The Patty Friedmann Writing Competition Reading

H eld annually in partnership with LMNL, the Patty Friedmann Writing Competition awards prizes in the following categories: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Public High School Creative Writing, and Beyond the Bars.

Join us to celebrate the winners and runners-up of the competition and hear them read from their prizewinning work, which will be published in a forthcoming LMNL anthology.

T his is a Literature & Lunch session; ticket price includes a catered buffet lunch.

READER BIOS

Gus Berg is a queer writer from Northern Minnesota or San Francisco, depending on who you ask, and he is currently pursuing his MFA with the Creative Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans. His nonfiction, poetry, and short stories have been featured in publications like Zyzzyva, Circles, BuzzFeed, and Writing for a Real World.

Laura Brown has lived up and down Louisiana but called New Orleans home for more than a decade. Her favorite dish is crawfish étouffée, her favorite cocktail is the French 75, and her favorite activity is reading fiction (or writing it, depending on the day). The pandemic was the inciting event in her journey of writing publicly. Since 2021, her work has appeared in journals including Hemingway Shorts, Welter, Barely South Review, The Good Life Review, and forthcoming in the New Orleans Public Library’s RENEWED Anthology. Laura aspires to one day publish a novel (and advises that she has several manuscripts in the can—in case you know anybody).

Ariadne Blayde is a playwright and fiction writer based in New Orleans. Her debut novel, ASH TUESDAY, was published in 2022 by indie press April Gloaming and is quickly becoming a local cult classic in-the-making. Her play “The Other Room,” which won the VSA Playwright Discovery Award, is produced around the world, and her satirical short story “Minor Difficulties in BigEasyWorld" won the 2023 Tennessee Williams Saints and Sinners Fiction Contest. Her other work has placed in international competitions including the Quantum Shorts Contest, the Patty Friedmann Writing Competition, Lark Playwright’s Week, and more. Ariadne is currently at work on a short story collection exploring New Orleans’ past, present, and future through its three-century tug-of-war with the water around it and the existential threat of climate change in the next one. When she’s not writing, Ariadne can be found moonlighting as a ghost tour guide in the French Quarter.

Jacob Budenz is a queer author, multidisciplinary performance artist, and musician with an MFA from University of New Orleans and a BA from Johns Hopkins. The author of magic realist short story collection TEA LEAVES (Amble Press 2023) and poetry chapbook PASTEL WITCHERIES (Seven Kitchens Press 2018), Jake has fiction and poetry in Wussy Mag, Taco Bell Quarterly, Slipstream, and more as well as anthologies by Mason Jar Press and Unbound Edition, among others.

Dalton writes: "I’m 17 years old, and I am a Christian. I am one of 10 siblings, and I have a big family. I’ve made big mistakes in my life, but I decided to change my life and become a better person. I wrote my poem to show people that home is more than just a house or building. Home is what you make it, and when my grandpa passed away, I felt like his house was empty and not alive the way it used to be. When I learned about this poem contest, I figured that I could write about my pain and a part of my life. My Paw Paw was always there when I was a kid, and I wasn’t there when he passed away. I never got to tell him goodbye, so I figured I could honor a part of him through this poem."

Ahja Hawkins is a 16-year-old living in Gretna, Louisiana. She attends the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and is currently in her third year of high school. She’s the regional winner of Poetry Out Loud, has won a silver key in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, won third place in the Pinkie Gordon Lane Poetry Competition, and is published in Under the Madness magazine.

Doc McLemore (they/them) is a writer in New Orleans. Their book, _Consequences of My Birth_ is forthcoming with University Press of Kentucky. Their work centers on gendered bodies, sexuality, and the roots of relationships.

Nick Reading is the author of Love & Sundries (SplitLip Press) and The Party in Question, winner of the Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in New Ohio Review, Mid-American Review, Cortland Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and others. Visit him at www.nickreading.com

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