Odd Words: This week in literary New Orleans

& On Saturday, May 7 New Orleans indie book shops host their celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, just a little behind the rest of the country due to Jazz Fest. To celebrate Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, May 7, four local shops including Garden District Book Shop, Octavia Books, Maple Street Book Shop, and Tubby and Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop have partnered with Yelp to bring you a fun scavenger hunt! The idea is to get you to visit all three book shops on May 7 looking for clues to put together a secret phrase. Figure out the phrase and say it, and you’ll be entered to win $100 in gift certificates from all three book shops.There will be special events at each of the locals all across town, including:

• At Octavia Books: 9:00–We open early today! Young people ages 8-12 can begin a special, fun-task-infused scanvenger hunt with Blue Frog Chocolates, Magic Box Toys, and Octavia; 9:15–Curious George: Come in your favorite animal costume to meet Curious George, listen to one of his stories, make animal noises, play around with the alphabet, and enter a bookmark coloring contest; 10:15–Jane Jacob’s Walk — Join up at the bookstore for the final stop or start at the beginning at 9:00 at Cafe Luna; and learn first hand about “What Makes a Successful Commercial Corridor?”;11:00–Adult Coloring Contest: Win a copy of GIRL WITH A GUN by Amy Stewart; 12:00–Armand St. Martin: Hear some tunes from this piano man; 1:00–Michael Tisserand: Challenge the author to a blitz game of chess. Win a prize if you beat him; 4:00–Book Swap: Bring (or buy) a book you have loved and want to share. Swap with another customer or a bookseller at the store; and, 5:00–Booklovers’ Cocktail Hour Starring the Bourbon Street Sour with authors Andrew Shaffer, Tiffany Reisz and Jenn LeBlanc. If you purchase one of Andrew or Jenn’s books, you will receive an advance copy of Tiffany’s latest.
• Maple Street Book Shop will be serving snowballs from Plum Street Snoballs and having readings from local authors. In addition, for one day only, the will be having a sale: all used books will be 50% off! (no other discounts apply). For one day, and one day only, a number of very limited, unique, word-based items and books will be available in more than 400 independent stores across the country. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill signed first editions-these are literature-based art projects, unique books, and collector’s items created for this event only. You can’t get them before.You can’t get them after. And you can’t get them online. The shop will have limited-edition, exclusive books and literary art pieces from Neil Gaiman, Ann Patchett, Tad Hills, Curious George, Anthony Bourdain, and many more. Only at indie bookstores. Only on May 7.
• At Garden district Book Shop: Free Letterpress New Orleans Journal if you spend $25 or purchase an IBD themed item; You’ll receive a random tote bag if you spend $50 or more (while supplies last); Make sure you take photos and tag us on social media, when you show us you shared info about Independent Bookstore Day on social media for 15% off your purchase that day; Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) to anyone making a purchase of $15 or more.
• Tubby & Coo’s will offer exclusive day-of merchandise created especially for Independent Bookstore Day by major publishers and authors, including a Neil Gaiman coloring book, a Brandon Sanderson pocket guide to THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES, and more! Since its inception in 2014, more than 120 authors have demonstrated their support for independent bookstores by donating work for Bookstore Day. At Tubby & Coo’s, we will also have giveaways and fun activities going on all day.

& The Loyola Writing Institute at the Walker Percy Center for Writing + Publishing announces their upcoming schedule of summer workshops. For more details, visit their webpage at http://www.loyno.edu/wpc/loyola-writing-institute.

& Monday at 5 pm at the East New Orleans Regional Library New Orleans Spoken Word Artists will present their monthly workshop that include poetry writing and performance, with the goal of building community through writing and strengthening students’ written and verbal communication skills.

& At 6:30 pm Monday at the East Jefferson Regional Library the East Jefferson Writer’s Group meets. This is a critique group for serious fiction writers of all levels who want to improve their story development skills. This group focuses on discussing story development and writing elements and applying critiquing skills in romance, adventure, mystery, literature (but not genres of SciFi, Fantasy, Horror of the Thursday Sci-FI Writers). Short stories, novels, screenplays, plays, comics are accepted; however, non-fiction, such as poetry, biography, autobiography, essays, or magazine articles is not. Free and open to the public. No registration.

& Meet William Geroux when he presents and signs THE MATHEWS MEN: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-Boats Monday at 6 pm at Octavia Books. Mathews County, Virginia, is a remote outpost on the Chesapeake Bay with little to offer except unspoiled scenery, but it sent an unusually large concentration of sea captains to fight in World War II. The Mathews Men tells that heroic story through the experiences of one extraordinary family whose seven sons (and their neighbors), U.S. merchant mariners all, suddenly found themselves squarely in the cross-hairs of the U-boats bearing down on the coastal United States in 1942. THE MATHEWS MEN shows us the war far beyond traditional battlefields often the U.S. merchant mariners life-and-death struggles took place just off the U.S. coast but also takes us to the landing beaches at D-Day and to the Pacific. When final victory is ours, General Dwight D. Eisenhower had predicted, there is no organization that will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant Marine. Here, finally, is the heroic story of those merchant seamen, recast as the human story of the men from Mathews.

& Opening on Tuesday is an exhibitiion “Merry as the Day Is Long”: Shakespeare’s Hand in New Orleans on view May 3–June 4 in the Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street, Tuesday–Saturday, 9:30–4:30 p.m. Admission to the exhibition is free. Sponsored by the Tulane University English Department as well as The Historic New Orleans Collection.

& On Tuesday at 7 pm The 1718 Society will be hosting Carolyn Hembree, author of the new book Rigging A Chevy Into A Time Machine And Other Ways To Escape A Plague. The event will take place at the Columns Hotel and is free and open to the public. Maple Street will be on hand to sell copies of the book. Carolyn’s first poetry collection, Skinny was published by Kore Press in 2012 and her chapbook by Nous-zot Press in 2015. Her newest book, Rigging a Chevy into a Time Machine and Other Ways to Escape a Plague, won the 2015 Trio Award, selected by Neil Shepard, and the 2015 Marsh Hawk Press Rochelle Ratner Memorial Awar, selected by Stephanie Strickland.

& Also at 7 pm Tuesday at the Old Metairie Library the Great Books Discussion Group meets to discuss “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus.

& At 6 pm Tuesday Garden District Book Shop will present Julia Reed’s South: Spirited Entertaining and High-Style Fun All Year Long. No one embodies the rollicking spirit of great Southern party giving more than Julia Reed, the consummate hostess and go-to food and lifestyle expert. Thrown everywhere from lush gardens and gracious interior spaces to a Mississippi River sandbar, Julia Reed s parties capture the celebratory nature of entertaining in her native South. Here, her informative and down-to-earth guide to throwing an unforgettable party includes secrets she has collected over a lifetime of entertaining. For this book, she offers up a feast of options for holiday cocktails, spring lunches, formal dinners, and even a hunt breakfast. Eleven seasonal events feature delicious, easy-to-prepare recipes, ranging from fried chicken to Charlotte Russe and signature cocktails or wine-pairings she introduces her talented friends (rum makers, potters, fabric designers, bakers) along the way. Each occasion includes gorgeous photographs showing her original approach to everything from invitations and setting a table to arranging flowers and creating the mood. Reed also provides practical considerations and sources. This irresistible book is the ultimate primer for every party-giver.

& Local, prolific author Claudia Gray is back with a new Star Wars book, BLOODLINE. Geek out at Octavia Books Tuesday at 6 pm and celebrate the launch with a presentation and booksigning. From the New York Times bestselling author of STAR WARS: Lost Stars comes a thrilling novel set in the years before STAR WARS: The Force Awakens. Witness the birth of the Resistance.

& At 8 pm Tuesday Grab your sazeracs and head on down to the Mudlark Public Theater for a fine festive showing in the creative pursuits of young poets based near and far. Ma Ja Ka will be rolling through all the way down from the city of Brotherly Entanglement to bless ya with his new work called Travel By Haiku. A fine night of word magic and humble transformations awaits you. Don’t miss it. Performers include: KNIGHTS OF PIRAEUS, LAURA FISHER & MOSES EDER, MARSHALL JAMES KAVANAUGH, UTAHNA FAITH, KAREN LEBLANC, and JUSTIN NOBEL. Doors at 8pm. Suggested $5 donation for the traveling poet

& Katarina Bivald, author of the bestseller THE READERS OF BROKEN WHEEL RECOMMEND, will be at Octavia Books Wednesday at 6 pm to sign and discuss her book! Plus,there will be a raffle of a special gift basket from Katarina’s publisher. Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen. Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds Amy’s funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor there’s not much else to do in a dying small town that’s almost beyond repair. You certainly wouldn’t open a bookstore. And definitely not with the tourist in charge. You’d need a vacant storefront (Main Street is full of them), books (Amy’s house is full of them), and…customers. The bookstore might be a little quirky. Then again, so is Sara. But Broken Wheel’s own story might be more eccentric and surprising than she thought. A heartwarming reminder of why we are booklovers, this is a sweet, smart story about how books find us, change us, and connect us.

& Reading Between the Wines is a laid back, salon-type environment where we drink wine, eat cheese, and talk to local authors about their books. The event takes place on the first Wednesday evening of every month at Pearl Wine Co. inside of the American Can Company from 7:00-8:00 PM. This Wednesday the theme will be writing about New Orleans/using New Orleans as a setting. Joining us will be:

• Andy Reynolds lives and writes in New Orleans. His first novel is SPECTACLE OF THE EXTENSION, and his second is THE AXEBOY’S BLUES. He has written an online novella, entitled THE EPISODES, which takes place in New Orleans and is the catalyst for the novel series he is working on. Andy also performs spoken word around the city, most notably with Esoterotica, a biweekly reading of erotic and semi-erotic stories and poetry. Some of these pieces are published in Esoterotica’s anthologies, as well as their audio CDs.
• Reynolds’s book, THE AXEBOY’S BLUES, features a NOLA where creatures and spirits of every ilk saunter down the jazz-filled streets day and night, struggling to find purpose. The book follows a centuries-old agency tasked with protecting NOLA from forces that would see her destroyed. Unfortunately, the agency was nearly wiped out and is virtually nonexistent. In a city where mosquitoes wear spectacles and vests, where the Mississippi is teeming with monstrous beasts, and where Wonder sprouts from people’s heads like plants, can this agency fill its ranks once more to take on an adversary from the past – that has jumped through time?
• Craig Bennett Hallenstein is a psychologist, author, and father of five whose blog, Let’s Talk Sex, is a guide to conscious living and sustainable relationships. He studied psychology at Beloit College and California School of Professional Psychology, and writing at the University of Iowa. His piece in People Finders Magazine was optioned for a made-for-TV movie. An earlier blog, Sex-Positive Parenting, provided guidelines and tips for fostering sexual health in children.
• Hallenstein’s book, THE DOLPHIN, is about an aspiring psychologist named Sean Jordan who moves to NOLA to put the past behind him…until a conservative radio station outs him as a sex offender. When the thirteen-year-old daughter of the station’s nationally celebrated talk show host disappears, police scramble to take down Jordan, unaware that he too is a victim of the kidnapper, terrorizing the city on the eve of Mardi Gras. Jordan has a chance to save the girl but only if he meets the kidnapper’s demands. Refusing could cost him his life. Agreeing could cost him his soul.

& At 8 pm Wednesday the Blood Jet Poetry Series back in the Poetry Living Room at BJs through mid-June every Wednesday night at 8PM. Welcome us back with this week’s readers: Poet Sue Landers will be coming to town to join us in the Living Room. Landers’ latest book, FRANKLINSTEIN, tells the story of one Philadelphia neighborhood wrestling with the legacies of colonialism, racism, and capitalism. She is also the author of 248 MGS., A PANIC PICNIC and COVERS. Her chapbooks include 15: A Poetic Engagement with the Chicago Manual of Style and What I Was Tweeting While You Were On Facebook. She was the founding editor of the journal Pom2 and has an MFA from George Mason University. She lives in Brooklyn. You can follow her on Twitter @suelanders. The evening with also feature a first ever group reading with UNO poetry students from Carolyn Hembree and John Gery’s classes including: Joseph Buckley, Jessica Collins, Thomas Dollbaum, Andrew Kindiger, Karen Maceira, Elle Magnuson, Heidi McKinley, Jacquelyn Nasti, Katie Pfalzgraff, Spencer Silverthorne, Ann Hackett, Ashley Hamrick, Michelle Hoover, Robin Johnstone, Justin Lamb, Ellie Lindner, Ally Nobles, Edie Talley , Shaina Monet, and Clare Welsh.

& At 7 pm Wednesday Elizabeth Desimone, a local author and teacher, will lead a creative writing seminar at 7 the Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library. The presentation is free of charge and is open to the public. Registration is not required. Desimone will focus on dialog. At various points in her life, Elizabeth Desimone has been a paralegal, a bookseller, a teacher, a cashier, and a make-believe cross-dressing Arabian pirate, but she says, she has never not been a writer. In 2012, she received her MFA in fiction-writing from Oklahoma State University. Her work has appeared in Cricket magazine and on BustedHalo.com. She’s been working on a YA fantasy series for the past five years. She was born in Laplace.

& Friday at 6 pm Tubby and Coo’s Bookshop hosts the launch Stacey Balkun’s debut poetry book, JACKALOPE GIRL LEARNS TO SPEAK. Stacey will read from the book, and we will also feature readings from: Jen Hanks, Jade Hurter, Z.W. Mohr and Christopher Romaguera. “THERE WILL BE BUNNIES! THERE WILL BE ANTLERS! THERE WILL BE WHISKEY COCKTAILS! AND THERE WILL BE HOMEMADE CARROT BEER!” Mythical creature costumes encouraged!

& Saturday at 1:30 at the Alvar Library n New Orleans poet and performer Valentine Pierce continues her five-part poetry workshop for adults. Novice writers, as well as poets with some experience, are enclouraged to attend. Get inspired and write some dynamic poetry for 2016! Participation at all 5 workshops is suggested, but not required. Participants will be invited to read their poetry at a public reading when the program is completed. Sign up in advance at the Alvar Library circulation desk.

& Saturday at 5 pm brings a Book Launch Party for The Fry Pans Aren’t Sufficing by Peyton Burgess at Sisters In Christ, 5206 Magazine St. With readings by Anna Schulte, Joe Gehringer, Jade Stewart, Amber Kinui, Anya Groner, and Peyton Burgess. Loud music provided by Sisters in Christ music store. Many drinks and some food provided!

&Sunday at 3 pm the Maple Leaf Reading Series features Poet Ingrid Elena Pavia presents a farewell reading before moving to Idaho, followed by an open mic. This is the oldest continuous reading series in the south, curated by Nancy Harris. Ms. Harris is soliciting featured readers for the remaining two open weekends in May.