Past Speakers

1993-1994

November 14, 1993: Don Moore, readings of Dickens and Tolstoy
November 30, 1993: Andrei Codrescu, reading "Why Are There No Clocks In Baton Rouge?"
January 28, 1994: Rick Blackwood, Elsie Michie, Pat McGee, Reggie Young, and Jack May, discussion of The Crying Game
February 10, 1994: Black History Month readings
February 20, 1994: Panthea Broughton, a talk on Faulkner and painting in New York and Paris
March 13, 1994: Jerry Kennedy, a talk on American authors in Paris during the "Crazy Years"
April 10, 1994: Peggy Prenshaw, a talk honoring Eudora Welty's 85th birthday

1994-1995
September 21, 1994: Andrei Codrescu, special showing of Road Scholar and David Madden, reading/enactment from Sharpshooter
December 9, 1994: Valerie Martin, latest novel is The Great Divorce and recent film adaptation of Mary Reilly
February 12, 1995: Emily Toth, a talk on Kate Chopin
March 12, 1995: Don Moore, readings from Shakespeare
April 21, 1995: Enid Shomer, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "Imaginary Men"
April 30, 1995: Doris Betts, readings from Souls Raised from the Dead and Heading West

1995-1996
September 21, 1995: Richard Ford, reading from Independence Day
October 10, 1995: Moira Crone, reading from Dream State
October 30, 1995: Maria Van Daalen, Dutch Fellow in Poetry to the US, reads from her poetry Stephen Stern
November 30, 1995: W.D. Snodgrass and Kathleen Snodgrass a dramatic visual presentation of new poetry
February 16, 1996: Frederick Turner, address to Graduate Student Conference "The Bond: Shakespeare's Economics"
March 3, 1996: Dan Fogel, discussion of taped interview with Leon Edell, the definitive biographer of Henry James
March 24, 1996: Ava Haymon reads her poetry along with Dave Smith, reading from Fate's Kite: Poems 1991-1995
April 24, 1996: Elizabeth Dewberry, readings from fiction, upcoming performance of her new play Flesh and Blood

1996-1997
September 22, 1996: Ann Beattie, reading from Picturing Will
October 6, 1996: Anna Nardo, a talk on Milton's domestic life Michelle Gellrich, readings of poetry and prose
November 24, 1996: Kate Daniels, readings from poetry
January 19, 1996: James Wilcox, readings from fiction
February 2, 1996: John R. May and Rick Blackwood, panel discussion of the film Dead Man Walking
March 16, 1996: Panthea Reid, a talk on the art of writing biography
April 23, 1996: Paula Gover, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "White Boys and River Girls"

1997-1998
September 14, 1997: Jill McCorkle, reading from new novel Carolina Moon
October 12, 1997: Robin Roberts, multimedia presentation on popular culture
December 1, 1997: Paul Muldoon, poetry reading
February 1, 1998: James Olney, lecture from Memory, Narrative and Life Writing
March 8, 1998: Lisel Mueller, reading from Alive Together: New and Selected Poems
April 22, 1998: Andrea Barrett, fiction reading
April 30, 1998: Philip Weinstein, lecture "Toni Morrison and William Faulkner"

1998-1999
September 13, 1998: Gloria Naylor, reading from The Men of Brewster Place
October 25, 1998: Tim Gautreaux, fiction reading
November 22, 1998: Ellen Douglas, fiction reading
January 31, 1999: Rodger Kamenetz, poetry reading
February 28, 1999: Brenda Marie Osbey, reading from All Saints: New and Selected Poems
March 21, 1999: Mary Leader, reading from Red Signature
April 11, 1999: Andrei Codrescu, reading from Messiah
April 25, 1999: Elizabeth Gilbert, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "Pilgrims"

1999-2000
September 19, 1999: Barry Hannah, fiction reading
October 17, 1999: Richard Bausch, reading from Someone to Watch Over Me
November 21, 1999: Emily Toth, reading from Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia and Sharon Weltman, reading from Ruskin's Mythic Queen: Gender Subversion in Victorian Culture
January 23, 2000: Connie Porter, reading from Imani All Mine
February 13, 2000: John Wood, poetry reading
March 19, 2000: Mark Poirier, reading from Naked Pueblo
April 16, 2000: Samantha Lan Chang, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "Hunger"

2000-2001
September 24, 2000: Lee Smith, fiction reading and Hal Crowther, reading from essay in The Oxford American Magazine
October 15, 2000: David Kirby and Barbara Hamby, poetry readings
November 5, 2000: James Gordon Bennett, reading from novel in progress His Sister's Keeper
February 4, 2001: Tillie Olsen, reading of "I Stand Here Ironing"
March 11, 2001: Jim Catano and Rick Moreland, readings from scholarly work
April 29, 2001: Michael Griffith, reading from Spikes

2001-2002
October 21, 2001: Yusef Komunyakaa, poetry reading
November 11, 2001: Ross Spears, presentation of original film Tell About the South
February 17, 2002: William J. Cooper, discussion of biography writing
April 28, 2002: Stephen Dobyns, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "Eating Naked"

2002-2003
September 22, 2001: Josephine Humphreys, reading from Nowhere Else on Earth
November 3, 2001: William Jay Smith, readings from The Girl in Glass and a personal letter from Eudora Welty
February 16, 2003: Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, poetry reading
April 27, 2003: John Fulton, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "Retribution"

2003-2004
September 28, 2004: Charles Richard and Beth Courtney, presentation of LPB film documentary Louisiana: An Illustrated History
October 26, 2003: John Ed Bradley, reading from Restoration: A Novel
November 14, 2003: Ernest Hemingway Foundation, conference "New Discoveries and Directions in Hemingway Studies"
January 25, 2004: Andrei Codrescu, reading from it was today: new poems
February 29, 2004: Billy Collins, poetry reading
April 18, 2004: Ernest Hill, reading from Cry Me a River

2004-2005
September 26, 2004 Bret Lott, reading from A Song I Knew By Heart
October 24, 2004 Ava Leavell Haymon, reading from The Strict Economy of Fire and Laura Mullen, poetry reading
January 30, 2005 Wayne Parent, reading from Inside the Carnival: Unmasking Louisiana Politics
February 27, 2005 Laurie Lynn Drummond, from Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You  and Olympia Vernon, reading from Eden
April 17, 2005 John Murray, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies"

2005-2006
October 16, 2005: Solimar Otero, reading from "No soy la escritora de esta novella/I am not the author of this novel: Listening to ritual in Cuban fiction" - with original footage of Old Havana
November 13, 2005: Cleopatra Mathis, reading from White Sea
February 19, 2006: James Lee Burke, reading from "Jesus Out to Sea"
April 23, 2006: Bret Anthony Johnston, winner of The Southern Review prize for short fiction for "Corpus Christ"

2007-2008
October 7, 2007: Chancelier Skidmore, Joseph Lease, David Shapiro
November 11, 2007: Laura Mullen, Rodger Kamenetz
February 17, 2008: Mari Kornhauser
March 9, 2008: Bhanu Kapil, Myriam Chancy
April 13, 2008: Allan Gurganus 

2009-2010