Faulkner for All!
Presented By
The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society
&
The English Speaking Union
Thursday, September 25th:
William Faulkner’s Birthday
Beauregard – Keyes House, Main floor.
11:00 a. m.— Festival Opens with Registration, Book Sales, Light lunch and Odes to New Orleans and William Faulkner.
12:30 p. m. — New Orleans, Mon Amour, a regular feature of Faulkner for All, is the title of the famous essay by Walker Percy, which often is considered the perfect summing up of our city. Thomas Mallon, who has a distinct affinity the Big Easy, will get the festival ball rolling with comments on what New Orleans has meant to him as a writer. This year’s session, led by Ellis Anderson, non-fiction author and publisher of the French Quarter Journal, will star Dalt Wonk—journalist, playwright, actor, poet, and fabulist—and his wife, Josephine Sacabo, internationally noted art photographer, writer, and former actress. They are co-creators of the marvelous new book, New Orleans: 1970 – 2020, A Portrait of the City. The book is composed of essays by Dalt about New Orleans and photographs by Josephine.
2:00 p. m.—Book Signings.
2:30 p.m. — Faulkner and New Orleans. 2025 is 100th anniversary of the completion by William Faulkner of his first novel Soldiers’ Pay, written while he as living on Pirate’s Alley. Introduced by Faulkner Society
Co-Founder Rosemary James, and featuring Faulkner-oriented programming in three segments and book signings. The three segments include:
—The Two Bills! Faulkner’s relationship with his New Orleans landlord and cultural mentor, William Spratling, the famous artist and silver designer, who later jump-started the rebirth of Mexico’s silver industry. With Faulkner, Spratling co-authored Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles, a spoof on the literary and arts crowd they ran in. When Soldiers’ Pay sold, Faulkner used the advance money to travel to France with Spratling. This segment will feature John Shelton Reed, author of Dixie Bohemia, and other works, and Penny Morrill, an expert in the life and work of Spratling and his relationship with William Faulkner.
—The Enduring characters of William Faulkner. Why is it so easy to call to mind characters created by William Faulkner to populate his created world of Yoknapatawpha County. The session will feature Robin Sinclair, whose specialty is the recurring characters of Faulkner’s works, such as the romantic hero, Gavin Stephens
—The Legacy and tragedy of the Nobel Prize winning author’s life.
Faulkner scholar and literary historian Lisa C. Hickman, Ph.D., whose new book is Between Grief and Nothing, which exmaine Faulkner’s life as a troubled man entangled in a complex marriage, seeking solace through serial sexual and romantic affairs, perilous pastimes, and chronic alcohol abuse.
4:00 p.m.—Book Signings.
4:45 p. m.—Break. Manuscript Critique Appointments.
6:30 – 8:30 p. m.— Welcome Party
Remembering William Faulkner on His Birthday.
The event will take place at the residence of Dr. E. Quinn Peeper, Chairman of the National English Speaking Union and Co-Chair of the Pirates Alley Faulkner Society, and Michael Harold, a Faulkner Society Board member. Special Guest of Honor for this event is Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. Butler’s Pulitzer book, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, is a collection of short fiction about the Vietnam refugees who settled in New Orleans and created a vibrant community here in the decades since the war. He will join in a Literature of War session during the festival. Other special guests will be out of town presenters for Faulkner for All including: UK’s glamorous Countess of Derby, Caroline Stanley, historian, art curator, and exceptional story teller; National Book Award winner Justin Torres; Nationally noted journalist, and bestselling non-fiction author of the new blockbuster book, Sister Sinner, Claire Hoffman; former Poet Laureate Julie Kane, just named 2025 Louisiana Writer of the Year; celebrated essayist, short fiction writer, and NPR commentator Andrew Lam; bestselling political fiction writer Thomas Mallon; Faulkner experts John Shelton Reed, Penny Morrill, Robin Sinclair, and Liza Hickman and literary marketing expert Shari Stauch, owner of Where Writers Win and Main Street Books, who will be Mistress of Ceremonies for writers advice sessions; editor and publisher Cindy Speigel, editor
Ellie Davis, agents Kiele Raymond, Michael Signorelli , and Katherine Fausset and other literary professionals.
By invitation with advance reservation, number of guests limited by size of venue.
8:30 p. m. — Evening Free to enjoy music and cuisine of New Orleans.
Friday, September 26th
Hotel Provincial Meeting Room.
8:00 a. m. — Continental Breakfast hotel.
8:30 a. m. to 9:45 a. m.
Manuscript critique Appointments.
One-on-one sessions with professional agents and editors for writers registered for the festival who have submitted work to be critiqued in advance of Faulkner for All.
Note: No manuscript critique appointments are to be scheduled in conflict with other programming of Faulkner for All!
Beauregard – Keyes House, Main Floor
10:00 a. m. – Keynote for Writers
Publishing in 2025
100 Years After Faulkner Finished His First Novel.
While living on Pirate’s Alley in the Vieux Carre of New Orleans, mentors, such as then famous American novelist Sherwood Anderson, supported Faulkner enormously during creation of the novel and then helped him get it published. What kind of help can writers expect to get in today’s publishing world and what can writers do to leap over the enormous hurtles in their sprint for publication. Led by Pulitzer Prize winning author and one of the best writing teachers in the country Robert Olen Butler. Bob Butler, who has launched numerous successful literary careers, share this discussion with top notch literary agents Michael Signorelli and Katherine Fausset.
11:00 a.m. – Break
11:15 a.m.—Spiritual Journeys: Cults, Then and Now
And Their Impact on American Culture and Politics.
A traditional session of Faulkner for All!, this year, Spiritual Journeys will be led by bestselling political fiction writer Thomas Mallon, who is a lifelong Washington insider and can speak to how American politics have turned into a cult affair. The session stars Claire Hoffman, journalist, journalism professor, and non-fiction author, who has knocked the ball out of the park with her new book, Sister, Sinner, a previously untold look at the life Aimee Semple McPherson—the famous cult preacher lady of the Roaring Twenties, who paved the way for televangelism, mega churches, Xenophobia—and the divisive influence of cult religion on American life today. For more on Claire and her blockbuster book, Click Here!
12:15 — Break.
12:30 p. m. — History’s impact on Literature.
Mining the Past to Create Contemporary Literature.
Invited to Introduce this discussion is Nancy Dixon, Ph.d., Dillard University Professor and author of multiple history books centering on New Orleans, including her new collection Co-Edited with The sessions stars include celebrated screenwriter and historical fiction author
Karen Essex whose novels include the runaway bestseller Leonardo’s Swans, and her new book, Run, Darling, which brings to tantalizing life the escapades of the famous and glamorous Gabor sisters: Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magd. Essex will partner with Caroline Stanley, the Countess of Derby, whose new book is The American Journal of Edward Geoffrey Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby: The Making of a Prime Minister, and Peter M. Wolf, an American non-fiction author and cultural historian, whose remarkable new book, The Etruscans and the Jews: New Orleans Echoes, Sardinian Shadows, Roman Shame, illuminates never before recognized links between the culturally vibrant Etruscan people, whose artistic creations remain among on ongoing important influences on decorative design, and long forgotten Jewish communities.
1:45 p, m. _ Light Lunch (reserve and pay in advance) and book signings.
3:30 p. m. — Loyola University, The Miller Building, Room 114.
Theme Presentation for students and the general reading public.
Featuring Justin Torres, whose latest novel, Blackouts, captured the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, the session will revolve around The Fiction of History: Who Decides What Accurate History Is and What Will Be Omitted. Blackouts also was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lambda Literary award, and the Southern California Book Award. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, Torres has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center. His debut novel, We the Animals, became a national bestseller and was adapted into a feature film. The Faulkner Society was among the first to recognize him as a major literary talent and we are thrilled for him that his literary career has soared since he appeared with us in 2011 when his debut novel We the Animals was released. He lives in Los Angeles and is an associate professor of English at the University of California Los Angeles. Leonard Kahn, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola, will welcome Justin to campus and he will be introduced by Tracey Watts, Chairman of the English Department. At the end of his talk, there will be a Q. & A. session led by prize-winning Loyola English major Amiyuh Tobias. For more on Justin Torres and his work, Click Here!
Free and Open to the general reading public as well as students. You should Uber if you wish to attend as parking on campus can be a nightmare. Click Here for Campus map showing Miller Building.
Beauregard – Keyes House, Main Floor
7:00 p. m. — Theme keynote
Embracing the Marginalized: An Evening with Justin Torres and Yuri Herrera, winner of the internationally prestigious Anna Seghers Prize for his body of work and the coveted Best Book in Translation award.
The concept employed by Torres in his prize winning novel Blackouts is in concept is a death bed story, based on a true story of gay men and women, who were treated as guinea pigs and the actual history of their abuses was deliberately erased, The narrative calls attention to the ongoing marginalization, censorship, erasure of artistic creations, and distortion of history that went on behind the scenes in the past. The book makes any humane, thinking reader sit up and take notice of same sorts of things happening more openly now, gay artists and hyphenated Americans are having work blacked out, completely erased, or having passages of their work redacted without permission because the Powers-that-be are against them due to ethnicity, sexual persuasion, or other factors these powers deem unacceptable. Yuri Herrera’s work deals with many of the same issues, as well as the horrors resulting from xenophobia and immigration and forced deportations and their cultural impact on the United States, before and since the rise to power of Donald Trump and his base. Their presentation will be followed by a cocktail buffet and book signings.
9:00 p. m. – Evening Free for out of town participants to enjoy the city’s sights and sounds.
Saturday, September 27th
Hotel Provincial Meeting Room
8:00 a. m. — 10:00 Continental Breakfast hotel.
8:00 a. m. to 10: a. m. — Manuscript Critique Appointments
Beauregard – Keyes House, Main Floor
10:15 a. m. — Advice session for writers
From Misfortunes to Literary Fortune
Literary editor and publisher Cindy Speigel, National Book Award winner Justin Torres and celebrated Vietnamese American author Andrew Lam will tackle the subject of how to take life’s misfortunes and turn them into literature with universal and critical appeal.
Note: Creative Writing Students will be invited guests for this session.
11:30 a. m.—Break, Signings
12:15 p. m. — Special Interest Books
Scrambling Around With Scrim
Only the worst curmudgeons can resist the latest New Orleans hero: canine escape artist Scrim, who captured local and national 
media attention with his daring exploits as he attempted to find home. Publisher Susan Schadt, owner of Susan Schadt Press, is one Scrim pushover for sure, publishing not one but two books about the precious pooch in 2025.
The first, SCRIM, a general audience book in narrative verse by New Orleans attorney Kaye Courington was focal point of the Society’s annual membership drive kick-off, Merry, Merry in May. Now comes SCRIM MY Tail created especially for children by New Orleans television celebrity Margaret Orr and artist/illustrator Matt Rinard. Although 
for different audiences, both both books center on a tale of courage, love of place, resilience, and daring-do action in the face of daunting adversity. The book creators will appear with rescue heroine, Michelle Cheramie, the owner of animal rescue nonprofit Zeus Rescues, who led the weeks long mission to find Scrim, safely capture him, and bring Scrim finally to a caring, loving new home. Cheramie, a former information technology professional has devoted her life to caring for animals since losing her home during 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. She believes she was “born to rescue.” And we believe she was, too. Invited but not yet confirmed is David Brown, author of a definitive piece on Scrim for The New Yorker.
1:30 p. m. —Light Lunch, Book signings..
3:00 p. m— The Literature of War
The Only Good Thing About War is the Literature It Inspires
One hundred years ago in the wake of WWI, the world had undergone a massive social revolution and enjoyed a period of hope and a rebirth of creative energy with dramatic departures from tradition in art, architecture, fashion, music, manners, along with a body of literature reflecting all of these changes and giving voice to the lasting trauma of the war. In fact, if there is any important positive aspect of war, it is combat’s inspiration for and generation of important literature. Even at the height of this creative period, the writing was on the wall for WWII, which again produced an explosion of post-war change and creativity.
Fifty years ago, Saigon fell and the Vietnam War ended and in the years since, countless books of fiction and non-fiction have been written the search for the truth about the tragic meddling of the United States and the crushing defeat of the U. S. The question remains, Why were we ever there in the first place. Given that the U. S. is embroiled at least tangentially in hot spots all over the world now, a discussion of war and the valuable, lasting literature it produces is timely. Invited to participate in this session are authors Robert Olen Butler, a Vietnam veteran who served in military intelligence, and returns to Vietnam regularly to visit. His collection of short stories about Vietnam refugees in Louisiana, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. And one of his 16 novels, Perfume River, is set in Vietnam and inspired by events of the war. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” He will partner in this discussion with Andrew Lam and Thomas Mallon. Lam fled Vietnam with his family when Saigon fell. He is a prize-winning essayist and journalist, long time NPR commentator, and author of the new book of short fiction receiving rave critical reviews, Stories from the Edge of the Sea. Bestselling political novelist Mallon, who charmed festival audiences last year, is invited to return. Earlier this year, Mallon travelled to Vietnam, where he gave lectures on the literature of war. Mallon also is an authority on the post WWI literature and comment on the literary impacts of the war. The discussion will be led by Randy Fertel, a philanthropist and writer, who has delved deep into every aspect of improvisation and whose new book is Winging It: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump. A long-time anti-war activist, Fertel is Creator of the Ridenhour Prizes. Established by the Fertel Foundation and The Nation Institute, the prizes recognize and encourage those who persevere in acts of truth-telling to protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society. The prizes memorialize the spirit of Ron Ridenhour, a Vietnam veteran who wrote a letter to Congress and the Pentagon in 1969 describing the horrific events at My Lai, the infamous massacre of the Vietnam War, bringing the scandal to the attention of the American public and the world.
4:30 p. m.— Book signings.
5:00 p. m. —Break, Manuscript critiques
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.— An Evening with the Countess of Derby
This session, which will examine national heritage and ancestry as inspiration for literature, will be introduced by Dr. E. Quinn Peeper, who leads both the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society and the national English Speaking Union. For more on Dr. Peeper, Click Here! Caroline Stanley, Lady Derby, is a glamorous English historian, curator, and storyteller whose own family and her husband’s family have encompassed British movers and shakers for 600 years of English history. Lady Derby is using her own education, time, talent, and insider knowledge to illuminate English history with books based on the adventures, achievements, exploits, and escapades of her own ancestors and those of the man she married in 1995 and the father of her three children, the 19th Earl of Derby. Her latest book is The American Journal of Edward Geoffrey Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, a 19th Century ancestor, who later became Prime Minister of England. For more on Lady Derby, her literary and history work, and her book, Click Here!
Please Note:
Copies of Lady Derby’s Book for Signing at the event Must be Reserved and Paid for In Advance. Call Garden District Books, (504) 895-2266, with credit card to reserve your books to be picked up at the event for personalizing by Lady Derby.
8:30 p. m. — Evening free to enjoy the city’s sights and sounds.
Sunday, September 28th
Hotel Provincial Meeting Room
8:00 a. m. — Continental Breakfast.
8:30 a. m.—10:15 a. m. — Manuscript critique appointments.
Beauregard – Keyes House
10:30 a. m. — Advice session for Writers TBA
Noon.— Special Interest Book
Obituary Cocktail
Susan Strachan’s new book in her series on the great cocktails of New Orleans, Obituary Cocktail, will talk about one of the favorite pastimes of New Orleans, tippling! Obituary cocktails will be served with light lunch.
1:30 p. m.– Poetry
The Muse on the Mississippi: Poetry featuring Julie Kane, recently named 2025 Louisiana Writer of the Year. Ms. Kane is invited to weigh in from a poet’s point of view on the festival theme: Embracing the Marginalized. She will discuss her new collection: Naked Ladies and read from her work. Joining her will be Bill Lavender, creator of the New Orleans Poetry Festival, poet, publisher, and last year’s ALIHOT award for his body of poetry and long service to the
literary community of New Orleans. James Nolan, Master poet,
non-fiction writer, and translator of literary works from Spanish to English, whose new book is Quarter Rats, is invited join.
3:00 p. m. — Advice session for writers. TBA
4:00 p. m. — Break
Hotel Provincial Meeting Room
4:30 p. m. — Manuscript critique appointments.
St. Mary’s Chapel, Ursulines Convent
7:00 p. m.
35th black tie annual meeting of the Faulkner Society.
Program will feature presentation of the winners of the 2024-25 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, a look at the humor of William Faulkner by John Shelton Reed, and a reading from Faulkner’s book of poetry, The Marble Faun by Julie Kane.
8:30 p.m. — Tented garden of the Ursulines Convent. Drinks, dinner and music for dancing.
10:00 p. m. —So, Ooh Long! Faulkner for All! 2025 adjourns.