No New Orleans event worth its salt is celebrated without music, and there will be plenty of it at Words And Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans, sponsored by the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society, now celebrating its 10th anniversary as a nonprofit literary and educational organization devoted to the preservation of the storytelling traditions of our region and to providing realistic assistance to developing authors and other artists. Beginning with this year's celebration, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture will act as a supporting sponsor.

From Delta Blues to Chopin, the variety of music featured will be as diverse and exciting as the prestigious group of visiting fiction writers, essayists, biographers, historians, and poets who will read from their works. As in the past, the faculty for 2000 will include the winners of such prestigious honors as the Pulitzer Prize, the Edgar, the Steinbeck Prize, the National Book Award, and the American Book Award. Among the coterie of authors will be bards Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beth Ann Fennelly, and Andrei Codrescu; novelists Howard Bahr, Tim Gautreaux, Brett Lott, Jack Butler, and Robert Olen Butler; and journalist Nicholas Lemann.

One program event, set for Thursday evening September 21, is the Soul of The South: Its Words & Music, a cocktail party given in honor of the late Willie Morris. Proceeds from the party, which will feature blues music from the Mississippi Delta and a sampling of Creole and Southern foods, will benefit the Center. Tickets will be available through the Faulkner House. Advance reservations are strongly encouraged.

Also on Thursday, September 21, Center Director Charles Reagan Wilson hosts a Literature and Lunch session that explores the modern Southern sensibility. Among the featured panelists will be Hal Crowther, author of The Cathedrals of Kudzu; Rosemary Daniel, author of Fatal Flowers; and journalist Curtis Wilkie, who is currently completing a nonfiction work titled “Dixie!”

In addition to these events, the Center’s Southern Foodways Alliance will act as cohost for a number of conference gatherings. For registration information, contact the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society at 624 Pirate’s Alley, New Orleans, LA 70ll6-3254; telephone 504-586-1612, 504-529-3450; or e mail faulkhouse@aol.com.