Celebration of Readers and Writers
Symposium, February 28, 2009
The West Feliciana Parish Library and the Friends of the Library will host its 3rd Annual Celebration of Readers and Writers Symposium on February 28, 2009. This event recognizes outstanding regional authors and provides a forum for discussion of their works.
The Symposium program will include:
• James Wilcox, the author of nine novels, is the director of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University. In his most recent novel, Hunk City, Wilcox revisits Tula Springs and the characters of his debut novel, Modern Baptists. Wilcox was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
• Danny Heitman, an award-winning columnist for The Baton Rouge Advocate, chronicles a pivotal season that John James Audubon spent in St. Francisville in 1821. His first book, A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House has moved Heitman into new arenas. A recognized essayist, his essays have appeared in “Smithsonian,” “The Christian Science Monitor” and other national publication. In 2007, Heitman was awarded the Templeton Foundation’s national “In Character Prize” for distinguished commentary.
• Pamela Binnings Ewen is a retired lawyer and author of her just released second novel, The Moon in the Mango Tree. Ewen’s first novel Walk Back the Cat was published in 2006. She is also the author of the nonfiction book, Faith on Trial (1999) which was used as a text for a course in law and religion at Yale Law School.
• Reggie Scott Young is an Associate Professor of English at UL, Lafayette. He is a scholar, fiction writer, and poet who grew up in Chicago, and has now edited two volumes of works by Ernest J. Gaines. Among his creative honors is the Gwendolyn Brooks Poet Laureate Award for Significant Illinois Poets and the PEN Discovery Award for fiction. We await his first novel, Preludes: A Love Story, available in the spring of 2009.
• Charles Elliott, prolific author, scholar, film director and history faculty member at Southeastern Louisiana University, will speak about the creative process as well as literary genres these authors represent.
Lunch at the Oxbow is included, and books will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. Tickets are $35.00 per person and must be purchased ( cash / check only) in advance at the West Feliciana Parish Library, 11865 Ferdinand St, (St. Francisville) or by mail: PO Box 3120, St. Francisville, LA 70775. For information call the West Feliciana Parish Library (225) 635-3364.
