Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival
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Mission: The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival honors the creative genius of Tennessee Williams by celebrating the diverse literary and cultural heritage of the city that Tennessee called his “spiritual home.” It takes place every March in the world-famous French Quarter in inimitable New Orleans, and USA Today ranked it among the nation’s most important literary festivals. It showcases the brightest talents in literature, theatre, and other arts.
At its premier in 1986, the Festival hosted about 500 audience members for two days of entertaining and educational programming. It has since blossomed into one of the foremost festivals of its kind, drawing about 10,000 audience members for five days and nights of programming. It hosts over 90 multi-disciplinary, culturally diverse events that appeal to a broad cross-section of the public.
Pulitzer Prize winners featured in past festival events have included Edward Albee, Robert Olen Butler, Richard Ford, Michael Cunningham, Phillip Caputo, Rick Bragg, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Taylor Brach.
Other distinguished presenters have included actors Alec Baldwin, John Goodman, Patricia Clarkson, Tab Hunter, Dixie Carter, Gerald McRaney, Stephanie Zimbalist, Elizabeth Ashley, Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, and the original Stella Kowalski of stage and screen Kim Hunter, plus film critic Rex Reed.
Best-selling authors Anne Rice, Nora Roberts, and Sue Grafton have lent their talents in years past, as have acclaimed writers Margaret Atwood, Larry Brown, Margaret Walker, Fannie Flagg, Ellen Gilchrist, Kaye Gibbons, Dorothy Allison, Barry Gifford, and Andrei Codrescu, among thousands of other authors, poets, playwrights, journalists, actors, directors, producers, educators, critics, musicians, historians and visual artists.
The Tennessee Williams Festival has received coverage on television’s NBC Dateline, and C-Span’s Book TV, on the radio with NPR’s All Things Considered, and in print with The New York Times and Financial Times-London, just to name a few.
Literary panels comprise more than half of overall Tennessee Williams Festival attendance, making this component the cultural “heart” of the event. More than two-dozen expert panelists discuss a wide-range of topics. Certain topics recur every year, such as “I Remember Tennessee,” where those who worked with Williams share their memories, and the “Conversation with…” series, which brings intimate and friendly interviews with renowned figures in the arts to the public. The panel called “Dakin!” hosts a visit with Tennessee’s brother and only surviving relative, and has also provided a popular segment for past Festivals.
For those who desire intensive instruction from a notable expert in writing or the arts, Master Classes provide a classroom-style session where participants learn the tools of the trade from a noted speaker. Master classes offer small audiences and one-on-one instruction, making them popular with writing enthusiasts, literary devotees, and college students.
Theatrical productions account for over 30% of all attendance. The Festival teams up with New Orleans theater companies to nurture and stimulate new theater. Playwrights from around the world are invited to enter the Tennessee Williams One-Act Play Contest, sponsored by the University of New Orleans. Yielding close to two hundred contestants a year, this competition premiers the winning play in a staged reading at the Festival, followed be full production the following year. The winner also receives a cash prize. Notable past winners include renowned playwright David Lindsay-Abaire.
One of the Festival’s hallmarks is the popular Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest, held in world-famous Jackson Square, which pays tribute to Williams’s characters from A Streetcar Named Desire. This outrageous contest is technically a Stella/Stanley shouting contest, since both males and females are encouraged to participate for the top prize.
The first major New Orleans festival to go on after Katrina, the Tennessee Williams Festival celebrated its twentieth birthday in 2006. The 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.” As Friend of Tennessee Mike Moffit said, “The Festival is to reading and thought as Jazz Fest is to music and Mardi Gras is to fun.”
The Tennessee Williams Festival also sponsors an array of adjunct events, including the Writers in the Schools Program and K.A.R.E.S. (Katrina Arts and Relief Emergency Support), which was created to reach out to local artists affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, offering mini-grants and relief in the literary community.
Other recurring events include the Book Club (a breakfast and reading-circle style discussion) and the Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference, an annual forum for scholarly research on the works of Tennessee. “Drummers and Smoke” is the Festival’s popular live music series. Literary and historical walking tours expose attendees to Tennessee’s former haunts. Autograph sessions with panelists, a Book Fair, an Antiquarian Book Fair, and much more round out this amazing Festival.
