Dear Percy-L:
Here is current information on the event offerings scheduled for the
Walker Percy Weekend in St. Francisville, LA, to be held June 5-7,
2015. A limited number of tickets is now on sale.
You may also access this information at http://www.walkerpercyweekend.org.
Best,
Henry Mills
Percy-L Administrator
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
APRIL 15, 2015
For more information contact James
Fox-Smith | (225) 721-1460 | admin AT walkerpercyweekend.org
THE
LITERARY FESTIVAL CELEBRATING THE
WRITER
AND HIS WORKS
JUNE 5—7, 2015
ST. FRANCISVILLE, LOUISIANA
Lectures and Panel Discussions. The
Twilight in the Ruins Cocktail Party.
The Progressive Front Porch Bourbon
Tour. Individual tickets for the
signature events of the 2015 Walker
Percy Weekend went on sale today. At
the time of sending fewer than 50
remained.
To get yours, visit www.walkerpercyweekend.org.
The second annual
Walker Percy Weekend celebrates the
acclaimed novelist’s life and work in
unforgettable surroundings, June 5—7 in
St. Francisville. Intellectually serious
but high-spirited,
the festival invites fans of Southern
literature to pursue appreciation of
Percy's thought and writing while
attending presentations by renowned
scholars, panel discussions, readings,
tours to sites familiar to readings, and
social and culinary events inspired by the
author's most famous works.
Events take place at locations around St.
Francisville's historic district.
SCHEDULE
HIGHLIGHTS
LECTURES AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS: Renowned writers, thinkers, and
teachers gather to discuss the life and
legacy of Walker Percy and related writers.
Panel topics include "Flannery
O'Connor and Walker Percy:
Catholics in the Christ-Haunted South,"
"Walker Percy and David Foster Wallace:
Losing It at the Movies," "From Gone
With the Wind to
Garden & Gun: Walker Percy
at the Crossroads of the Old South and the
New," and "Mississippi
Woman, Louisiana Man: Eudora
Welty, Walker Percy, and the Southern
Imagination." For details visit www.walkerpercyweekend.org.
A TWILIGHT IN THE
RUINS cocktail party staged in the
spectacular Ruins Garden at Afton Villa
Gardens—once the site of a Percy family
home. Featuring specialty
drinks and fine hors d’oeuvres crafted by
Heirloom Cuisine.
The return of the PROGRESSIVE FRONT-PORCH TOUR AND
BOURBON
TASTING inspired by Percy’s famous essay,
“Bourbon, Neat.”
The tour visits notable homes around the
Historic District, with a different
summer-weight bourbon-based refreshment
served at each.
An authentic LOUISIANA CRAWFISH BOIL served with a selection of regional
craft beers, presented by Chefs Cody and
Samantha Carroll
of Hot Tails Restaurant in New Roads. With
music by Ben Bell & the Stardust Boys.
GUIDED TOURS to visit sites familiar to fans of
Percy’s fiction: Entergy’s River Bend
Nuclear Plant and Louisiana State
Penitentiary at Angola (THE THANATOS SYNDROME), and a self-guided driving tour
visiting notable Percy family sites around
the Felicianas.
And a chance to WIN A WEEKEND GETAWAY to the magnificent Southern Hotel in
Covington, LA, ranked among the South’s Best
New
Hotels for 2015 by Southern Living
magazine.
Walker Percy (1916—1990) wrote novels that
explored the “dislocation of man in the
modern age.” Most of his work was set in New
Orleans and around South Louisiana,
including the semi-fictitious Feliciana,
which the author based upon West Feliciana
and the other Florida
parishes. Percy’s debut novel, THE MOVIEGOER, won the National Book Award for
Fiction, and was included on Time magazine’s
list of the
100 Best English language novels from
1923—2005. In later works, including LOVE IN THE RUINS, THE LAST
GENTLEMAN, and THE THANATOS SYNDROME, Percy continued exploring
the search for meaning in an increasingly
materialistic society via masterfully
wrought tales delivered with a poetic
Southern sensibility and
informed by the author’s deep Catholic
faith.
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.
*
high-resolution photos available upon
request.
Painting
information: George Rodrigue (1944-2013,
Walker Percy, 1982, oil on canvas, 40"x30",
collection of the artist
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