Alabama at the Louisiana Book Festival, 2023

On October 28 Dianne and I attended the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. Our son Amos appeared on two panels as noted below in support of both his books, the new novel Petrochemical Nocturne and his 2018 collection of stories, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good. We were also at the 2018 festival shortly after his first book was published. 

As you can see from the schedule below, this book festival is a one-day event packed with panels of authors, demonstrations of various sorts, and a massive book tent where signings and lots of purchases take place. Oh, and food trucks. Despite pretty warm weather, the event drew hordes of people, kids, and dogs.

The festival also attracts authors of all sort of books--fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, children's, cookbooks, etc. Naturally, Amos wasn't the only author with Alabama connections. Others included Kari Frederickson, a history professor at the University of Alabama and author of Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama, and prolific novelist Carolyn Haines, who was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in 2020. Novelist and freelance author Terah Shelton Harris and poet Rodney Jones also appeared. 

You can read more about Amos and his writing here.  

Copies of Petrochemical Nocturne be purchased from Livingston Press, Amazon, or Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores. 

Copies of Nobody Knows can be purchased from Livingston Press, Amazon, or Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores.

The book wall in the Louisiana State Library goes up each year; these photos from the festival's Instagram account show it in progress. Amos' book can be seen on the lower right, second row up.

These two photos were taken by AJWIV

The Louisiana State Capitol is an imposing building.

Photo by AJWIV

The steps up to the capitol's main entrance features each state and its year of statehood.

Photo by AJWIV

Many of the panels took place in the House meeting rooms in the basement.

We could watch lots of traffic along the mighty Mississippi from our hotel room. 

Alabama at the Louisiana Book Festival

On a recent Thursday Dianne and I headed to Baton Rouge to meet up with our son Amos and attend the fifteenth annual Louisiana Book Festival. Amos arrived around lunch time on Friday, and we all took in the festival on Saturday. Amos appeared on a panel that afternoon with two other authors of recent short story collections. 

More details are below. 

On Friday the weather was chilly and raining in Baton Rouge as you can tell from this view of the I-10 bridge. 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn only a short walk from the park and buildings where the festival was held in downtown Baton Rouge. The hotel uses some interesting room number plates. 

Barnes and Noble sponsored the large book and signing tents at the site. Here is Amos' book and to the left the new books by his fellow panelists. More details are below. 

The rain finally ended mid-afternoon on Friday, so we walked to the festival site. Here's a view of the book tent with the Louisiana capitol building in the background.

Many festival events were held in the state library building.

Here's the wall of books by festival authors in the foyer of the state library. Amos' collection of short stories can be seen in the very upper left corner. 

Here's a close up of that upper left corner.

The site of the Louisiana state capitol building and park contains the former Pentagon Barracks military post which was later used as housing for LSU cadets. A portion can be seen here in the foreground, with the capitol in the background and framed by one of the areas neat old trees. 

The substantial program for the festival featured artwork by William Joyce, author and illustrator of various children's books. His work has also appeared on covers of New Yorker magazine and in galleries and museums.  

We went to a couple of panels in the morning before having lunch and heading to the capitol building for Amos' appearance. The first panel was "Writing and Environment: A Multi-Genre Perspective" with environmental historian Jack E. Davis, poets Martha Serpas and Neil Shepard, novelist Kent Wascom and moderator Jack B. Bedell. 

The second panel, "Family-Influenced Fiction" featured two novelists, Nicole Seitz and Spencer Wise; the moderator was Olivia Clare, a poet and fiction writer. 

At this writing information about these authors and their works can be found at the Festival web site.  Both panels were stimulating and gave me several possibilities for future reading. 

The 34-story Art Deco Louisiana state capitol opened in 1932. Legendary politician Huey P. Long was assassinated in the building in 1935 and is buried in the park. Dianne said the building looks like something out of Ghostbusters.

Here Amos and David Langlinais are waiting for the panel to begin. Not pictured is Genaro Ky Ly Smith.

One end of the festival's signing tent opened toward the cooking tent, which was behind me as I took this photo. The festival also included music, various food vendors, an exhibitors tent and many authors and publishers at tables lining the walkway up to the capitol. 

Here are the panel members David Langlinais, Amos Wright, and Genaro Ky Ly Smith in the signing tent. 

After the festival we retired to the Bengal Tap Room and enjoyed a local beer, a Tin Roof Voodoo. 

Amos' book is available here. You can learn more about the book and his other writing at his website. 

David's book is available here. 

Genaro's book is available here.