pulizer Prize on the basis of the manuscript before it had every been produced. Anna  in the Tropics opened on Broadway with success and was nominated for a Tony Award. Master of Ceremonies for the evening will be non-fiction author Steve Striffer, Ph.D.

Intermission with Mojitas, a Cuban invention, in honor of Nilo Cruz


WRITING FOR THE STAGE

A Conversation with John Biguenet & Nilo Cruz
Erudite poet, fiction writer John Biguenet will join with Nilo Cruz in a discussion of writing for the stage and how to balance reality and imaginative flights of creativity.

9:30 p.m. —The Napoleon House, Corner of St. Louis and Chartres Streets
JAZZ
AFTER HOURS AT THE NAPOLEON HOUSE
Our most popular entertainment event of the Words & Music festival, a great chance to mingle socially with prize-winning literary personalities and the marvelous musicians of New Orleans. In honor of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz, the music this year will be Cuban jazz and feature Cuban food and an open bar, including more Mohitos.

Sunday, November 13

8:00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Iberville Room
CAFE AU LAIT & CROISSANTS, ETC.
Continental breakfast and announcements.

8:00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Bienville Room
WORDS & MUSIC BOOK MART
Operated by Faulkner House Books and Joseph J. DeSalvo, Jr., Co-Founder,
Faulkner Society. Note: a percentage book sales during Words & Music goes to help fund the Faulkner Society's projects for readers and writers.

8: 00 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Iberville Room
MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATIONS CONTINUE

8:15 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
MASTER CLASS: Literary Marketing in the Global Village, It's a Blog-Eat-Blog World!

Social Media Networking, blogging and their Impact on Writers, Literary Marketing & Publishing, and readers in the Global Village. This session will feature internet marketing expert and author consultant Shari Stauch; John Oakes, co-founder and publisher of OR Books; and Lee Papa, the "Rude Pundit." Attendees will be provided with handouts to guide you in marketing and publishing your work.

9:30 a.m. — Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
LITERATRE & LIFE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
New Designs in Publishing for the Electronic Age.
As much as it pains those of us who love the sensual pleasures of reading from real books and fear their possible demise, electronic books are here to stay.
This session will feature Jeremiah Karpowicz, a young pioneer in digital storytelling techniques, Julie Smith, author of more than 20 prize-winning mystery novels and an excellent book for developing authors, Write it Your Way. You should also read her blog on The Secret i-Book Strategy, both of which can be found on the site of her e-publishing venture, www.booksBnimble.com. Invited to introduce the subject and join the discussion is Random House Executive Editor Will Murphy, who definitely is in the corner of  “real” books...

10:45 a. m.— Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Room
THE AESTHETICS OF LITERATURE
The Art of Creating a Sense of Place
This session will feature fiction writers Ted Mooney and Robert Hicks. Literary agent Dan Conaway of Writers House, who has also been an editor and publisher, is invited to introduce the discussion.

Noon — Hotel Monteleone, Riverview Room, Roof
FOOD & LITERATURE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Cash bar opens for Literature & Lunch
Authors will sign during cocktails and after lunch.


12:15 — Riverview Room, Riverview Room, Roof
LITERATURE & LUNCH
The Perfect French Omelette: One Made in Winter with White Truffles
The influence of the French culinary masters, not only on the food of the global village but on its
literature.  This session will feature a leading French biographer and historian Anka Muhlstein, and American novelist N. M. Kelby. The discussion will be introduced by notorious foodie Randy Fertel. Randy is heir to the fortune from the fine dining chain, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse created by his mother, Ruth Fertel, and author of the new memoir, The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak.

2:30 p.m. — Vieux Carre Room, Roof
JUST DESSERTS
New Orleans, Mon Amor Join us for sweets and tales about the sweetest city ever created!
Introduced by Roy Blount, Jr., author of his new Alphabetter Juice and  Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans, this session will feature Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler; Robert HIcks, New York Times bestselling author of A Separate Country, set in New Orleans just after the Civil War; Randy Fertel, author of The Gorilla Man & The Empress of Steak; and James Nolan, Author of Higher Ground, a comic noir novel set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Join these fine authors as they tell tales about New Orleans and of how they have been inspired by her.

4:30. to 6:00 p. m. — 624 Pirate's Alley.
SO LONG, OOH LONG!
Lift a Glass to Mr. Bill at Faulkner House.
Rosemary James and Joe DeSalvo will be at home to offer you a bon voyage glass of wine in the house where Nobel Laureate William Faulkner fell in love, poked fun at his friends, shot bbs at passersby, and found his voice as America's best known novelist. Have a drink and pick up last minute copies of the books of Words & Music, 2011 in the room where Faulkner wrote Soldiers' Pay a collection of New Orleans Sketches, and word caricatures for Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles.

 
Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society
624 Pirate’s Alley, New Orleans, LA 70116
phone: (504) 586-1609 or (504) 525-5615
fax: (504) 522-9725
info@wordsandmusic.org
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