By Michele Karlsberg–
Michele Karlsberg: The Saints + Sinners Festival (SAS), an annual LGBTQ+ literary festival, ran concurrently with The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival from March 24-26, 2023, marking its 20th year. Founded by Paul Willis, Greg Herren, and Jean Redmann in collaboration with NO/AIDS Task Force in 2003, SAS began as a creative outlet to showcase the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ literary community and offer HIV/AIDS information. The festival celebrates New Orleans as being a longstanding attraction for LGBTQ+ writers and offers established and emerging authors, as well as students and readers, the chance to network and nurture their craft—and enjoy the joy and fun that is The Big Easy.
When I heard that Gary Eldon Peter would be attending the 20th anniversary festivities, I reached out to see if he would write about this extraordinary LGBTQ literary gathering. His debut novel, The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen, winner of the 2020 Acheven Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction, was published by Fitzroy Books/Regal House in 2022. As part of the conference, Peter read from his novel and took part in two literary conversations, “Y/A Fiction: Challenges and Opportunities” and “Creating Credible Worlds: Settings That Work Hard for Your Story.” Please enjoy his words here about this year’s noteworthy SAS:
I had planned to attend my first Saints and Sinners Literary Festival for LGBTQ+ Writers in 2020 only to have life get in the way, as we so often say these days, but I finally made it in 2023, just in time to celebrate the festival’s 20th anniversary. Much has happened in our world in those three years, but among the many joys of attending—the chance to experience a bit of New Orleans in the spring high among them—first and foremost was seeing for myself that the LGBTQ+ literary world is not only surviving these tumultuous and challenging times but also thriving.
The vibrant French Quarter, home to SAS, and the warm and sultry weather were the perfect antidote to my long and stubborn Minnesota winter. But more than that, for reasons that I can’t quite explain but anyone who has been to SAS would immediately understand, New Orleans is essential to SAS, and SAS is essential to New Orleans. In other words, it’s impossible to imagine the festival happening anywhere else.
When I studied the festival schedule, I immediately recognized my dilemma: how to be in two or even three places at once? So many great panels and only one of me. How to choose? Whatever I attended, I came away with new perspectives on the rich and varied world of LGBTQ+ literature both past and present, eager to check out fantastic writers I’d never heard of, and grateful for the opportunity to finally hear others I’d long admired discuss their work in person.
I was also honored to be a panelist myself for two discussions, one on the challenges of writing YA work, especially in this age of book banning, and another focusing on the role of setting in fiction, both topics near and dear to my writer’s heart. Our conversations were vibrant and wide ranging, the questions from the audience thought provoking and perceptive. To exchange ideas with my fellow panelists and other attendees was, like so many other aspects of the weekend, both formal and informal, invigorating and revitalizing, and made me eager to return to my own work with a fresh perspective.
And then there were the author readings. Each writer has eight minutes to read, and admittedly I was skeptical: how much can you learn about a writer and their work in such a short amount of time? As it turned out, way more than I could have possibly imagined. What I loved most about the readings was the range of writers and experience: icons of the LGBTQ+ literary world with established careers and multiple books sharing space and community with emerging writers reading in public for perhaps only the first or second time.
Before I knew it and much, much too quickly, it was time to say goodbye. The good news is that SAS 2023 won’t be my last, and I can’t wait for SAS 2024, 2025, and even more to follow.
Gary Eldon Peter is the author of two works of fiction: “Oranges,” a short story collection; and “The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen,” a young adult novel. He lives and writes in Saint Paul, Minnesota. You can learn more about him and his work at https://www.garyeldonpeter.com/
Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management specializes in publicity for the LGBTQ+ community. This year, Karlsberg celebrates 34 years of successful marketing campaigns. For more information: https://www.michelekarlsberg.com
Words
Published on April 6, 2023
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