Noted critic and editor Arthur
Krystal will deliver the Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday in
Oliver Hall Auditorium (Room 112) on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
campus. Krystal’s talk will center on the friendship of Jacques
Barzun and Lionel Trilling, two major literary and cultural figures of the
mid-20th century, who for 40 years taught together at Columbia
University. The title of the lecture is “Jacques Barzun and Lionel
Trilling — An Improbable Friendship.”
Krystal received a master’s in
English and comparative literature from Columbia University in 1970. He
took a class with Barzun and in time they became
friends. At Barzun’s request, Krystal edited “The Culture We
Deserve” and later “A Company of Readers,” which reprints 45 of the essays that
Barzun, W. H. Auden and Trilling wrote for The Readers’ Subscription Book Club,
which they founded in 1951.
Krystal has written for the Times
Literary Supplement, the American Scholar, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New
York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World, the Chronicle of
Higher Education, and other publications. His profile of Barzun appeared
in the New Yorker in 2007, on the occasion of Barzun’s 100th
birthday. Krystal’s own books include four collections of essays,
including his most recent “This Thing We Call Literature.”
For more information, contact levyendowment@louisiana.edu.
Poetry Month
In celebration of National Poetry
Month, the Louisiana Center for the Book is announcing the sixth annual Just
Listen to Yourself: The Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets
program. Louisiana Poet Laureate Peter Cooley will host the event from noon to
1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Seminar Center at the State Library of Louisiana in
Baton Rouge. Cooley has invited poets from
throughout the state to participate in readings of their work. Those included
are Jack Bedell, Darrell Bourque, Mary Katherine Brake, Gina Ferrara, Lara
Glenum, Kelly Harris, Julie Kane, Donney Rose and John Warner Smith. Registration is not required
for this free event, and attendees are invited to bring brown bag lunches.
In other poetry news, the inaugural
New Orleans Poetry Festival will take Friday through Sunday in New Orleans. For
information, visit www.lavenderink.org/poetryfest.
New releases
Author Alex V. Cook dissects
diners, restaurants serving those amazing plate lunch specials and Bayou State
roadside eaters in his latest book, “Seat Yourself: The Best of South
Louisiana’s Local Diners, Lunch Houses, and Roadside Stops,” published by LSU
Press. It’s not all about boudin and smothered chicken, although there are
plenty of those delicious dishes to go around. The lineup is as varied as the
dishes, pizza and beer at Fleur de Lis Pizza of Baton Rouge, veal Parmesan and
mac and cheese at Rocky and Carlo’s of Chalmette, pies and ham sandwiches at
Lea’s Lunchroom in Lecompte and so much more. If you want a guide to those
out-of-the-way places along with a few sterling well-known spots south of
Alexandria, Cook gives his personal take on some of Louisiana’s best.
Lynn Shurr
of New Iberia will release in soft cover and ebook “A Will of Her Own” on
Saturday by Wild Rose Press. Main character Kara Shafer gives up on her college
crush, Will Collier, and runs off with a rock band when their leader declares
her his muse. While Kara endures a rocky marriage on the road to fame, she
wonders if Will’s life has turned out as he planned. Does he ever think of the
girl who wanted him so badly in college? For information, visit www.lynnshurr.com.
Cheré Dastugue Coen is
the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris
Bags and Sachets.” She
also writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie
Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.
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