SAINTS AND SINNERS LITERARY FESTIVAL 2022 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, March 25
10 – 11:15 AM—SAS Master Class
SPEAKING TONGUES: PAMELA SNEED
Speaking Tongues is a poetry/performance master class open to all levels. Foremost it is a weaving class learning how to weave memory, experience, history, and current events into poetic tapestries. Lastly, it is about finding and expressing one’s inner truths/serving as medium and vessel and in turbulent times, a messenger.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TWFest VIP Pass, or $20
11:30 AM -12:45 PM—SAS Master Class
PLOTTING THE ARC OF A CAREER: FELICE PICANO
In the LGBTQ+ literary community, Felice Picano is an all-around utility player. He writes plays and memoirs, novels and journals. A lifelong activist, he has been an indie bookseller and is now an indie publisher and a beloved writing teacher. His career arc is a model for how to pivot in changing times, how to take on new challenges and successfully adapt. Do you feel stuck? Unsure of where your career is going? He can give you some advice and inspiration for these quickly changing times. How do you find your niche in the literary community, or make the literary community you need? Felice’s insights will help you move onward.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TWFest VIP Pass, or $20
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—SAS Master Class
CHAPBOOK 101
Everything you ever wanted to know about publishing a chapbook, and then some! So you have some poems or several pieces of creative nonfiction? Maybe a few short-short stories? Not quite enough material to submit for publication as a full length book? Starting from scratch, how can your most polished work (poems, short fiction, or creative nonfiction) become a chapbook? In this workshop, we will describe what a chapbook is, explain how to put one together, discuss the most LGBTQ-friendly chapbook publishers, and explore methods of promoting your chapbook once it is published. There will be plenty of time for Q & A. The workshop facilitators are experienced in writing, editing, reviewing, and publishing chapbooks. Our goal is to help you step-by-step to get your chapbook out into the world.
Panelists include: Allison Blevins, Cathleen Chitwood, Kim Roberts, and Julie Marie Wade.
Facilitator: Gregg Shapiro.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TWFest VIP Pass, or $20
1—2:15 PM—SAS Master Class
SONGWRITING AS A HEALING ART WITH MARY GAUTHIER
Mary Gauthier’s job as a songwriting instructor is to encourage courage. She gently guides songwriters to dig deep into their inner selves, push through firewalls of fear, confusion and self-doubt, and make peace with vulnerability to help them discover, uncover, and use their own unique voice. The beauty of this challenging work is the discovery that the deeply personal is universal. Once we understand this and become willing to be honest in our songs, they will start to connect us to ourselves, to others, and to the world in ways we never could have imagined. These new connections inevitably bring us joy. We are returned to our own hearts as we share our humanity with others. We go from feeling narrated, into narrating. We take a step back, observe, and become our own witness. The space created in this act offers an opportunity to discover, name, and abandon self-defeating patterns. The uncovering and revealing of oneself in our human brokenness can then become a source of transformative beauty, the creation of art.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass, or $20.
1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion
CREATIVE CONNECTIONS: COLLABORATING WITH OTHER WRITERS
We think of writing as a solitary effort and often it is. But there are other ways to produce a written work, and that is through a team effort, otherwise known as collaboration. In this panel discussion, we’ll explore how leveraging a team relationship can both enhance the writing experience and present an array of challenges and how our panelists have both been rewarded and navigated the sometimes stormy seas of collaboration.
Panelists: St Sukie de la Croix, Rick Karlin, Kim Roberts, Julie Marie Wade, and Jerry L. Wheeler.
Moderator: Ian Henzel.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B. Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM—SAS Master Class
GREG HERREN: WRITING THE EROTIC
Writing about sex is more challenging than it appears. This master class will help writers produce erotic writing grounded in character, setting, and voice, with an eye on how erotica can contribute to, build, and/or resolve story conflict. We’ll explore how the implicit is often more effective than the explicit, and how to make explicit scenes compelling and authentic. With a focus on finding fresh imagery and an original approach, we’ll also look at how humor, bad sex, or even problematic sex lend themselves to a fuller—and more erotic—interaction between two characters. Questions addressed include: How can we make use of the erotic to create more exciting fiction that better reflects the real life and aspects of a character? How can the erotic be the center of a story without being explicitly so? What do we do about hyperbole and how do we grapple with the often hyperbolic feelings around the erotic? How is erotica different from sex writing or porn? And, how can we ultimately make the erotic fit naturally, as an integral part, into the flow of a good story. This workshop will encourage participants to take chances and experiment with building eroticism into their work mindfully and seamlessly, and/or give them the tools for creating a story that is primarily driven by the erotic, but that has a freshness and originality often lacking in the genre.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TWFest VIP Pass, or $20
2:30 – 3:45 PM—SAS Master Class
MORGAN HUFSTADER: 5 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL BOOK LAUNCH
Put your book’s best foot forward when you employ these tried and true tactics to unleash your book into the world. From building a core fan base to getting reviews out the door, we’ll go over actionable steps to build an excited audience even before your release date.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass, or $20
2:45 – 4:45 PM—Pitch Session (pre-registration required)
PITCH SESSIONS WITH RATTLING GOOD YARNS PRESS
Rattling Good Yarns Press managing publisher, Ian Henzel, will be meeting with authors at SAS2022. RGYP is looking for novels or story collections; no poetry or plays. They are most interested in unusual perspectives on topics of interest to the LGBTQ community. Pitches will be for possible 2023 publication. For more information about Rattling Good Yarns and online submission guidelines, visit: https://rattlinggoodyarns.com/submissions/
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
4 – 5 PM—Beautiful Dreamer Press Book Launch Readings
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER READING HOUR featuring Jeffrey Round, J.M. Parker, and Lou Dellaguzzo.
Hotel Monteleone, Royal Salon, Free
6:30 – 8:30 PM—Reception
GLITTER WITH THE LITERATI
Come experience true Southern hospitality in the beautiful courtyard of the Beauregard-Keyes House. Mingle with fellow writers and avid readers as you begin your evening in the French Quarter at this historical landmark. We’ll have hors d’oeuvres, spirits, and a specialty cocktail to get you started. Entertainment by Tsarina Hellfire & Stanley Roy.
Beauregard-Keyes Historic House and Garden, 1113 Chartres Street
Included with SAS Weekend Registration and Partner Party Pass
Saturday, March 26
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
HOW DO YOU START A PLAY? HOW DO YOU START A CAREER?
Former agent and publisher Peter Hagan speaks with three playwrights and novelists about the process of writing and the harder process of getting that writing in front of an audience.
Panelists: James Magruder, Felice Picano, and Lance Ringel. Moderator: Peter Hagan.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
BURSTS OF LIGHT: SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN’S POETRY
Join us for a reading of new work by Lisa Dordal, author of Water Lessons and Mosaic of the Dark; Julie Marie Wade, author, most recently, of P*R*I*D*E; and Allison Blevins, author of Slowly/Suddenly and Letters to Joan, among others. A discussion of poetry, hybrid writing, creativity, inspiration, and the artistic process will follow. And even, perhaps, a wee bit of gossip and pet photography will be included. Moderated by poets Jan Edwards Hemming and Julie R. Enszer.
Sponsored by the LGBTQ Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
10 – 11:15 AM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Christian Baines, St Sukie de la Croix, Wayne Hoffman, Fay Jacobs, Rick Karlin, and Eric Peterson for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
11 AM – 12:30 PM—Special Event
DRAG QUEEN BRUNCH WITH POPPY TOOKER
Join Poppy Tooker and her band of rollicking drag queens for an authentic New Orleans drag brunch at Sobou Restaurant with three courses, three queens, and bottomless Mariposa Mimosas! Don’t miss the costumes, glitter, performances, plus a Chandon Garden Spritz giveaway. Be sure to bring your dollar bills to encourage incredible displays of artistry from Laveau Contraire, Debbie with a D, and Cucci Licci. Plus, Poppy Tooker, author of Drag Queen Brunch will be on hand with copies of her latest book. You’ll want to get her autograph along with all the queens. Local favorite SoBou, the Louisiana street food-inspired and cocktail-centric sister of Commander’s Palace, is located at the W Hotel in the French Quarter.
SoBou, 310 Chartres Street, $95. For tickets, go to: SoBou’s OPEN TABLE page under “Experiences.”
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Literary Discussion
OUTWRITE: THE SPEECHES THAT SHAPED LGBTQ LITERARY CULTURE
From 1990 until 1999, thousands of LGBTQ writers gathered at the national OutWrite conferences held first in San Francisco and later in Boston. These gatherings featured keynote speeches, plenaries, panels, affinity groups, and massive dance parties where queer writers and readers gathered to debate, talk, share, mourn, and more. Now, editors Julie R. Enszer and Elena Gross have gathered the sparkle of the conferences into a new collection, OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture. Join the editors as well as contributors and participants in the conference to talk about OutWrite and its on-going legacies.
Panelists: Gerard Cabrera, Felice Picano, and Carol Rosenfeld.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Literary Discussion
WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? THE INFLUENCE OF TRAVEL & PLACE ON WRITING
When writers typically discuss setting, they are often alluding to time and place in our fictional worlds. However, these pandemic years have led many of us to see real-life settings, including our homes, neighborhoods, cities, and everyday geographic realities in new ways. Such times force us to consider where we are now, where we have been, and where we are going. Perhaps that is why towns where we previously resided, cities we have already visited, and countries we dream of traveling to have never seemed more vivid or essential. Whether our geographically-influenced experiences and adventures are exciting, surprising, or challenging, they are often creatively transformative. Join this well-traveled panel of writers for an exploration of how the personal, geographical, historical, cultural aspects of place have shaped their creative perspectives and stories.
Panelists: Christian Baines, Daniel M. Jaffe, Vincent Traughber Meis, and Gregg Shapiro. Moderator: Jerry L. Wheeler
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Henry Alley, Elliott Foster, Hans M Hirschi, Martin Padgett, David Pevsner, and Timothy Schaffert for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
1 – 2:15 PM— SAS Master Class
POETRY AS MEMOIR: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP with STEVEN REIGNS
This informative and generative master class will discuss the process, pitfalls, and rewards of autobiographical poetry. Our queer lives are worthy of documenting and poetry’s condensed storytelling and language allows us to convey our emotional experiences with efficiency and force. For over 20 years, poet and activist Steven Reigns has taught poetry writing workshops around the country to queer youth, LGBTQ+ seniors, and people living with HIV.
Sponsored by the LGBTQ Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, SAS Weekend Registration, TWFest VIP Pass, or $20
1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion
I CAN HEAR MUSIC: WRITERS, MUSICIANS, AND INSPIRATION
What Duke Ellington once said about music is also often true of writing: “If it sounds good, it is good.” In fact, music and writing have always shared a special, unique connection, and many writers find music to be crucial and essential to their work. This influence is sometimes evident in the use of imagery, tone, style, mood, and language. Other times, it is apparent in a writer’s creative approach or artistic vision. Panelists will examine the powerful and sometimes surprising links between music and writing while also revealing their specific musical influences.
Panelists: Mary Gauthier, James Magruder, Carrie Smith, and Pamela Sneed.
Moderator: Martin Hyatt.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion
UP ALL NIGHT: HOW TO MAKE YOUR READER KEEP READING
While thrillers and other genre works are often categorized as “unputdownable,” the goal of every author is to create characters and a story that connect with readers, make them care, and make them want to keep reading. How do you ramp up tension when the stakes aren’t life or death? Marco Carocari, award-winning author of Blackout; Elliott Foster, author of the thriller series Panic River and Reckoning Waves; Jeffrey Round, Lambda-winning author of the Dan Sharp PI mystery series; and Ali Vali, author of the Cain Casey “Devil” series and the Genesis Clan “Forces” series, discuss how they keep their readers engaged. Multi-genre writer and editor Greg Herren moderates.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
1 – 2:15 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Ariadne Blayde, Gerard Cabrera, Anne-christine d’Adesky, Daniel M. Jaffe, Vincent Traughber Meis, and “Jack” Wilde for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM
QUEER HISTORY IN FOCUS: COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO TRAGEDY AND DISCRIMINATION
This panel is a retrospective discussion of the LGBTQ+ Movement in the South from the 1960s to the 1990s. Focusing on three prominent eras—the fallout of the 1973 Upstairs Lounge fire, the persecution of queer New Orleanian Clay Shaw, and the rise and fall of the Sweet Gum Head club in queer Atlanta—this discussion will focus on how the community responded to each of these seismic shifts. Panelists include Alecia P. Long, Martin Padgett, and Frank Perez. Moderator: Robert W. Fieseler.
Sponsored by the LGBTQ Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM—Literary Discussion
WRITING ABOUT SEX IN FICTION
The subject of sex is at the core of what binds LGBTQ+ writers as a community–issues of sexual orientation and expression, gender identity, and desire (whether one feels it or not). What are our options for writing about sexual experience in fiction? When does a piece of writing benefit from explicit renderings of our characters’ sexual activity? On the other hand, when is writing better served by casual reference to sex or mere allusion rather than by explicitness? Authors who’ve written about sex in their fiction—or who’ve consciously chosen not to—consider these questions. Panelists: Gerard Cabrera, Ken Harvey, Wayne Hoffman, and Lance Ringel.
Moderator: Daniel M. Jaffe.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Scott Bailey, Allison Blevins, Lisa Dordal, Julie R. Enszer, Cathleen Chitwood, Karisma Price, and Gregg Shapiro for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
4 – 5:15 PM—Featured Conversation/Interview
I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR: DAVID PEVSNER ON THE BODY, IN THE FLESH
What does pride really look like? Since the Puritans arrived on Plymouth Rock, shame has colored the way Americans think about our bodies: We’re too weak! Too fat! Too old! Too horny! David Pevsner, author of the raunchy and rewarding memoir-cum-manifesto Damn Shame: A Memoir of Desire, Defiance, and Show Tunes, is here to change that. During his 35-year career as a professional actor, with roles on Broadway and network TV, Pevsner has fought against cultural and internalized sex- and body-negativity and ageism to perform nude on stage, in front of photographers and cinematographers, and on Only Fans. “Not only do I have to fight for this ability to express myself this way,” Pevsner says, “I have to fight for anyone’s ability to express [themselves] this way.” Join Pevsner and playwright and drama critic Brian Sands for a joyful conversation about taking ownership of your sexuality and yourself.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
4 – 5:15 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: J.M. Redmann, Kim Roberts, Carrie Smith, Pamela Sneed, Ali Vali, and Julie Marie Wade for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
6:30 – 7:45 PM
SAS FICTION CONTEST READING
Join this year’s contest runner-up Carrie Smith “Freaks of Nature” along with finalists J.R. Greenwell, Gar McVey-Russell, Eric Peterson, Genevieve Rheams, and William Christy Smith for an evening of cocktails and readings from the Saints and Sinners 2022: New Fiction from the Festival hosted by our finalist judge Martin Hyatt.
Special thanks to The John Burton Harter Foundation and Rebel Satori Press for their support of the Short Fiction Contest. Audience members receive a copy of the new anthology created from our 2022 Short Fiction Contest.
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon
Admission included in SAS Weekend Registration, TWFest VIP Pass, or SAS Partner Party Pass
Sunday, March 27
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
NEW DIRECTIONS IN PUBLISHING
For decades, LGBTQ-focused publishers have been vital to the queer community and an integral part of the literary world. That is why it is exciting to see several new LGBTQ imprints dedicated to discovering emerging writers and committed to sustaining already established voices. Editors and publishers from these new ventures along with established veteran small presses will discuss their mission and explore the challenging yet exciting job of bringing LGBTQ literature to the world. Join moderator Martin Hyatt as he speaks with Louis Flint Ceci (Beautiful Dreamer Press), Sven Davisson (Rebel Satori Press), Ian Henzel (Rattling Good Yarns), and Timothy Schaffert (Zero Street Fiction—Nebraska Press).
Sponsored by the LGBTQ Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
10 – 11:15 AM—Literary Discussion
TRUE TO LIFE: TRANSFORMING EXPERIENCE INTO ART
How does life become literature? Four authors map the borders of the real and the written on this cross-genre panel. In The End of Her: Racing Against Alzheimer’s to Solve a Murder, novelist and journalist Wayne Hoffman makes his true-crime debut, investigating his grandmother’s 1913 murder while caring for his ailing mother. Critically acclaimed author Eric Nguyen turns the immigrant experience into a tender novel of displacement and desire in Things We Lost to the Water. Ten years of research into the life of wrongfully accused dentist, David Acer, become poetry in A Quilt for David, the new collection by Los Angeles poet Steven Reigns. Poet, performer, and visual artist Pamela Sneed writes of lesbian leadership, love, and the AIDS epidemic in Funeral Diva, a blend of poetry and memoir. Prize-winning novelist Matthew Griffin moderates the discussion.
Sponsored by the Bruce J. Heim Foundation.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Literary Discussion
GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES: HOW TO CREATE POWERFUL SHORT PIECES
Writing powerful short stories, essays, or other concise works requires techniques and skills distinct from creating longer works. Key elements such as structure, point-of-view, and pacing require unique approaches. In addition, many writers find the immediacy, urgency, and smaller short-form space to be intimidating. This panel will explore original strategies and challenges of creating shorter works while highlighting the exciting freedom possibilities. Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, political, or personal, this panel will help you make short pieces that have a lasting impact on readers.
Panelists: Gar McVey-Russell, Eric Peterson, Vincent Traugber Meis, and Genevieve Rheams.
Moderator: William Christy Smith
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
11:30 AM– 12:45 PM—Literary Discussion
THE TRUEST VOICE YOU KNOW
What makes your work recognizably yours? And is having an idiosyncratic voice a good thing? How do you develop the voices of your characters and how do you let them speak through you? These accomplished writers talk about how they get out of their own way and let the characters speak.
Panelists: Elliott Foster, Hans M Hirschi, Martin Hyatt, and J.M. Redmann.
Moderator: Carol Rosenfeld.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal C
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Daniel W.K. Lee, Robert W. Fieseler, Elizabeth Gross, Jan Edwards Hemming, James Magruder, Eric Nguyen, and Felice Picano for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion
WHO GETS TO TELL THE STORY
Who speaks for you? Who do you not represent? How do you liberate your imagination and creative voice to tell stories that may exist outside of your personal experience? Can you speak for others without silencing or appropriating their voices or truths? What kind of stories can you—and can’t you—tell? How do cis writers contend with presenting non-cis characters? Do we apply a different critical lens to memoir than reporting or fiction? How and where does the imagination fit into our shifting cultural and moral world? As LGBTQ and BIPOC writers gain greater visibility and access to the publishing world, they face the challenges of the present moment, including issues of authenticity, appropriation, gender representation, racism, misogyny, transphobia, class and faith issues in this era of cancel culture, #metoo, #BlackLivesMatter and other political flashpoints. Panelists working in different genres will discuss how they personally grapple with these issues, followed by audience discussion. Panelists include Elizabeth Miki Brina, who writes about her Okinawan mother; Maurice Carlos Ruffin, whose latest story collection portrays New Orleanians of many different orientations; and Elena Gross, a non-binary independent writer, curator and culture critic living in Oakland, CA. Moderated by Anne-christine d’Adesky, journalist and author (The Pox Lover).
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
1 – 2:15 PM—Literary Discussion
EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT NARRATIVE STRUCTURE, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK
Structure is often considered to be the skeleton of a piece of writing, as it is made from the very bones of the story. Whether we write instinctively and spontaneously or create and follow a well-defined outline, some type of structure ultimately emerges. Understanding this structure can lead to new insights regarding organization, storytelling, and chronological order in fiction. Panelists will reveal their own structure-focused writing experiences, approaches, and preferences. They will also discuss how and if certain structures work best for specific types of stories.
Panelists: Matthew Griffin, J.M. Redmann, Timothy Schaffert, and Lindsay Sproul.
Moderator: Felice Picano.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
1 – 2:15 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Marco Carocari, Louis Flint Ceci, Ken Harvey, David Pratt, Jeffrey Round, and Lance Ringel for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM—Literary Discussion
THE PLAGUE YEARS: AIDS, COVID, AND ILLNESS AS METAPHOR
Mark Doty asks in his AIDS-related memoir, Heaven’s Coast, “When the world shatters, what does a writer do?” For many, the answer is obvious: we write. However, some writers might be hesitant or overwhelmed when sharing certain physical and personal truths. Why and how do we write about AIDS, COVID, or other illnesses? What language do we use? Does our generation, culture, gender, and sexuality impact such writing? Panelists from various genres will discuss approaches, strategies, and tips for writing about these personal and often emotional moments.
Panelists: Ken Harvey, Hans M Hirschi, Daniel W.K. Lee, and Gar McVey-Russell.
Moderator: David Pratt.
Sponsored by the Bruce J. Heim Foundation.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal B
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM—Featured Interview/Music
RICKIE LEE JONES AND MARY GAUTHIER IN CONVERSATION
Gwendolyn Thompkins of Music Inside Out moderates a conversation between two of our most beloved singer/songwriters. Rickie Lee Jones has made New Orleans her adopted home; Mary Gauthier was born here. Both have devoted followings for their idiosyncratic music. These women talk about the reckoning with their lives that came with writing recent memoirs, Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour, by Jones, and Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, by Gauthier. They also talk about what’s next for them in music and writing.
Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
2:30 – 3:45 PM—Reading Series
SAINTS AND SINNERS: WRITERS READ
Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation
Take the rare opportunity to hear authors in their own voice. This highlighted Festival event has authors share their vivid imaginations with their new creations, or revisiting a past work that holds special meaning. Please join us in welcoming: Rob Byrnes, Elena Gross, Carol Rosenfeld, Steven Reigns, Traci Taylor, Matt Wenzel and Jerry L. Wheeler for this year’s mix of established and exciting new writers.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal D
Included in SAS Weekend Registration, TW VIP Pass.
4-6 PM—Closing Reception
Hosted by SAS Hall of Famer Brenda Currin
Hotel Monteleone, Royal Salon, Admission included in SAS Weekend Registration, or Partner Party Pass
Finish out the Festival by joining us as we honor outstanding members of our literary community. Wrap up the weekend with old and new friends, and pass one more good time at the Saints and Sinners LGBTQ Literary Festival. We’ll introduce the honoree of our eighth annual Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award generously sponsored by Rob Byrnes. This award acknowledges an exceptional debut work or an author establishing a body of work propelling them to the next stage of their literary career. We’d like to congratulate and recognize Eric Nguyen for his novel Things We Lost to the Water.
Past Emerging Writer Honorees
2013: William Sterling Walker
2014: Juliann Rich
2015: Saeed Jones
2016: Alexander Chee
2017: Libby Ware & Matthew Griffin
2018: Cassie Pruyn
2019: Bryan Washington
2022: Eric Nguyen
We’ll induct this year’s members into the Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame. We’d like to congratulate them and acknowledge their dedication to LGBTQ literature. They have all shown their passion for our literary community through various avenues including writing, performing, promotion, publishing, editing, teaching, bookselling, and volunteerism. Through their work, they have all helped to ensure that the written work from the LGBTQ community will continue to have an outlet, and that people will have access to books and plays that will help dispel stereotypes, alleviate isolation, and provide resources for personal wellness.
2022 Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame Class:
Timothy Cummings
Mary Gauthier
William Christy Smith
Pamela Sneed
Members of the Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame:
Dorothy Allison, Carol Anshaw, Ann Bannon, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Maureen Brady, Jericho Brown, Rob Byrnes, Patrick Califia, Louis Flint Ceci, Bernard Cooper, Michael Cunningham, Jameson Currier, Brenda Currin, Mark Doty, Mark Drake, Jim Duggins, Elana Dykewomon, Amie M. Evans, Otis Fennell, Michael Thomas Ford, Katherine V. Forrest, Nancy Garden, Jewelle Gomez, Judy Grahn, Jim Grimsley, Tara Hardy, Ellen Hart, Cheryl Head, Greg Herren, Kenneth Holditch, Andrew Holleran, Candice Huber, Fay Jacobs, Saeed Jones, Irena Klepfisz, G. Winston James, Raphael Kadushin, Michele Karlsberg, Judith Katz, Moises Kaufman, Joan Larkin, Susan Larson, Lee Lynch, Jeff Mann, William J. Mann, Marianne K. Martin, Paula Martinac, Stephen McCauley, Val McDermid, Mark Merlis, Tim Miller, Rip & Marsha Naquin-Delain, Michael Nava, Achy Obejas, Frank Perez, Felice Picano, Radclyffe, J.M. Redmann, David Rosen, Carol Rosenfeld, Steven Saylor, Carol Seajay, Martin Sherman, Kelly Smith, Jack Sullivan, Carsen Taite, Cecilia Tan, Noel Twilbeck, Jr., Patricia Nell Warren, Don Weise, Jess Wells, Edmund White, and Paul J. Willis.