Saints and Sinners this weekend in New Orleans

Saints and Sinners, an annual LGBTQ literary conference, will run concurrently with the The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, March 23-25, 2018. The Festival celebrates this city’s longstanding attraction for LGBTQ writers, and offers both established and emerging authors, as well as readers, the opportunity to meaningfully connect, gain information and nurture their craft skills. In 2018, organizers are adding an educational outreach component with support from the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s LGBT Fund established by community champions. 

A SAS weekend pass ($150) includes the welcome reception, “Glitter with the Literati” on Friday, March 23, at the historic Beauregard-Keyes House & Gardens; panel discussions; a reading series made possible by premiere sponsor, the John Burton Harter Foundation; the Ninth Annual SAS Short Fiction Contest Book Launch Party in the Hotel Monteleone’s Vieux Carre Room; and admission to our Hall of Fame Closing Reception.

Saints and Sinners includes noted speakers such as:

• Jericho Brown, Whiting Writers Award-winner and author of the poetry collections Please and The New Testament.
  
• Jaffe Cohen, award-winning screenwriter (Feud, 2017), author, actor, educator, and the distinction of one of the first openly gay standup comedians on national television.
• Elana Dykewomon, award-winning author of eight books foregrounding lesbian heroism, including the novels Riverfinger Women, Beyond the Pale and Risk.
• Jewelle Gomez, author of the double Lambda Award-winning novel, The Gilda Stories, and an activist and playwright. Her play Waiting for Giovanni is a dream play exploring the inner life of author James Baldwin.
• Greg Herren, author of more than 30 novels and 50 short stories. He has won numerous awards, including the Anthony Award, the Lambda Literary Award (twice) and two Independent Press medals for outstanding work in young adult mystery/horror.
• Andrew Holleran, author of three novels including the seminal work Dancer from the Dance, a book of short stories and a collection of essays on AIDS. He is a regular contributor to the Gay and Lesbian Review
• Martin Hyatt, author of award-winning novels, A Scarecrow’s Bible (2006), named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association and won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and his new novel, Beautiful Gravity (2016), also received a Stonewall Honor Book Award from the ALA
• Michele Karlsberg, publicity and marketing expert
• Barry McCrea, professor of comparative literature at the University of Notre Dame where he teaches on its campuses in Indiana and Rome, and author of the award-winning novel The First Verse
• Felice Picano, acclaimed author of over 30 books of poetry, fiction, memoirs, nonfiction, and plays
• Radclyffe, author of over fifty romance and romantic intrigue novels, she is an eight-time Lambda Literary Award finalist in romance, mystery, and erotica—winning in both romance  and erotica. She is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies
• Lauren Sanders, author of the critically acclaimed novels Kamikaze Lust, (Lambda Literary Award), and With or Without You. Her most recent novel is The Book of Love and Hate (Akashic Books October, 2017)
• Elizabeth F. Schwartz, lawyer and same-sex marriage activist, author of Before I Do; A Legal Guide to Marriage, Gay and Otherwise
• Martin Sherman, an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his play Bent, which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust
• Tammy Lynne Stoner, author of Sugar Land (Red Hen Press, 2018), publisher of Gertrude Journal, wrangler of GERTIE: A Queer Book Club, and creator of Dottie’s Magic Pockets—the first show for kids in gay families
• Justin Torres, author of the best-selling debut novel We the Animals and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop
• Nick White, author of the novel How to Survive a Summer and the forthcoming short story collection, Sweet & Low, (Penguin/June 2018). 

Panel topics at the 2018 Festival include: 

• Civil Rights in the Era of Trump; 
• LGBT Books that Changed My Life and Influenced My Writing; 
• Queer Fiction as Activism #Resist; 
• We've Been Through This Before: Baby Boomer Lesbians Talk About Writing, Resistance, and Relevance, and many more. 

For a complete schedule visit: SASFest.org.