On Thursday night in New Orleans, November 21, the staff of the Peauxdunque Review hosted the official launch of the whole Review project, at Espiritu Mezcaleria, bringing together Issue 1 and Issue 2 contributors for the occasion of the release of Issue 2.
Editor-in-Chief Larry Wormington arrived from Melissa, Texas, with the original paintings by Ramon Carrasco that were the basis for the covers of Issues 1 and 2. Fiction Editor Emily Choate arrived from Nashville, and New Orleans-based staffers Tad Bartlett (Managing Editor), April Blevins Pejic (Creative Nonfiction Editor), Andrew Kooy (Issue 1 and 2 Fiction Editor), Maurice Carlos Ruffin (Editorial Review Board), Amy Conner, Ben Saxton, Denise Moore, Stephanie Stoecker, Susan Kagan, and Emilie Staat, gathered together for the launch.
Issues 1 and 2 Contributors Benjamin Morris (poetry/Issue 1), Elizabeth Gross (poetry/Issue 1), Ambata Kazi-Nance (fiction/Issue 1), Christopher Louis Romaguera (poetry/Issue 1), Brad Richard (poetry/Issue 2), Lana K.W. Austin (poetry/Issue 2), Esme Franklin (poetry/Issue 1), Alex Jennings (fiction/Issue 1), Clare Harmon (poetry/Issue 2), and Nora Seilheimer (poetry/Issue 2) wowed the standing-room-only crowd throughout the evening. The house was packed with members of many of the literary and arts communities throughout New Orleans.
One attendee commented after the readings that “Peauxdunque is like the nexus of our communities.” That is our dream, to create and live up to that, to be a crossroads between all of our communities, a place where we can represent our own individual podunks but also a place from which we can reclaim those podunks, be they spiritual or physical places.
We will gather again, when Issue 3 comes out, but until then, enjoy these photos of the Premiere, by April Blevins Pejic and Emily Choate.
