I have a new article up at Pelican Bomb, a small tour of the artwork at A Studio in the Woods. For those in the New Orleans area, the current resident, Roy Staab, is seeking help volunteering this coming Monday (December 12) installing his latest work, Chaise Ile, at Bayou Bienvenue in the Lower Ninth Ward — contact the Studio for more information. The unveiling of the work will take place next Saturday, December 17, at the corner of Caffin and Florida Avenue, from 2-4pm.

Speaking of unveilings, the new Mid-City branch of Maple Street Bookshop is now open, a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Adjacent to a grocery store, a wine shop, and a coffee house, that intersection has everything anyone could possibly need.

Oh, were there a machine that would make it so easy. First and foremost, my thanks to Susan Larson at WWNO 89.9FM for inviting me to join her on The Reading Life last night; the program is an absolute treasure and none of us here in New Orleans can imagine life without it. Thanks to everyone at WWNO. The interview will be rebroadcast this coming Saturday at 12.30pm, and available online thereafter.

For those in the New Orleans area, tonight’s reading (Wednesday), graciously sponsored by the Latter Branch of the New Orleans Public Library, will begin with a reception at 6pm, with the reading and signing to follow at 6.30. Valentine Pierce and I will both be reading new work, so we’ll look forward to sharing it with everyone there.

Following that, I’m looking forward to joining Ingrid Norton, Richard Goodman, Eve Abrams, and Helen Jaksch at the HomeSpace Gallery for the closing reception for the Redheaded Stepchild exhibition this coming Sunday, and the day afterwards, fellow Mississippi and Gulf Coast authors at the 8th annual Author Extravaganza at Main Street Books in Hattiesburg. Further details are available here.

Starting today, I’ll be writing a weekly column for the Uptown Messenger, covering arts and culture, appearing on Sundays. The first one, “Between Poetry and Prose,” is a recap of a few readings in New Orleans over the past week. I’m always open to ideas for stories from anyone in the area; don’t hesitate to get in touch.

In reading Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem comes an unlikely homage to my friend Scott Huler, who proclaims his love affair with lyrical brevity. Every taxi driver in Beirut, Friedman observes, knows the radio lexicon that developed during the Lebanese civil war: “a road described as amina is totally secured by army or police; a road described as salika is free of snipers or kidnappers, but not policed; hatherah means the road is passable, but with a roughly 30 percent chance of kidnapping or sniping; and finally, ghair amina means the road is unsafe at any speed.”

If only the State Department provided such practical information for travelers.

Today is the 30th annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer, PEN American Center reports, listing a number of disturbing cases of censorship and repression, and noting that “we continue to work towards the time when this sort of day is no longer necessary.”