While Tulane University has postponed the inaugural New Orleans Book Festival this year to protect the community and adhere to University protocol at this time, the School of Liberal Arts would like to celebrate the many writers that were scheduled for an exciting weekend of events, talks, and book signings. In doing so, we asked two professors from the Department of English to share a few invited authors who they recommend reading this year.
Zachary Lazar
Professor, Department of English, and author of six books including Vengeance (2018) and I Pity the Poor Immigrant (2014)
I would recommend reading works by legal historian Annette Gordon-Reed, for her profound work on the story of Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson.
Gabriela Alemán of Ecuador and Yuri Herrera of Mexico are two of the most brilliant writers from Latin America (or anywhere) right now.
Kim Vaz-Deville is a local New Orleanian who is both a participant in and an expert on the city's Black Mardi Gras culture, and a fascinating writer and person.
Finally, there are too many other New Orleans writers to even name, but they are a testament to the city's current literary boom, which is one of the most exciting things for me about living here.
Selamawit D. Terrefe
Assistant Professor, Department of English, and has publications forthcoming by Rowman & Littlefield and Random House’s Oneworld
Kim Vaz-Deville: As a feminist scholar, Black psychoanalyst, and researcher of Black insurgent political and cultural practices, Vaz-Deville's work provides a profoundly unique and important lens on the cultural impact of socio-political trauma in New Orleans.
Kiese Laymon: The brilliance of Laymon's lyricism is only matched by the tenor of his works' ability to penetrate the inextricable violence of racism and patriarchy in American life.
Margarita Jovier: The global expanse of Jovier's approach to socioecological crises provides an ethical alternative to the effects of neoliberalism and intensified social isolation.
Sarah Broom: The Yellow House is one of the most illuminating works in recent years about the racial politics of New Orleans that undergirds all modes of inequity and social life here.
Sister Helen Prejean: Prejean's relentless work on behalf of the abolishment of the death penalty is central to Louisiana's role in the U.S. carceral system and New Orleans' proximity to Angola penitentiary—abolition now!
For more information on each of the authors scheduled to participate, as well as news concerning the cancellation of the festival this year, visit https://bookfest.tulane.edu/. Tulane and the New Orleans Book Festival look forward to welcoming guests to next year’s festival March 18-20, 2021.