James Nolan
5:00-5:40pm
Writers are in charge of the "perpetual care" of their local mythologies and regional cultures. Andrei Codescu has called James Nolan "New Orleans' master storyteller," and in this session Nolan will read from his award-winning collection of short fiction, Perpetual Care. Along the way, he will reflect on Blanche and Ignatius, and on why his native city seems to inspire such poignant and hilarious narratives.
Author quotation:
“New Orleans isn't only a place but a story we tell ourselves. Without this story, one passed down from generation to generation, this city would be just a collection of dilapidated houses below sea level. Without its story, New Orleans would be like an Alzheimer's patient, there in the flesh but not really there. This story has gotten us through wars, epidemics, and storms. In this sense, New Orleans' writers have always been in charge of the city's "perpetual care," adding their own chapters to the ongoing story. If New Orleans should ever stop telling its story, it would disappear under floodwaters far deeper than Katrina's, into American cultural amnesia.”
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