2018 Pinckley Prize Winners Celebrated!

Ellen Hart and Marcie Rendon received the 2018 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction on October 6 at The George and Joyce Wein New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Center in New Orleans.  The Pinckley Prizes partner with the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans, of which Diana Pinckley was a founding member.  http://pinckleyprizes.org/

 

Annual Chapter Recruitment Social and Silent Auction Fundraiser

Putting the Banned Back Together: Celebrating National Banned Book Week

Nearly 30 chapter members and friends joined together at our annual Chapter Recruitment Social and Silent Auction. The gathering was titled Putting the Banned Back Together in honor of Banned Books Week and was held on the last day of that week, Saturday, September 29, from 6 to 9 PM.  Our guest of honor was nationally acclaimed New Orleans journalist and host of WWNO’s Music Inside Out, Gwen Thompkins.

                                                                                                                                            

Arts & Letters Series Features WNBA-NOLA Members

         

Author and Literary Scholar Anne Boyd Rioux in Conversation with The Reading Life’s Susan Larson at the New Orleans Museum of Art on September 14.  They discussed Anne’s new book, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. The event was sponsored by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation and the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.

2018 Pinckley Prize Winners Announced

Ellen Hart and Marcie Rendon are the recipients of the 2018 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, named to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley. The prizes will be presented October 6, 2018 at The George and Joyce Wein New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Center, 1225 N. Rampart St., New Orleans. The Pinckley Prizes partner with the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans, of which Diana Pinckley was a founding member.  http://pinckleyprizes.org/

Ellen HartEllen Hart is the winner of the Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work. Hart is the author of 32 novels in two series, one begun in 1989 and featuring Jane Lawless, a lesbian restaurateur and her best friend, Cordelia Thorne. She is also the author of the Sophie Greenway series. Hart’s novels deal with LGBT issues and have received six prestigious Lambda Literary Awards. In 2017, she was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, its highest honor; she is the first LGBT writer to achieve this recognition. Hart lives in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Marcie RendonMinneapolis resident Marcie Rendon wins the Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for her book Murder on the Red River, published by Cinco Puntos Press. An enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, Rendon is a playwright, poet, and freelance writer. She has published four nonfiction children’s books; two are Pow Wow Summer and Farmer’s Market: Families Working Together. Rendon is a community arts activist who supports other native artists/writers/creators in pursuing their art.

June 2 Chapter Meeting Highlights

Many thanks to Chapter VP Nina Calvo for hosting us at her lovely home!  Stay tuned for more info on upcoming events and our September fundraiser!

April 23 Chapter Meeting

 

We had a great time at our Chapter meeting.  Shakespeare’s Sisters (that’s us) came together at The Rink shopping center, the beautiful area right outside Garden District Book Shop, to network, share all things literary and socialize.

   

WNBA-NOLA at the Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival

Many of our members participated in the March 21-25 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.
Chapter President and New Orleans intellectual property attorney  Marie Breaux interviewed Peggy L. Fox, Tennessee Williams’ last editor: Literary Discussion A LIFE IN PUBLISHING: TALKING WITH PEGGY L. FOX.
 
Chapter members and (children’s book editor) Catherine Frank and (children’s book author) Madaline Herlong joined the Literary Discussion THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF CHILDHOOD. Cheryl McGoey Mathis, Regional Advisor for the Louisiana/Mississippi Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, moderated. The panel was sponsored by Chapter Member Kathy and Edmund Schrenk.
Chapter members and poets Stacey Balkun, Gina Ferrara, Biljana D. Obradović and Melinda Palacio joined other contributors of Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse for NASTY WOMEN POETS: UNAPOLOGETIC PERFORMANCES. The anthology’s co-editor Julie Kane, former Louisiana state poet laureate, moderated.
                
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Chapter members (and Chapter co-founder and Past President) Susan Larson and Kathleen Calhoun Nettleton of Pelican Publishing joined a panel of experts for reactions to 2-minute pitches at PITCH PERFECT: GET YOUR STORY IDEA OUT THERE.  The event was sponsored by Pelican Publishing Company.
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 Chapter Board Member Constance Adler moderated a Literary Discussion ALL KINDS OF MEMOIR with Beth Ann Fennelly, Anne Gisleson, Rick Bragg and Minrose Gwin. 
Chapter Member Dr. Nancy Dixon of Dillard University, Executive Editor of NEW ORLEANS AND THE WORLD, 1718-2018, THE TRICENTENNIAL ANTHOLOGY, led a panel of anthology contributors, including Chapter Member (and Chapter co-founder) and independent scholar Freddi Williams Evans for Literary Discussion NEW ORLEANS AND THE WORLD, 1718-2018, THE TRICENTENNIAL ANTHOLOGY—A Tricentennial Discussion. Contributors to the new landmark anthology from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities discussed the ways New Orleans cemented its reputation as a world capital.
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For more information on the full festival program:  http://tennesseewilliams.net/2018-program-now-here/