For any in the Jackson area who need a shot of poetry in the arm, the Mississippi state Poetry Out Loud competition for high school students will be held tomorrow at noon at the Mississippi Public Broadcasting building. I’m honored to serve again as one of the judges for the competition, and if it’s anywhere near as good as it was last year, it’s sure to be an electric afternoon. Best wishes to all the contestants!

Update, May 15th, 2012: Mississippi’s own Kristen Dupard was the 2012 POL National Champion! More details here.

All the talk around town is of the Tennessee Williams Festival next week, one of the highlights of the city’s literary calendar each year. On Saturday afternoon, the 24th, I’m honored to sit on a panel with Ava Leavell Haymon, Alison Pelegrin, and Julie Kane, moderated by Darrell Bourque (the latter two participants being the current, and former, Poets Laureate of Louisiana), and can’t wait to hear more of their wonderful work.

Perhaps most intriguing, however, is what’s happening the night before — the Lafcadio Hearn Late Night Revue organized by the People Say Project, a cabaret-style event at the New Orleans Healing Center that certainly promises to be one of the more eclectic events of the festival. Hearn, a prolific writer and journalist based in New Orleans in the late 1800s, is perhaps best known as the author of the famous quote that “…it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio,” an observation that rings as true today as it did over a century ago. More details about the event are available here.

A brief interview is up at Salt Publishing, alongside the other shortlisted poets for the Crashaw Prize — they’re all such brilliant poets, it’s an honor to share the space with them.

Mardi Gras is over, as is Tipping Point — recaps of the former and the latter are available here and here, for those who couldn’t make it — but the festival season has only just begun, both here in New Orleans and abroad. The Tennessee Williams Festival is just a few weeks away, and later this summer, I’m honored to participate in a handful of festivals back in the UK, including the London Green Fair, Secret Garden Party, and Wilderness, appearing alongside writers whom I admire and respect more than I can say. Details on each one are forthcoming, but even now, it looks like things are only going to get more interesting from here.

Let no one ever say otherwise: the reputation that the riders of the Krewe of Thoth have earned for their throwing skills remains utterly intact. Most of the fingers, house windows, beer bottles, and tree limbs along Magazine Street may not be, but in war zones, that’s called collateral damage. Should the MLB find itself in need of a new feeder team, look past the New Orleans Zephyrs. These guys are it.

Surrounded by swathes of wanton destruction today, and laughing, delirious crowds celebrating it all, my Mardi Gras draws to a close. After a slew of phenomenal parades and parties, I’m sorry to miss the further revelry of Lundi Gras, tomorrow, and Fat Tuesday itself, but I’m looking forward to attending Tipping Point in Newcastle later this week. For anyone in the UK and Europe with an interest in climate and the arts, Tipping Point is a pivotal gathering of minds. Reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones as well — hardly a better way to spend the week.

Needless to say, I’ve packed a few beads. Just in case.