The Festival of Words is held in Grand Coteau. Celebrate the written word with open mics throughout the year that culminate in this two-day festival. Sharpen your craft with creative writing workshops hosted by published authors. There will also be a community stage for open mic and “Drive-by Poetry”. At this event, youth give dramatic presentations of festival authors’ writings.

Features for last year’s Festival of Words were:

• Sheryl St. Germain, a native of New Orleans, she has taught at The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Knox College, Iowa State University and Chatham University, where she served as Director of the MFA in Creative Writing for 14 years. She is the co-founder and former Director of the Words Without Walls Program, which for over ten years trained graduate students to teach creative writing in prisons, jails and rehabilitation centers. Her work has received several awards, including two NEA Fellowships, an NEH Fellowship, the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, the Ki Davis Award from the Aspen Writers Foundation, and the William Faulkner Award for the personal essay. She was named Louisiana Writer of the Year in November 2018.
• Gabriel Houck is originally from New Orleans, and his first collection, You or a Loved One, won the 2017 Orison Fiction Prize, judged by David Haynes. Stories from this collection — “The Dot Matrix: and “When the Time Came” — were shortlisted as distinguished stories in the 2017 and 2015 editions of The Best American Short Stories, respectively. Prior to teaching at the University of Louisiana, he served as the Emory University Arts Fellow in Fiction from 2019-2023, and has received scholarships and fellowships from the Tin House Workshops, the Sewanee Writers Workshop, the Vermont Studio Center, Longleaf Writers Conference, the UCROSS Foundation, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. His creative work appears in journals such as Glimmer Train, West Branch, The Sewanee Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Mid American Review, Western Humanities Review, The Cimarron Review, Smokelong Quarterly, and most recently in the Driftwood Press 2024 Anthology. Gabriel lives in Lafayette, with a yard that would be perfect for a good rescue dog.
• Gina Ferrara has maintained a consistent presence in the local poetry scene. She recalls a time before Hurricane Katrina when poetry readings were abundant, with events happening almost every night of the week. One of the most popular, the Maple Leaf Reading Series at the Maple Leaf Bar, is still active and remains the longest-running poetry series in the country. Ferrara even met her husband at a poetry reading, as well as forged many lifelong friendships through readings. She has also curated The Poetry Buffet since 2007, a monthly event featuring various poets, which she considers an essential way to bring poetry to the community. Her involvement in poetry has taken her beyond New Orleans, with opportunities to read and study in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. She was even awarded a grant to study and perform in Ireland. While grateful for these experiences, Ferrara remains deeply rooted in the local literary community.

Find their full schedule here.

Find nearby accommodations here.