The Reading Life

This week on The Reading Life  we talk with Times-Picayune restaurant critic Brett Anderson, editor of the new anthology Cornbread Nation 6: The Best of Southern Food Writing; and with photographer Kerri McCaffety, whose gorgeous new book is New Orleans New Elegance. And we'll also have a few suggestions for Mother's Day giving.

This week on The Reading Life: A look back at World Book Night around town, and a visit with Joi Raines, who loves reading and book clubs about as much as Susan does!

This week on The Reading Life: French artist Jeremie Garcin (who paints as Gersin), talks about his art, and his gorgeous new sketchbook, New Orleans Sojourn. Then Tulane architecture professor John Klingman describes what's New In New Orleans Architecture.

This week on The Reading Life: World Book Night U.S. executive director Carl Lennertz, talking about the big book give-away to come on April 23, novelist Gerald Duff, author of Dirty Rice: A Season in the Evangeline League, and a poetry performance by Don Paul and Somewhere South of Metropolis.

One of the surprises from Monday's Pulitzer Prize announcements was the lack of an award in the fiction category. It's the first time since 1977 that the Pulitzer board hasn't given an award for fiction writing.

On Morning Edition today, Pulitzer fiction juror Susan Larson told NPR's Lynn Neary that she and the two other jurors are "shocked ... angry ... and very disappointed" that the Pulitzer board couldn't settle on a winner from among the three books that the jurors recommended.

This week on The Reading Life: Ben Sandmel, author of Ernie K-Doe: The R & B Emperor of New Orleans, and novelist Moira Crone, author of The Not Yet.

Tonight on The Reading Life: Tulane University historian Lawrence Powell, author of "The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans," and Susan Haltom, author of "One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place."

This week on The Reading Life, Cory MacLauchlin, author of Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces.

This week on The Reading Life: Novelist and playwright John Biguenet, whose new work “Broomstick,” will have a staged reading at the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. We'll also talk with New Orleans writing  marathon director Dr. Richard Louth, who'll be leading a group of writers around the French Quarter during the Festival weekend.

This week on The Reading Life: We'll pass a good time with Alex Cook, author of "Louisiana Saturday Night: Looking for a Good Time in South Louisiana's Juke Joints, Honky-Tonks and Dance Halls," who's coming to town for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, and Desha Rhodes, who manages the Rosa Keller branch of the New Orleans Public Library, which reopens to the public March 17 at 10 a.m.