New Orleans

New Orleans has long been home to writers, outsiders and artists of every stripe. Tennessee Williams wrote here. Lillian Hellman did, too. So did Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, Kate Chopin,William S. Burroughs, Lafcadio Hearn, Walker Percy, Everette Maddox and Tom Dent. Andrei Codrescu, Tom Whalen, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Anne Rice, Stan Rice. Tom Piazza, John William Corrington, Brenda Marie Osbey...well, you get the picture. Now it is the setting for a literary renaissance, with a whole new generation of writers calling New Orleans home. Many of these writers begin their journey in the Creative Writing Workshop.

 

Famous for its quirky characters and tales of excess, New Orleans is, nonetheless, a place where writers finally sit down and turn life into art. Because things move at a more leisurely pace here, writers aren't faced with the task of creating characters out of the blur so common in other cities. In the CWW, the city is your classroom. You'll have free tickets to 3 major literary festivals every year, where you can meet with editors and agents and attend master classes with writers from around the world.

 

Writing, it is said, is a solitary endeavor. In New Orleans, though, we have access to a wide community of writers and that transforms the isolation into a broad support system. That community of writers, itself, receives artistic support in the eclectic neighborhoods that distinguish this city from others, creating an experience of inclusion rather than exclusion, of unity rather than alienation.

Check out our New Orleans Neighborhoods. French Quarter, Mid-City, The Irish Channel, The Marigny, Bywater, St. Roch, CBD, Esplanade Ridge, Faubourg St. John, Broadmoor, Faubourg, St. Mary, Gentilly, Lakeview, Uptown, Warehouse District, Lower 9, Vieux Carre, Treme and Old Algiers

More European than American, more laissez-faire than Puritanical, racially and culturally diverse, surrounded and permeated by water, fiercely proud of its history, New Orleans' passion for life and generosity of spirit make it the ideal atmosphere for sustained creative work.