And it’s a big one! The esteemed Laura Mullen, LSU Professor, will be reading at the Columns this Cinco de Mayo at 7 pm. She’s published five books, three of poems and two of hybrid text, including the critically acclaimed “Murmur.” Her poems have also appeared across various literary journals and anthologies such as the Corpse, Octopus, and Ploughshares. Mullen has received the Ironwood’s Stanford Prize for her innovative poetry and frequently visits the summer workshops at the Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poets.

As always, 1718 is free and open to the public. 1718 starts at 7 p.m. and is held at the Columns Hotel, 3811 St. Charles Avenue. We hope to see all of you there! For further information, please contact admin@1718.com

-1718 (is for lovers)

Despite frequent cloudbursts on Tuesday night, many faces both familiar and new attended Mr. Tom’s reading.  1718’s Lesley Lucas began the evening with a lovely reading from Frank O’Hara’s collection “Lunch Poems.”  Tom read from an extended non-fiction piece describing a boxed set of Charley Chan mystery movies as his saving grace in the “oceanic” heat of the summer of 2006.  The audience was fully engaged and had the opportunity to ask Tom many questions ranging from writing advice to movie critiques.  Tom signed books and was visibly glowing after such a bang-up reading.

Student readers from Tulane, UNO, and Loyola followed the intermission.  A large crowd stayed behind and was rewarded for their faith – two knockout poets and a spellbinding fiction reader delivered in the standard of excellence for 1718 student readers.

Stay tuned, faithful 1718 fans!  Tuesday March 10^th we will present Jarret Lofstead, Senior Editor and Publisher of NOLAFugees.com.  We are very excited to have this dedicated and talented New Orleans figure, so come on out to the Columns on March 10^th!  Catch some of the infamous satire of NOLAFugees via the following links

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=41124619

http://blog.nola.com/susanlarson/2008/11/the_wicked_satirists_of_nolafu.html

http://nolafugeespress.com/?page_id=47

See you at the Columns…

~1718