Mona Lisa Saloy

Biography
Mona Lisa Saloy, PhD, author, folklorist, educator, and scholar of Creole culture in articles, documentaries, and poems about Black New Orleans before and after Katrina, is currently Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor of English at Dillard University and Louisiana Poet Laureate. Her first book, Red Beans & Ricely Yours, won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Her second, Second Line Home, celebrates New Orleans Black Creole culture.
Receive 20% off all featured festival titles at Cavalier House Books using code LABOOKFEST through December 31, 2021.
Schedule
Discussion
A Conversation Between Louisiana Poet Laureates: Mona Lisa Saloy and John Warner Smith
Presentation
The Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets
with Gina Ferrara,
David Havird, Rodger Kamenetz, Julie Kane, Dorie LaRue, Cleopatra Mathis, Patrice Melnick, Mona Lisa Saloy, and Martha Serpas

Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems
In this celebration of life in death, Mona Lisa Saloy captures the solemn grief, ongoing struggle, and joyous processions of New Orleans after the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. She knows the music of the neighborhood spoken and sung in affirmation of what is genuine and hopeful, as well as the despair of destruction that nature and politics heaped upon The Crescent City. Saloy's details of down-home activities and use of local expressions convey the many cultures and voices of this unique place. In this ode to New Orleans there is joy and hope, and a passionate call to join the resilient Second Line.
Volunteer
Book-loving volunteers are essential to the Louisiana Book Festival's success. Whether it's escorting authors, guiding visitors, selling refreshments, working with children in the Young Readers Pavilion or other fun and rewarding assignments, the Louisiana Book Festival wants you to join the volunteer team.