2025 Schedule:
Faulkner for All!
Presented By
The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society
&
The English Speaking Union
Thursday, September 25th, Faulkner’s Birthday
1:00 – 3:00 p. m. — Master Class for Students, Venue to be Announced.
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.  For more on Justin Torres and his work, Click Here!

Free and Open to the general reading public as well as students.

6:00 – 8:00 p. m.—  Welcome party. Venue to be Announced.
Remembering William Faulkner on His Birthday and honoring special out of town guests of the Faulkner Society set to present at Faulkner for All.  Special guests of honor will be UK’s glamorous Countess of Derby, Caroline Stanley, historian, art curator, and exceptional story teller; National Book Award winner Justin Torres; poet Julie Kane, just named 2025 Louisiana Writer of the Year; Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler; noted essayist, short fiction writer, and NPR  commentator Andrew Lam; bestselling political journalist Thomas Mallon; celebrated journalist, fiction and non-fiction author Marie Arana, former editor in chief of “Book World”, the book review section of The Washington Post, and her husband, famed literary critic Jonathan Yardley; Faulkner experts John Shelton Reed, Penny Morrill, Robin Sinclair and Liza Hickman; and leading literary agent Jeff Kleinman, who chairs the programming for developing writers during Faulkner for All!
By invitation with advance reservation, number of guests determined
by size of venue.

8:00 p. m. — Evening Free to enjoy the music and cuisine of New Orleans.

Friday, September 26th — Hotel Provincial Meeting Room.
8:00 a. m. — Continental Breakfast hotel.
8:30 a. m.—  Keynote session for writers.
Publishing in 2025  This year marks 100 years after William Faulkner completed his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, while he was 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 hurtles in their sprint for publication. Speakers will be Jeff Kleinman and other noted New York literary agents and editors.

9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a. m. Manuscript critiques 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.
Noon— Registration, Light lunch & Odes to New Orleans and William Faulkner.
1:00 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. This year’s session 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. The will be joined by  Ellis Anderson, publisher of the French Quarter Journal, who is invited to interview the couple.
Book Signings
2:30 p.m. — Faulkner and New Orleans. 2025 is 100th anniversary of the completion of William Faulkner’s first novel Soldiers’ Pay.
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 one of the 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, will examine Faulkner’s behind the scenes of his life as a troubled man entangled in a complex marriage, seeking solace through serial sexual and romantic affairs, perilous pastimes, and chronic alcohol abuse.
3:45 p.m.—Book Signings.
4:30 p. m.—Break. Manuscript Critique Assignments.

6:00 p. m. to 8:00 p.m. —  Theme keynote: Embracing the Marginalized: An Evening with National Book Award winner, Justin Torres and journalist, editor, and fiction and non-fiction author, Marie Arana, followed by Cocktail party in their honor and book signing. The concept employed by Torres in his prize winning novel Blackouts is reminiscent of a famous Faulkner novel, As I Lay Dying, as it is a death bed story. The narrative—based on a true story of gay men and women, whose actual history is erased—calls attention to today’s marginalization, censorship, erasure of artistic creations, and  distortion of history. The novel makes us sit up and take notice that the same thing is happening now, gay artists 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…or banned all together And it makes us realize that the same thing is happening to other marginalized groups. Marie Arana’s new book, LatinoLand zeroes in on the way that Latinos are marginalized by being viewed as a single homogenized group, that proper notice is not given to the fact that Hispanic Americans are not credited with their diversity of history, diversity achievements, diversity of artistic work, diversity of religious or political affiliations, not treated in other words like the rest of us.

8:30 p. m. – Evening Free for out of town participants to enjoy the city’s food and music.

Saturday, September 27th. Hotel Provincial Meeting Room
8:00 a. m. — Continental Breakfast hotel.
8:30 a. m.—  Advice Session for writers: That peculiar thing called a Novella.
9:30 to 10:30 a.m.— Manuscript critiques appointments.

Beauregard – Keyes House
10:30 a. m.— A very special, Special Interest book: Scrambling Around With Scrim will feature publisher Susan Schadt, owner of the boutique publishing firm, Susan Schadt Press, and noted New Orleans attorney Kaye Courington, author of Scrim, a tale of courage, love of place, resilience, and daring-do action in the face of daunting adversity, 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.   Other special interest book authors will join them.
11:30 p. m. —Book signing.

Noon — Light lunch.
12:45  p. m. — Spiritual Journeys, a traditional session of Faulkner for All! this year will star Claire Hoffman, journalist, journalism professor, and author, who has knocked the ball out of the park with her new book, Sister, Sinner, a new, 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, and the devisive political influence of the American religious right of today. For more on Claire and her blockbuster book, Click Here!
1:30: p. m. — Book signing.
2:00  p. m . — Mining the Past to Understand the Present and Create Contemporary Literature. The session partners master storytellers who have become cultural historians with the literature they have produced.
—Marie Arana, one of the most celebrated women of letters in America, is a native of Peru and former Editor of Book World, the book review section of the Washington Post, author of the compelling novel Cellophane, set in the Peruvian Amazon and inspired by her family’s past in Peru, and other literary works of fiction and non-fiction. Her new book, LatinoLand, is a collage of word portraits inspired by her Latina heritage, exploring the diverse politics and historical roots of Hispanic Americans, who now compose close to 20 per cent of the U. S. population. A central theme of  LatinoLand is how to navigate their demographic differences while holding all 60 million Americans to a single, collective identity. The Washington Post wrote that, “Her fragmented and beautifully written narrative, which washes over readers in a series of portraits, rather than as one continuous story, is a perfect representation of Latino diversity.”  The New York Times commented that the book had a very fast pace, covering an expansive history.  The New Yorker called LatinoLand one of the 12 Must-Read books of 2024. For more on Marie Arana and her work, Click Here!

—Peter M. Wolf is an American non-fiction author, cultural historian, land planning and urban policy authority, investment manager, and philanthropist. He lives in New York and New Orleans. His 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 and long forgotten Jewish communities. No one has previously suggested an enduring and intimate link between these two dynamic cultures. The book is written as an adventure story that expands our understanding of both the lost Etruscan people and the Jewish diaspora. For more on Peter Wolf, his new book, and other work, Click Here!
—Karen Essex, an award-winning novelist, journalist, and screenwriter, is a self-described “history nerd,” and her critically acclaimed novels all deal with female power brokers of the past, instrumental in influencing the course of history. Her novels include Leonardo’s Swans, about the muses of Leonardo da Vinci; Stealing Athena, the story of the controversial Elgin Marbles;  Dracula in Love, a retelling of the original vampire tale; and two acclaimed biographical novels, Kleopatra and Pharoah. Her novels are published in 29 languages. Leonardo’s Swans, a runaway bestseller in Italy, won the prestigious Premio Roma Prize for foreign fiction. Essex adapted Kleopatra and Pharoah into a screenplay for Warner Bros. Lionsgate Entertainment. For more on Karen Essex and her work, Click Here!
3:00 p. m. —Book signings.

3:30p. m— The Literature of War 
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 year 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 there. 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. 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.
4:45 p. m.— Book signings.

4:30 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!
Book Signing.8:00 p. m. — Evening free to enjoy the sights and sounds of New Orleans.

Sunday, September 28th – Hotel Provincial Meeting Room
8:00 a. m. — Continental Breakfast.
8:30 a. m.—  Advice Session for writers: The Art of Non-Fiction
9:30 a.m. — 10:30 a. m. — Manuscript critique appointments.

Beauregard – Keyes House
10:30 a. m. — Why Integrity in Literature and Integrity in Literary Criticism Are Especially Critical Today. The session will feature, one of the all time great American critics, Jonathan Yardley, for many years, Chief critic for
Book World, the Book Review section of The Washington Post.

11:45 a. m.— The Muse on the Mississippi: Poetry featuring Julie Kane, recently named2025 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, and publisher. For more on Julie Kane and her work, Click Here!  For more about Bill Lavender and Lavender Ink, Click Here!
Noon—Book Signings. 1:45 p .m. — Light lunch
2:15 p. m. — Literary New Orleans, featuring Nancy Dixon and Leslie Petty will discuss and sign their new book, Voices and Visions: Essays on New Orleans’s Literary History.
For more on Nancy Dixon, Click Here! For more on Leslie Petty, Click Here!

3:30 p.m. —    How Marginalized Slaves Shaped the Culture and Cuisine of New Orleans and the South. Invited to present is the country’s leading expert on the contributions of the African Diaspora, Jessica Harris. We are awaiting confirmation of participation by Jessica Harris.4:15 p. m. — Book signings

5:00 p. m. — Break, Manuscript Critique Appointments.

7:00 p. m. — St. Mary’s Chapel, Ursulines Convent
35th black tie annual meeting of the Faulkner Society, featuring 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.