Faulkner for All – Sept. 25-28 – New Orleans, LA

Faulkner for All!—New Orleans, LA
#faulknersociety

Hosted annually by the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society in New Orleans, this premier literary and arts festival celebrates the legacy of William Faulkner and features author readings, panel discussions on literature and society, manuscript critiques, and the awarding of the prestigious William Faulkner–William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition prizes.

The Faulkner – Wisdom Competition

The William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition has been one of the Closeup shot of Faulkner Medal FadeSociety’s most successful projects. Created in 1992, today the competition offers nine categories of creative writing with cash prizes for the winners ranging from $1,000 to $7,500. Our competition is for previously unpublished work and is intended to showcase new literary talent and boost chances of publication.

The Competition Opens Annually on December 1

All entering should review the guidelines prior to submitting material. Please note that, while we will continue to offer nine categories, some category descriptions have changed significantly. All new entries must be in their hands not later than midnight, June 15, 2027.

About Faulkner for All

“Our most complicated and expensive project, Faulkner for All! embraces multiple disciplines and target audiences and it is our annual attempt to create the same kind of nurturing environment that enabled William Faulkner to progress from struggling poet to America’s best known novelist. The Faulkner Society was founded in memory of Nobel Laureate William Faulkner, who arrived in New Orleans in 1925 after suffering ridicule as “Count No-Count” in his native Oxford, MS.

“He took to New Orleans like the proverbial duck to water, calling it “the very best place to live” and New Orleans embraced and nurtured and inspired him. We assemble appreciative audiences for both established and developing artists during a long weekend of enlightening and entertaining programming for readers and writers of all ages.”

The Faulkner House, located at 624 Pirate’s Alley in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been declared a national literary landmark since its renovation by owners Joseph J. DeSalvo, Jr. and Rosemary James, Co-founders with W. Kenneth Holditch of The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, Inc.

Faulkner Slept Here

Nobel Laureate William Faulkner lived on the ground floor in 1925, and sub-leased the ground floor from William Spratling, the famous artist, jewelry designer, and architect, who leased the whole house from a Creole family. While living on Pirate’s Alley, Faulkner and Spratling produced a book satirizing their friends, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles. He also ate here, drank here, partied here, fell in love on the balcony here, wrote letters from here, gathered inspiration here and, most importantly, became a novelist here.

Faulkner arrived in New Orleans as an unsung poet, and by the time he left for France a year later, he was well on his way to becoming America’s most famous novelist. He had written and published his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, within a year of arriving, and had gained inspiration for Mosquitoes, The Wild Palms, and Pylon. To support himself, he wrote a series of poetic sketches about New Orleans, which would later be compiled into a collection, New Orleans Sketches.

Faulkner’s first work was published by a New Orleans journal, The Double Dealer, founded by a group of talented New Orleans poets in response to H. L. Mencken’s description of New Orleans as a cultural wasteland. The journal was active for several years, and also published the early work of Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson, as well as other writers who went on to become famous. Mencken ate his words and became one of the most ardent supporters of the journal.