A literary festival exploring the Work of Walker Percy and other writers in the Southern intellectual tradition—and fortified with fine food, live music, walking tours, craft beer and bourbon—returns to one of Louisiana's loveliest small towns.

The eighth annual Walker Percy Weekend festival returns to St. Francisville. Featuring respected writers and commentators from across the country and fortified with fine food, live music, walking tours, craft beer and bourbon, the annual festival dedicated to Southern literature, culture and thought guarantees a unique and charming weekend in one of Louisiana's loveliest small towns.

Schedule Highlights

• 4 pm–7 pm Friday: A casual, Friday evening Welcome Reception at Conundrum Bookstore featuring bar, hors d'oeuvres, and light entertainment.

• 8:30 am–5 pm Saturday: A series of Lectures and Panel Discussions on themes explored in the books of Walker Percy.

• 5 pm–7:30 pm Saturday: The traditional, Saturday-afternoon Progressive Front-Porch Tour and Bourbon Tasting with tastings, inspired by Percy's essay on drinking Bourbon, Neat. Stroll with bourbon-based-beverages in hand between several private porches in St. Francisville's historic district. Must be 21 or over to attend, obviously.

• 7:30 pm–10 pm Saturday: New for 2023: A Saturday evening Taste of Louisiana Southern supper, presented with a selection of local craft beers, served under the stars on Prosperity Street in the heart of the Historic District.

2023 Presenters

• RANDY BOYAGODA - Faith & Fiction in my book Dante’s Indiana. Randy is Professor of English at the University of Toronto, and a novelist and literary critic with a particular interest in religion, satire, and family life. He is author of six books, including four novels, a biography of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus and, most recently Dante’s Indiana and Original Prin. He contributes essays, reviews and opinions to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, First Things, Commonweal, and The Financial Times (UK), regularly appears on CBC Radio, and hosts a literary podcast for the Toronto Public Library.

• BRYAN GIEMZA - A Conspiracy of Dunces – Mystery and Majesty in a Writer’s Life. Bryan is Associate Professor of Humanities and Literature in the Honors College at Texas Tech University. He has written multiple books and articles about Louisiana writers, history, and culture, including Images of Depression-Era Louisiana (2017) and a new edition of The Great Big Doorstep. His forthcoming books include Science and Literature in Cormac McCarthy’s Expanding Worlds (Bloomsbury, June 2023), an edited essay collection on disinformation, Across the Canyons (2024), and The God of Dark Matter (University of Notre Dame Press, 2025).

• MICHAEL KOBRE - Walker Percy: The Novelist's Art. Michael is Dana Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte. His essays and stories have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, South Atlantic Review, Tin House, TriQuarterly, West Branch, MAKE, and other journals. He’s the author of Walker Percy’s Voices. His writing has also been featured in the anthologies Reading the Boss: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Works of Bruce Springsteen, Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer at Fifty, and Superhero Bodies: Identity, Materiality, Transformation.

• READ MERCER SCHUCHARDT - The Moviegoer as the spiritual sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. Read (PhD, New York University) is associate professor of communication at Wheaton College. He earned his doctorate under the invitation of the late Neil Postman at NYU’s Media Ecology program. He is also a member of the Media Ecology Association and the International Jacques Ellul Society.

2023 Panelists

Exploring the theme "The Places that Make Our Fiction"

• JENNIFER S. DAVIS is the author of three collections of short stories, including Her Kind of Want, winner of the Iowa Award for Short Fiction, Our Former Lives in Art, a Discover Great New Writers Selection, and We Were Angry, winner of the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. She teaches in the MFA Program at LSU, where she serves as Director of Creative Writing.

• MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN is the author most recently of the short story collection The Ones Who ~~Don't~~ Say They Love You (2021), the main character of which is, in many ways, the city of New Orleans. Ruffin cites John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces as a huge influence on his novel We Cast a Shadow (2019), and is quick to acknowledge Walker Percy's role in rescuing Dunces from obscurity.

• SUSAN CUSHMAN is author of five books, including John and Mary Margaret and Friends of the Library, both set in Mississippi and Memphis. She is editor of four anthologies of works by other authors, including Southern Writers on Writing (2018), an anthology featuring contributions by 26 writers whose work celebrates Southern culture and shapes the landscape of contemporary Southern literature.

• BRANNON COSTELLO (Panel Moderator) is the James F. Cassidy Professor of English at Louisiana State University, where he teaches and writes about southern studies, comics studies, and the intersections of those fields. He is the author of Neon Visions: The Comics of Howard Chaykin (2017), which was awarded the Comics Studies Society's inaugural Charles Hatfield Prize for Best Scholarly Book, and Plantation Airs: Racial Paternalism and the Transformations of Class in Southern Fiction (2007). His other books include the edited collections Comics and the U.S. South (2012) and Conversations with Michael Chabon (2015), and he contributed a critical afterword to the 2013 reissue of Jack Butler’s lost southern classic Jujitsu for Christ (1986).

Registration & Tickets

Registration begins at 3 pm Friday at the Conundrum Bookstore, located at 11917 Ferdinand Street. Come to the bookstore to register, receive tickets and wristbands, and gather information on area dining, accommodation, and attractions.

Access All Events: Admission to all events. $ 245.00.

Bourbon Tasting & Taste of Louisiana Supper: A Saturday social events ticket, providing entry to the Progressive Front Porch Bourbon Stroll and the Taste of Louisiana Supper. No panels included. $ 145.00.

Saturday Lectures & Panels only: $100*

*Space at lectures is limited. Arrive early to secure a seat.

The Walker Percy Weekend is generously supported by

Sponsorship packages are available at the following levels and benefits

$1500 "The Moviegoer" package. 2 all-inclusive tickets to WPW events including lectures and social events, plus 2 additional tickets to the Saturday night Bourbon Stroll and “Taste of Louisiana Dinner’ to share with friends • Recognition on all printed material, website and social media.

$3000 The "Message in a Bottle" package. 4 all-inclusive tickets to WPW events including lectures and social events, plus 4 additional tickets to the Saturday night Bourbon Stroll and “Taste of Louisiana Dinner’ to share with friends • Recognition on all printed material, website and social media • Your logo on digital billboards in Baton Rouge two weeks prior to weekend.

$5000 The "Lost in the Cosmos" package. 6 all-inclusive tickets to WPW events including lectures and social events, plus 4 additional tickets to the Saturday night Bourbon Stroll and “Taste of Louisiana Dinner’ to share with friends • Recognition on all printed material, website and social media • Your logo on digital billboards in Baton Rouge two weeks prior to weekend.

$10,000 "The Last Gentleman" package. 10 all-inclusive tickets to WPW events including lectures and social events, plus 6 additional tickets to the Saturday night Bourbon Stroll and “Taste of Louisiana Dinner’ to share with friends • Recognition on all printed material, website and social media. Your logo on digital billboards in Baton Rouge two weeks prior to weekend.

Email [email protected] to learn more

FAQs & More Info

• For local accommodation options and to make reservations, visit explorewestfeliciana.com/stay.html

• The closest airport, Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), is approximately 30 minutes drive from St. Francisville. New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is about 90 minutes drive.

• Getting around: For getting to and from the airport, renting a car is your best bet. Car rental is available from BTR or MSY airports. In St. Francisville, all festival activities take place within the (very walkable) historic district. Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft are not reliably available in St. Francisville, although a few drivers do operate during festival weekends.

• Cancellations & Refunds: Funds raised from sponsorship and ticket sales for the Walker Percy Weekend benefit the Julius Freyhan Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to restoring the historic Freyhan School building to serve as a community and cultural center for West Feliciana Parish. As such, all ticket purchases are considered donations to the foundation. No refunds are available.

• Kids. We love 'em! We have 'em! But since the Walker Percy Weekend program consists of seated lectures and social events amply supplied with adult beverages, it really isn't designed with young children in mind. If you do need to bring your kids, please know that we cannot make special accommodations for them, or provide exceptions from the ticketing fees. We do hope you understand.

• For more information on individual events please visit www.walkerpercyweekend.org or email [email protected].