Literary Friday

Special Features

In honor of authors Kate Chopin and Rebecca Wells’ birthdays today, we have an essay by UL Lafayette English professor Dr. Mary Ann Wilson about other traits the two women share.

And writer Judy Garrison has a recap of last month’s Key West Literary Seminar, during which she found herself inside Tennessee Williams’ former home on the island, in The Voices of Key West.

Literary News & Blogs

Musician and poet Kory Wells reviewed our Literary Trail App on her blog this week, complete with photos of literary sites she’s visited herself.

Flavorwire’s 10 of the World’s Greatest Hotels Inspired by Literature ends with an announcement about a chain of Hemingway Hotels & Resorts in the works based on the author’s lifestyle.

Flavorwire also has a list of Great Literary Characters Inspired by Real Famous People that was itself inspired by the release of “Frances and Bernard,” a novel about the relationship that might have been between Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell.

Quirk Books has Cocktail Recipes Inspired By Favorite Pieces of Literature, including two with Poe in mind and a Mint Julep for “The Great Gatsby.”

She Reads has chosen “Calling Me Home” by Julie Kibler as its February book club pick. Laura Kay reviews the story of an elderly woman who befriends a young black hairdresser on her blog.

Several Southern cities made Central Connecticut State University’s list of the Most Literate U.S. Cities for 2012. Can you guess what they are?

Literary Events

Hear writer-in-residence at the University of South Alabama Frye Gaillard talk about “The Books That Mattered: A Reader’s Memoir” at The Princess Theatre in Decatur, Alabama, February 11 at 7 p.m. Price is $10 and $5 for students and teachers.

Casa Azul in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, will host a poetry reading by Diane Moore and Brad Richard, followed by an open mic of crazy love poems, on February 14 for Valentine’s Day.

In Lafayette, Louisiana, the Friends of the Humanities are offering a“New Orleans in Fiction and Film” class that’s open to the public. Starting February 20 and running on Wednesday nights for five weeks, the class will be held on the UL Lafayette campus and include a visit from author Ben Sandmel.

The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, will holds its annual Stars & Starlets Gala March 2. Tickets are only $35, and an art and film festival will also be held in the days leading up to the event.

Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg, South Carolina, will hold a feature writing workshop with Lyn Riddle on March 2.

Florida’s Antiquarian Book Fair will be held March 8-10 at the St. Petersburg Coliseum. It’s the Southeast’s oldest and largest, with more than 115 dealers expected.

The Mississippi Delta Cultural Tour will take participants on a literary jaunt through the Delta March 17-20. Based in Greenwood, the tour stops at Turnrow Book Company, the plantation house where Tennessee Williams’ “Baby Doll” was filmed, Cat Head Records and lots more.

The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival box office is now open. Tickets for the March 20-24 festival can be purchased through the website.

New in Southern Voice 

Hailey Gets Arrested, a new story by Athens, Georgia, writer Donna Smith Fee, who brought us the popular “Hot Grits, Cold Heart” in 2011.

To find out more about Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, like the former Tennessee Williams House, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, now available direct from iTunes and for Android.