A few weeks back, Smithsonian magazine teamed up with the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to present the Smithsonian Instiution's ninth CultureFest, a three-day celebration of the state's local culture. The festivities in New Orleans included a panel discussion with authors John Biguenet, Ernest Gaines, Joshua Clark, and Lee Grue, who discussed the rich cultural diversity of the state and the way it's been, in the words of the CultureFest program, "alternately romanticized, adored, pitied and patronized" by the rest of the world.

Gaines was certainly the most widely known author on the panel, what with A Lesson Before Dying being an Oprah book club selection and all. But if you've read my other blog, Beatrice, you may have seen an interview with Josh Clark and TJ Fisher that ran in late August, honoring the second anniversary of the Katrina disaster.