I'll be attending the Saints and Sinners literary conference in New Orleans May 8-11. This is an extraordinary gathering of GLBT authors, editors, and publishers. The conference serves as a fundraiser for NOAIDS.
This year Bywater Books, my publisher, will have a strong showing at the conference, with six or seven authors. Last year's winner of the Bywater Prize for fiction, Jill Malone, will be there, promoting the release of her debut novel, Red Audrey and the Roping. The 2008 prize winners will be announced at the closing reception.
The schedule is still be firmed up and completed, but I'll be doing a reading, and maybe sitting on a panel. Here's the bio from the program:
Bett Norris graduated from the University of Alabama with a BA in history and a burning desire to write, having grown up just down the road a piece from Harper Lee. She drew heavily on her Alabama roots for her first novel, Miss McGhee, a runnerup for Bywater Books prize for fiction, set during the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties. She dutifully set her second novel, What's Best for Jane, in the South as well, certain that the well of rich material to be found there will never run dry.
I'm in the process of selecting an exerpt from What's Best for Jane to read. This is harder than you might think. First, I have to read the section aloud and time myself. Accounting for reading much too fast, the reading should be no more than ten minutes. Nest, choosing a piece that needs very little setup or explanation. Then, practice. None of this really helps my nervousness.
Scheduled speakers and panelists this year in clude Val McDermid, Dorothy Allison, Cynn Chadwick, Jewelle Gomez, Jim Grimsley, and many others.
Centered in the Bourbon Orleans Hotel in the heart of the French Quarter, this thing is always a lot of fun. Yes, I learn a lot from the workshops. But it is New Orleans, you know.
