The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University announces over 30 additional authors for inaugural 2020 event

The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University announced today the commitment of over 30 additional authors to headline its inaugural weekend, March 19-21, on Tulane’s Uptown campus. The latest group includes Thomas Jessen Adams, Gabriela Alemán, Jami Attenberg, C. Morgan Babst, Rebecca Balcárcel, Emily Bernard, Ginny Brzezinski, Stephanie Carter, Danielle Del Sol, Justin Devillier, Freddi Evans, Rodrigo Fuentes, Cheryl Gerber, Chris Granger, Deandrea Green-Humble, Jason Hardy, Lisa Howorth, Ladee Hubbard, Valerie Jarrett, Kris Lane, Susan Langenhennig, Kiese Laymon, Tracy Nelson Maurer, Jerry Mitchell, Justin Nystrom, John Pope, Peter Ricchiuti, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Matt Sakakeeny, Katy Simpson Smith, Michael Tisserand, Poppy Tooker, Cleo Wade, Jeanette Weiland and Kathleen Welch.                       

With these additional authors, the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University has received commitments from over 80 authors, nearing its goal of featuring close to 100 national, regional and local authors during the three-day event. For an updated listing of committed authors, please click here.

“In keeping with our goal of connecting emerging and well-established authors with diverse readers of the New Orleans community, we are thrilled to announce this new group of participants to our festival,” said Cheryl Landrieu, co-chair of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. “With these additions, I am particularly excited to present such a unique line-up, including a wonderful list of female authors as well as many interesting writers from the Tulane and local communities. This event will allow attendees to interact with a favorite writer or to discover a new one in a lively New Orleans setting.  I hope everyone will begin making plans to attend and share their love of reading with us.”

“In keeping with our goal of connecting emerging and well-established authors with diverse readers of the New Orleans community, we are thrilled to announce this new group of participants to our festival.”

- Cheryl Landrieu, co-chair of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University

The latest group of authors add an eloquent blend of both national and local flavor to the festival. The national headliners include Jarrett, whose book, Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward, has been listed among the New York Times’ bestsellers, Laymon, who received the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for his book, Heavy: An American Memoir, Bernard (Black is the Body: Stories of My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine), Alemán (Poso Wells), Brzezinski (Comeback Careers: Rethink, Refresh, Reinvent Your Success—At 40, 50 and Beyond), Fuentes (Trout, Belly Up), Howorth (Summerlings: A Novel) and Mitchell (Race Against Time).

A bevy of talented New Orleans and Tulane-related authors will also be in the spotlight at the festival, including Adams and Sakakeeny, who co-wrote, Remaking New Orleans: Beyond Exceptionalism and Authenticity, Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours), Babst (The Floating World), Carter (The Little Local New Orleans Cookbook), Devillier (The New Orleans Kitchen: Classic Recipes and Modern Techniques for an Unrivaled Cuisine), Evans (Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans), Gerber (Cherchez la Femme: New Orleans Women), Hardy (The Second Chance Club), Hubbard (The Talented Ribkins), Lane (Potosí: The Silver City That Changed the World), Langenhennig (Building on the Past: Saving Historic New Orleans), Nystrom (Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture), Ricchiuti (Stocks Under Rocks: How to Uncover Overlooked, Profitable Market Opportunities), Ruffin, whose work, We Cast a Shadow: A Novel, was named one of the top books of the year by the Washington Post, Smith (The Everlasting: A Novel), Tisserand (Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White), Tooker (Pascal Manale's Cookbook: A Family Tradition) and Wade (Where to Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World). Del Sol, Granger, Langenhennig and Pope each co-authored, Building on the Past: Seeing Historic New Orleans. 

Saturday is Family Day at the Festival and will feature children’s and family programming sponsored by the City of New Orleans Department of Youth and Families and the Scholastic Corporation, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and include numerous literary exhibitors. Five children’s authors have added their names to the line-up, including Balcárcel (The Other Half of Happy), Green-Humble (DeWayne and Mr. Shrimp Po Boy), Maurer (Samuel Morse, That’s Who!: The Story of the Telegraph and Morse Code), Weiland (Beignets for Breakfast) and Welch with husband and illustrator Alan McGillivray (Sometimes Even Elephants Forget: A Story About Alzheimer's Disease for Young Children).

For more information on the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, please visit ​www.bookfest.Tulane.edu and follow along on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @NolaBookFest.