staffer to U.S. senators Russell Long
and John Breaux, and Louisiana
Governor Kathleen Blanco. The
Washington Post named his book
Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds:
LBJ, Barry Goldwater, and the Ad that
Changed American Politics among the
best political books of 2011.
Joy Manthey
has been
a Captain
on the
Mississippi
River for
over 40 years.
Captain Joy became the first woman
to hold a First Class Pilot’s License
from Mile 88 to 235 on the Lower
Mississippi River. She later earned
her license as Master of Unlimited
Tonnage Upon Inland Waters.
Captain Joy thoroughly enjoys
working in the Brown water.
Jerika
Marchan
was born
in Manila,
Philippines
and raised in
the American
South. A graduate of Louisiana State
University and the Iowa Writers’
Workshop, she lives in New Orleans.
Her debut collection SWOLE
(Futurepoem, 2018) was the June
2018 poetry best seller on Small Press
Distribution and was named a Must-
Read Race and Culture Book of the
Summer by Colorlines magazine.
Ann Masson
is a long-time
resident of
the Vieux
Carré, and an
architectural
historian
who teaches, writes, and consults
on preservation and the arts. A
faculty member at Tulane’s School
of Architecture for nearly 20 years,
her experience also includes extensive
professional and volunteer work
with historic houses, advocacy,
tourism, and preservation groups.
She has served as president of several
organizations and has been honored
by the Louisiana Landmarks Society
and the Louisiana Association of
Museums, among others.
Laura Lane
McNeal has
enjoyed a
career as an
advertising
and marketing executive, journalist,
free-lance writer and magazine editor.
The devastation of Hurricane Katrina
spurred Laura to pursue her dream
of becoming a fiction writer. Her
bestselling debut novel Dollbaby
(Pamela Dorman/Viking/Penguin
2014) was a 2015 Pat Conroy Fiction
Award Finalist, 2014 Goodreads
Awards Top Ten Finalist, and a BEA
and New York Post Pick, among
others. Dollbaby has been optioned
for film by Gulfstream Productions, a
division of Warner Brothers.
Tom
Mitchell
is Chair of
Acting for the
University
of Illinois
Department
of Theatre, where he has directed
all of Tennessee Williams’ early full-
length plays. He and performers
from Illinois have presented Interior:
Panic, St. Louis Stories, and other
works as part of the Scholars
Conference in recent years. Mitchell’s
essay, “Tennessee Williams Wrestles
with Race,” is published in the 2019
Tennessee Williams Annual Review.
Currently he is working on projects
focused on Williams’ short fiction.
Marian
D. Moore
converted a
childhood
love of science
into a career
in computing
analysis. Her love of literature led
her to writing poetry and science
fiction, which has been published
in periodicals ranging from Bridges
to Asimov’s Science Fiction. Although
she did some writing while attending
Louisiana State University, Moore
sharpened her skills in George Alec
Effinger’s University of New Orleans
workshop and then in NOMMO
Literary Society, led by the New
Orleans writer and activist Kalamu
ya Salaam.
Alex Myers
is a novelist,
teacher, and
transgender
rights
advocate.
Born and
raised as a girl, Alex came out as
transgender at age 16. He was the
first openly transgender student at
Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard
University. At Harvard, he became an
40 TENNESSEE
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
WILLIAMS &
& NEW
NEW ORLEANS
ORLEANS LITERARY
LITERARY FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL
40
activist and advocate for transgender
rights, working with schools around
the world to be more gender
inclusive. After earning degrees at
Harvard and Brown, Alex studied
Fiction Writing at Vermont College
of Fine Arts, crafting his debut novel,
Revolutionary, which tells the story of
his ancestor who disguised herself as
a man and fought in the American
Revolutionary War. Alex teaches high
school English in New Hampshire,
where he lives with his wife.
Elizabeth C.
Neidenbach
earned her
PhD in
American
Studies
from the
College of William and Mary. Prior
to joining the staff of The Historic
New Orleans Collection, where she
is the visitor services trainer, she
worked as a public historian for the
National Park Service in Virginia
and New Orleans. Her scholarship
has been published in Transatlantica,
the Journal of Urban History, and 64
Parishes.
Stuart Noel
is Professor
of English
and Film at
Georgia State
University
in Atlanta.
He has lectured widely both here
and abroad as a scholar of Tennessee
Williams and Truman Capote. Dr.
Noel founded and chairs the Truman
Capote Literary Society. He is the
recipient of the 2018 Scholar’s Award
at the Tennessee Williams Tribute
in Columbus, Mississippi, the
birthplace of Tennessee Williams.
Daniel José
Older’s most
recent books
are Dactyl
Hill Squad
(Scholastic,
2018), his
first middle grade book, and Star
Wars: Last Shot (Del Ray, 2018).
His New York Times-bestselling
Young Adult novel, Shadowshaper
(Scholastic), was a New York Times
Best Book of the Year. His other
books include the Bone Street
Rumba novels, including Midnight
Taxi Tango and Half-Resurrection
Blues (Penguin). Winner of the
International Latino Book Award, he
has been nominated for the Kirkus
Prize, the Locus and World Fantasy
Awards, and the Andre Norton
Award.
Sunni
Patterson is a
New Orleans
native and
visionary, an
internationally
acclaimed
poet, performer, lecturer, workshop
facilitator, and certified life coach. As
a diligent student in the healing and
spiritual arts, she uses art and culture
to recognize, address, and eliminate
all forms of oppression. Her artistry
has allowed her to grace a plethora
of stages and platforms. Sunni is a
2020 John O’Neal Cultural Arts
Fellow, and she currently serves as a
Resident Artist for both the City of
New Orleans’ Claiborne Corridor
Cultural Initiative and Junebug
Productions. She is also co-founder
of environmental arts and public
health organization, Breath is Lyfe.
Frank Perez
serves as
President of
the LGBT+
Archives
Project of
Louisiana. He
is the author of two books: In Exile:
The History and Lore Surrounding
New Orleans Gay Culture and
Its Oldest Gay Bar (with Jeffrey
Palmquist) and Treasures of the Vieux
Carre: Ten Self-Guided Walking Tours
of the French Quarter, and is the co-
editor of the anthology, My Gay New
Orleans: 28 Personal Reminiscences on
LGBT+ Life in New Orleans. He also
writes a column on gay New Orleans
history for Ambush Magazine.
Chuck
Perkins is
an American
spoken word
poet, orator,
narrator,
and activist
who infuses the rhythms and
vernacular from the Crescent City
into his musical spoken word pieces.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
says that he “recites poetry like
a prize fighter...always going for
a knock out.” He has performed
internationally at London’s
prestigious South Bank Centre with
Amiri Baraka, as well as in Paris,
Toulouse, Manchester, Liverpool,
Cambridge, and Amsterdam.