Festival of Words this Saturday in Grand Coteau

Yvette Landry

Rain Prud'homme

The Festival of Words, featuring literary readings by poet Rain Prud’homme-Cranford and songwriter and author Yvette Landry, will be Friday and Saturday in Grand Coteau. Other festival events include creative writing workshops in the public schools and community centers, a community stage for open mics, “Drive-by Poetry” in grocery stores, boutiques and restaurants and opportunities for participants to interact with featured authors. The Friday night event features a music performance and discussion by Landry, poetry performance by Prud’homme-Cranford and an oral history presentation about the Petetin store by  Sonny Eaglin at 7 p.m. at Chicory’s Café in Grand Coteau. Cheryl Castille, director of the Division of the Arts within the Office of Cultural Development, opens the festival. On Saturday, Drive-by Poetry performers will recite poems in Grand Coteau and Sunset businesses while an open mic and creative writing workshops will be at the Thensted Center. I will be teaching one on Life Writing: Creating Your Life Story. And if that wasn’t enough, there will be a public poetry reading by multidisciplinary artist Tanner Menard, accompanied by musician Chad Viator, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Nunu’s Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville. To register for workshops, learn more about featured authors and for more information, visit festivalofwords.org or contact Patrice Melnick at (337) 254-9695 or email festivalwords@gmail.com. The Festival of Words is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Endowment for the Arts. 

Workshops

Achilles Print Studio, a fine art school offering art classes, workshops and lectures in multiple genres in Lafayette, will offer a Creative Writing Workshop with Saul Lemerond titled “From Magic Wands to Laser Guns — Learning to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy” starting Tuesday, Nov. 1. The workshops will consist of five-week sessions for ages 15 and up meeting once a week on Tuesdays. Writers of all abilities are welcome. Originally from Green Bay, Wis., Lemerond is a third-year PhD candidate at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette where he is assistant to the director of creative writing and the fiction editor for Rougarou. He has published stories in several genres including horror, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, satire and absurdism. His book “Kayfabe and Other Stories,” was published by One Wet Shoe Press in 2013. His poetry, non-fiction, and short stories have also been published in Dunesteef, Drabblecast, Down in The Cellar, Notes Magazine and elsewhere. For more information, email achillesprintstudio@gmail.com.

   The Writers’ Guild of Acadiana will offer a one-day seminar for writers interested in fiction, poetry, lifewriting and playwriting from 9 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. Saturday at South Regional Library of Lafayette. The presenters, made up of UL-Lafayette professors and instructors, will present a full day of instruction with hands-on exercises. For more information and to register, call (337) 342-4287. High school students may attend free of charge.

Book events

Award-winning author Peggy Scott Laborde, who writes about many historic features of New Orleans, has published “The Fair Grounds Through the Lens: Photographs and Memories of Horse Facing in New Orleans,” with principal photography by Louis Hodges Jr. She will discuss the book at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Octavia Books in New Orleans.

            The Teche Project will host a book launch party for Shane K. Bernard’s “Teche: A History of Louisiana’s Most Famous Bayou” from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Teche Center for the Arts in Breaux Bridge. Bernard will also sign books at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Longfellow-Evangeline State Park in St. Martinville.

Jarita Davis, a poet and fiction writer with degrees from Brown University and UL-Lafayette, will read from her recently published book of poetry, “Return Flights,” from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum on the UL campus and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the UL-Lafayette Library. Davis’s work has appeared in Southwestern Review, Cave Canem Anthologies, Crab Orchard Review, Plainsongs, Tuesday: An Art Project, Verdad Magazine, and the Cape Cod Poetry Review.

            Patrick Holian and Martin Fulmer will read as part of the Thursday Night Reading presented by the UL-Lafayette English Department, EGSA and Sigma Tau Delta at 7 p.m. Thursday at Poets, 1043 Johnston St. There will also be a Bad Poetry Reading at Achilles Print Studio, both in downtown Lafayette.

Nationally-acclaimed poet and Shreveport native Jericho Brown visits Centenary’s Meadows Museum of Art for a poetry reading at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

A poet Q&A follows the reading and refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country.” She writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.