News and Calendar

Tony Lala: In Memoriam

On Friday, April 4, Loyola lost a beloved member of our university community: Dr. Tony Lala (Class of '54). Dr. Lala epitomized the best of Loyola's faculty. He began his long career in the English Department in 1958. Though he taught over forty different courses, from "Detective Fiction" to the "Literature of the Depression," he was best known for his regular classes on Shakespeare and Modern Drama. Tony taught generations of Loyola students to share his deep enthusiasm and appreciation for Shakespeare and the theater. Unassuming and always the gentleman, Tony had a sharp sense of humor and a passion for literature that made him an inspiring and popular teacher. His students found in him a compassionate and knowledgeable guide, both to texts that he loved--like Shakespeare--and to the ideals of integrity and justice that he embodied. To his colleagues, he was a witty and generous companion, a devotee of opera, the theater, and the Cincinnati Reds, a loyal friend and an insightful scholar. We will miss him very much.

John Biguenet Wins Big Easy Award

Professor John Biguenet, who teaches creative writing, has been named the first recipient of Gambit Weekly's Big Easy Entertainment Award: Theatre Person of the Year. Biguenet's drama about Hurricane Katrina, Rising Water, was nominated for a Pultizer Prize and has been produced in several cities and will soon open in London. When the play debuted at the Southern Repertory Theater, it became the playhouse's bestselling show ever. The play also garnered Big Easy nominations for Best Original Play, Best Actor and Best Actress in a Drama. Great work, John!

Chris Chambers Wins NEA

Associate professor of English and editor of the New Orleans Review, Christopher Chambers recently was awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 2008 Literature Fellowship in creative writing. Chambers won the $25,000 award for his novel-in-progress about the Civil War and softball, Burning Tuscaloosa. For more about Chris and the NEA. Congratulations, Chris!

1718 Reading Series (Spring 2008)

The 1718 program is directed by students from both Loyola University of New Orleans and Tulane University. Each 1718 reading event features one established poet or writer reading alongside several student writers from the New Orleans area. For more information visit the 1718 website: http://1718nola.wordpress.com/

All events are held at 7 p.m. at the Columns Hotel (3811 St. Charles Ave.)

January 16th: Martin Pousson

Born and raised in Acadiana, Martin Pousson published his first novel, No Place, Louisiana, in 2002. Widely praised, it was a finalist for the John Gardner Book Award in Fiction. Sugar, his first collection of poetry, was published 2005 by Suspect Thoughts Press. The collection was named a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Poetry. Pousson has taught at Columbia University in New York, at Rutgers University in New Jersey and at Loyola University in New Orleans. He currently teaches at California State University, Northridge, in Los Angeles. We are glad to have him back!

February 12th: Jeanne Leiby

Originally from Detroit, Jeanne Leiby has published her short stories in many journals, including Fiction, Indiana Review, The Greensboro Review, and New Orleans Review. She won the Poets and Writers Writer Exchange in 2000, while Downriver, her first short-story collection was the 2006 winner of the Doris Bakwin prize. Leiby has also been the fiction editor of Black Warrior Review, Editor in Chief of the Florida Review, and this spring will become the editor of The Southern Review at LSU in Baton Rouge,

March 4th: Richard Siken

With a B.A. in psychology from the University of Arizona, Richard Siken has been a a social worker caring for developmentally disabled adults for sixteen years. After earning his MFA, he publihsed his first collection of poetry, Crush, in 2004. The volumen won the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, a Lambda Literary Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Iowa Review, Conjunctions, Indiana Review and The Best American Poetry 2000 and Legitimate Dangers. He is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize, two Arizona Commission on the Arts grants, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently lives in Tucson, Arizona.

April 1st: Mark Yakich

Our very own Mark Yakich is the author of Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross in 2004, The Making of Collateral Beauty in 2006, and his latest volume of poetry, The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine, published by Penguin this year. Currently associate professor of English here at Loyola University New Orleans, he has degrees in political science, West European Studies, creative writing and English literature. A painter as well as a poet, he has his own website: markyakich.com.

May 6th: Pia Ehrhardt

A memoirist, poet, and short story writer, Pia Ehrhardt has had her work published in venues as various as narrativemagazine.com and the Norton anthology–New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories from America and Beyond. Her short story collection, Famous Fathers appeared last spring, while her novel, Speeding in the Driveway debuts this year. Look for her at http://piaze.bainbooks.com/index.html.

All events begin at 7pm at The Columns Hotel (3811 St. Charles Ave.), with student readers to follow.

For more information: 1718.readingseries@gmail.com