Walker Percy Weekend

Good food, craft beer and bourbon, live music, and a great time talking about books and Southern culture under the live oaks: That's what the annual Walker Percy Weekend has to offer when it returns to celebrate the acclaimed novelist's life and work,  June 2-3, 2023 in St. Francisville, LA.

Intellectually serious but broadly accessible, the 2023 festival invites fans of Southern literature to pursue appreciation of Percy’s thought and writing while attending presentations by renowned Percy scholars, panel discussions, readings, and a series of social and culinary events inspired by the author’s most famous works. Events take place at locations around St. Francisville’s historic district.

Festival proceeds support the JULIUS FREYHAN FOUNDATION—an organization dedicated to restoring the historic Freyhan School building to serve as a community and cultural center for West Feliciana Parish.

2023 SCHEDULE: PRESENTERS, TOPICS, EATS & DRINKS 

SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2023 LECTURES & PANELS

2023 PRESENTERS

- RANDY BOYAGODA - Faith & Fiction in my book Dante’s Indiana. Randy is Professor of English at the University of Toronto, and a novelist and literary critic with a particular interest in religion, satire, and family life. He is author of six books, including four novels, a biography of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus and, most recently Dante’s Indiana and Original Prin. He contributes essays, reviews and opinions to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, First Things, Commonweal, and The Financial Times (UK), regularly appears on CBC Radio, and hosts a literary podcast for the Toronto Public Library. 

- BRANNON COSTELLO - The Places that Make Our Fiction. Brannon is the James F. Cassidy Professor of English at Louisiana State University, where he teaches and writes about southern studies, comics studies, and the intersections of those fields. He is the author of Neon Visions: The Comics of Howard Chaykin (2017), which was awarded the Comics Studies Society's inaugural Charles Hatfield Prize for Best Scholarly Book, and Plantation Airs: Racial Paternalism and the Transformations of Class in Southern Fiction (2007). His other books include the edited collections Comics and the U.S. South (2012) and Conversations with Michael Chabon (2015), and he contributed a critical afterword to the 2013 reissue of Jack Butler’s lost southern classic Jujitsu for Christ (1986).

- SUSAN CUSHMAN - Panelist: The Places that Make Our Fiction. Susan is author of five books, including John and Mary Margaret and Friends of the Library, both set in Mississippi and Memphis. She is editor of four anthologies of works by other authors, including Southern Writers on Writing (2018), an anthology featuring contributions by 26 writers whose work celebrates Southern culture and shapes the landscape of contemporary Southern literature.

- JENNIFER S. DAVIS - Panelist: The Places that Make Our Fiction . Jennifer is the author of three collections of short stories, including Her Kind of Want, winner of the Iowa Award for Short Fiction, Our Former Lives in Art, a Discover Great New Writers Selection, and We Were Angry, winner of the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. She teaches in the MFA Program at LSU, where she serves as Director of Creative Writing. 

- BRYAN GIEMZA - A Conspiracy of Dunces – Mystery and Majesty in a Writer’s Life. Bryan is Associate Professor of Humanities and Literature in the Honors College at Texas Tech University. He has written multiple books and articles about Louisiana writers, history, and culture, including Images of Depression-Era Louisiana (2017) and a new edition of The Great Big Doorstep. His forthcoming books include Science and Literature in Cormac McCarthy’s Expanding Worlds (Bloomsbury, June 2023), an edited essay collection on disinformation, Across the Canyons (2024), and The God of Dark Matter (University of Notre Dame Press, 2025).

- MICHAEL KOBRE - Walker Percy: The Novelist's Art. Michael is Dana Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte. His essays and stories have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, South Atlantic Review, Tin House, TriQuarterly, West Branch, MAKE, and other journals. He’s the author of Walker Percy’s Voices. His writing has also been featured in the anthologies Reading the Boss: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Works of Bruce Springsteen, Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer at Fifty, and Superhero Bodies: Identity, Materiality, Transformation.

- MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN - Panelist - The Places that Make Our Fiction. Maurice is the author most recently of the short story collection The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You (2021), the main character of which is, in many ways, the city of New Orleans. Ruffin cites John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces as a huge influence on his novel We Cast a Shadow (2019), and is quick to acknowledge Walker Percy's role in rescuing Dunces from obscurity.

- READ MERCER SCHUCHARDT - The Moviegoer as the spiritual sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. Read (PhD, New York University) is associate professor of communication at Wheaton College. He earned his doctorate under the invitation of the late Neil Postman at NYU’s Media Ecology program. He is also a member of the Media Ecology Association and the International Jacques Ellul Society.

PROGRESSIVE FRONT PORCH BOURBON STROLL

5:00 pm–7:30 pm - Progressive Front Porch Bourbon Stroll

Ferdinand and Royal streets

A TASTE OF LOUISIANA CLOSING CELEBRATION

7:30 pm–10:30 pm 

An authentic Louisiana summer feast, served out of doors at communal tables set under the stars in St. Francisville’s Historic District. Prosperity Street between Royal and Ferdinand streets

Festival Dates: June 2-3, 2023 

Registration & Tickets

Registration begins at 3 pm Friday at the Conundrum Bookstore, located at 11917 Ferdinand Street. Come to the bookstore to register, receive tickets and wristbands, and gather information on area dining, accommodation, and attractions.

Access All Events: Admission to all events. $ 245.00.

Bourbon Tasting & Taste of Louisiana Supper: A Saturday social events ticket, providing entry to the Progressive Front Porch Bourbon Stroll and the Taste of Louisiana Supper. No panels included. $ 145.00.

Saturday Lectures & Panels only: $100*

*Space at lectures is limited. Arrive early to secure a seat.

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