Friday, December 18 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Peggy Scott Laborde and John Magill sign and discuss "Christmas in New Orleans" at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum (Level C)

Peggy Scott Laborde is the producer and host of Steppin’ Out, which airs on WYES-TV in New Orleans. Since earning a B.A. in political science from the University of New Orleans, Laborde has produced a number of documentaries based on the city she calls home. Her professional accomplishments have earned her awards from the Press Club of New Orleans, Public Relations Society of America, and American Women in Radio and Television. She has garnered praise for her extensive efforts in conserving the arts and history of New Orleans.

As a curator at The Historic New Orleans Collection and the head of the research services and the reading room at Williams Research Center, John Magill has coordinated several exhibits for the museum. He graduated from the University of New Orleans with a B.A. and M.A. in history. He has contributed articles to The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly, New Orleans Magazine, and Louisiana Cultural Vistas magazine. Magill is also the author of Pelican’s Canal Street: New Orleans’ Great Wide Way, which he co-wrote with Peggy Scott Laborde.

Christmas in New Orleans (Save 34% at Amazon)

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New Orleans 8th Annual Bookfair

November 7th 10 am - 6 pm

500-600 Blocks Frenchmen Street
New Orleans, Louisiana

Bookfair kick-off party on Friday, November 6th, 6-9 p.m. at the Sound Cafe. Featuring readings by: Ethan Brown, author of "Shake the Devil Off", and Louis Maistros, author of "The Sound of Building Coffins".

Read more via nolabookfair.com

Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim

Anne Rice's journey from New Orleans to California has been both personal and literary.

Her latest novel, "Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim," centers on assassin Toby O'Dare, who has a life-changing experience after meeting an angel.

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With the release of his first book, talented New Orleans musician, singer and songwriter Paul Sanchez invites the reader to share his journey from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans to a renewed life and a new New Orleans.

"what I lost in the flood was my stuff, what I've found since is my life".

"Pieces Of Me" is a very personal collection of essays, initially written as blogs, documenting the torment of Sanchez's life after the flood, leaving the band Cowboy Mouth and facing an uncertain future before finding himself in a new world filled with the kind of love and music he had long been searching for.

"I have been looking for a connection to something for a long time and I found it right here where I started. The music, the people, the feeling that life is for living and work shouldn't be taken too seriously. The sense of community in the streets, talking to people you know and people that you don't know with the same familiarity."

"The magic hasn't been lost and that was, I guess, what we all feared the most as the events of the Thing, (as writer Chris Rose has called it), unfolded. ultimately the magic is in each of us anyway."

"The moment that feels like sublime perfection when John Boutte' sings or Shamarr Allen plays his horn on a night when you know the rest of the country is tucked in, is only wonderful if you open up and allow yourself to experience it."

Fans of Sanchez know that when he takes to the stage and begins to sing you are unwittingly swept up in his pain, his joy and his love for life and for New Orleans. Through this honest, heart warming and at times laugh out loud funny book you will also become better acquainted with Sanchez and many of the musicians that he calls friends.

Pieces Of Me, published in April 2009, is the first book to be published by Threadhead Records.

Order Pieces Of Me online from Amazon

Tennessee Williams / New Orleans Literary Festival
March 25 - 29, 2009

The Festival is an annual five-day celebration held in late March, which showcases national and regional scholars, writers, and performing artists. Programs include panel discussions, theatrical performances, a one-act play competition, lectures, literary walking tours, musical performances, a bookfair, and more.

The Tennessee Williams Festival is held at various locations in the inimitable French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. Most locations are within easy walking distance of one another.

Future Tennessee Williams Festival Dates Dates are tentative and subject to change.

• 2010 - March 24-28
• 2011 - March 30-April 3
• 2012 - March 28-April 1
• 2013 - March 20-24

Learn more at http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/

Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, four-fifths of New Orleans filled with water, covering an area seven times the size of Manhattan island. Dan Baum, a former staff writer for the New Yorker, was among the army of reporters who covered the chaotic evacuation and long, aching aftermath. "Nine Lives," the product of his love affair with the sunken city, is a spiritual saga strikingly different from his magazine reporting.

“Cooking up a Storm” (Chronicle Books, $24.95), edited by Judy Walker and Marcelle Bienvenu, is a compilation of recipes that were lost in the disaster and recovered and published in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. “New Orleans Home Cooking” (Pelican Publishing Co.; $19.95), by Dale Curry, also features favourites such as gumbo, jambalaya, oyster pie, Cajun meatloaf, and barbequed shrimp. READ MORE