Literary Friday, Edition 144
Call for Poetry
Starting April 1, we’ll again be posting a poem a day for National Poetry Month. It’s no joke! We do have a few spots left to fill throughout the month, so if you have poems lying around, please send them to [email protected]. We just ask that the work is Southern in focus and that you include a short bio stating your connection to the South in your email.
Literary News
Last Saturday, the hashtag #WomenInFiction popped up on Twitter and began trending within a few hours. Mashable responded with a few of its favorite tributes and an opening photo of Atticus and Scout from the movie version of “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
Baton Rouge Area Foundation is now accepting entries for the ninth annual Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence through August 15.
Tennessee Williams and Flannery O’Connor both celebrated birthdays this week.
In related news, Bitter Southerner has an obituary for Andalusia’s peacock Manley Pointer written by longtime obit reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Kay Powell.
Writer Cory MacLauchlin blogs about Finding Walker Percy in Covington, Louisiana, for a film adaptation of his book Butterfly in the Typewriter.
Literary Events
See Tennessee Williams: The Playwright and the Painter on exhibit at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans through May 31.
Mark your calendar for two Tennessee Williams celebrations, one in Key West, Florida, through March 31 and the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival this weekend.
The Sweet Potato Queens Zippity Doo Dah Weekend is also this weekend in Jackson, Mississippi.
An OUTSpoken workshop will be held tomorrow at Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) in Knoxville, Tennessee, to create a platform for the LGBTQ+ community to record and perform the experiences of sex- and gender-diverse individuals in the South.
The Dahlonega Literary Festival in Georgia is scheduled for this weekend with featured authors Erika Marks, Ann Hite, Frances Mayes and Raymond Atkins.
On March 29 in Savannah’s Lafayette Square, locals, musicians and authors will gather to celebrate Flannery O’Connor’s birthday with an annual parade and street fair, in addition to the return of Local Author Day.
Spend an evening with Sara Gruen April 2 at Birmingham Botanical Gardens for her new book At the Water’s Edge.
Tallahassee Community College will hold its first annual Word of South Festival April 10-12 with Ann Patchett, The Avett Brothers, Mary Gaitskill and Robert Olen Butler.
The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum‘s jazz-themed gala May 2 will feature dinner, drinks, dancing, a costume contest and more. Attire is flapper of course.
The Yokshop in Oxford, Mississippi, a three-day workshop with host M.O. Walsh, is scheduled for May 15-17.
Save the date for SAFTA’s Fiction Writing Retreat May 29-31 and Poetry Writing Retreat June 12-14 at Firefly Farms in Knoxville, Tennessee.
New in Southern Voice
Black Balloons, a story that follows a lovesick New Orleanian on his daily ritual to deliver balloons to the apartment of his lost lover, by Evan Retzer.
To find out more about your favorite Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android and perfect for those fall road trips.
