The Literary Southbound

Following in the footsteps of our region's most iconic authors, from the French Quarter to the bayou

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Since its earliest beginnings, Louisiana has been a bottomless well hof inspiration, and of storytelling. There is magic in the murk, mysteries suspended in the humidity. The region’s eccentricities and oddities have lured some of history’s most iconic literary figures to call the state home.

Follow their lead. Absorb the wayward beauty, and the occasional sazerac, that fueled their creativity. A literary road trip awaits, with a chance at every stop to crack open a book, put pen to paper, or raise a toast to Louisiana’s literary spirit.

William Faulkner

New Orleans / Oxford

In the early 1920s, William Faulkner visited New Orleans with the intention of only passing through. He stayed with fellow novelist Sherwood Anderson at 540-B St. Peter Street in the Upper Pontalba Apartments overlooking Jackson Square, before eventually moving to 624 Pirate's Alley, where he wrote his first published novel, Soldiers’ Pay (1926). Today, his former residence is Faulkner House Books and serves as the headquarters to the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society.

Worth the Drive—Head to Oxford, Mississippi, where William Faulkner’s legacy looms even larger. Tour his home, Rowan Oak, a preserved Greek Revival estate, then visit the iconic Square to sit beside his bronze sculpture—an homage to the literary giant in the heart of his beloved hometown.

Tennessee Williams

New Orleans

Tennessee Williams was living in New Orleans when he wrote his most famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), in the 1940s—drawing from experiences he detailed in his New Orleans Notebooks (2007). He worked near the (still open) Pontchartrain Hotel’s streetcar tracks, from which he drew obvious inspiration. Over the course of his itinerant life, Williams frequently returned to New Orleans for stretches of time, and he occupied several residences in the Quarter—including those at 431 Royal, 722 Toulouse (now owned by the Historic New Orleans Collection and used as offices), 727 Toulouse, 710 Orleans, 632 1/2 St. Peter, and in The Audubon Cottages at 415 Dauphine St.. He also spent time writing at the (Omni) Royal Orleans Hotel and the Hotel Monteleone. The Greek Revival townhouse at 1014 Dumaine Street  was the only home he ever owned in the city.

Pro tip: New Orleans Historic Tours offers private tours focusing on the city’s literary history, with options to focus on iconic figures the likes of Williams and other icons mentioned in this article. Learn more at tourneworleans.com.

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Anne Rice

New Orleans

Anne Rice’s New Orleans is a city of Gothic allure, where vampires and witches roam beneath gaslit balconies. Her famed Garden District mansion at 1239 First Street is called The Rosegate House or LaLaurie Mansion. She owned it from 1989–2004 and used it as inspiration for her Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy (1990–1994). The home is a favorite stop for Garden District walking tours.

Other New Orleans destinations that appear in Rice’s novels include Commander’s Palace, Hotel Monteleone, the Gallier House, and Café du Monde. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is a haunting setting in both Interview with a Vampire (1976) and The Witching Hour (1990). You can also visit the recently departed author’s tomb in the Metairie Cemetery, where she is buried alongside her husband and daughter.

Lyle Saxon

New Orleans / Natchitoches

Lyle Saxon, often called the “Dean” of New Orleans writers, played a key role in the French Quarter Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, restoring homes and using his influence as a writer at The Times-Picayune to champion preservation efforts. He spent much of his career overseeing field workers of the WPA Federal Writers’ Project in Louisiana, which resulted in books like New Orleans City Guide (1938), Louisiana: A Guide to the State (1941), and Gumbo Ya-Ya (1945).

Saxon purchased his 534 Madison Street home using money he earned from the making of the film, The Buccaneer, which was adapted from his work of nonfiction, Lafitte the Pirate (1930). The home became a gathering place for writers and artists, and its courtyard hosted the 1943 wedding of his close friend, John Steinbeck, to Gwyn Conger. Today, the exterior of The Lyle Saxon House is a stop on New Orleans literary tours, celebrating his lasting impact on the city’s cultural landscape.

A primarily nonfiction writer and journalist, Saxon wrote his only novel, Children of Strangers (1937), while in residence at Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches Parish—which is where the controversial-at-the-time story exploring the area’s complicated race relations takes place. Melrose Plantation is still open today for tours.

Frances Parkinson Keyes

New Orleans

The prolific novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes made New Orleans her home after a visit during Carnival in 1940—which inspired the novel Crescent Carnival (1942), as well as dozens of romance novels set in Louisiana.

As research for her deeply-detailed stories, she fully immersed herself in the world of New Orleans. She lived at 1113 Chartres Street, now the Beauregard-Keyes House, where visitors can tour her beautifully preserved home and gardens.

A fan of classic Creole cuisine, she often dined at Antoine’s, weaving the city’s flavors and stories into her novels—including the mystery, Dinner at Antoine’s (1948).

John Kennedy Toole

New Orleans

John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) is one of the most beloved literary works set in New Orleans, capturing the city’s eccentric spirit through the misadventures of Ignatius J. Reilly. If you’re looking for deeper immersion than catching a Lucky Dog cart in the French Quarter, visit the bronze statue of Ignatius J. Reilly at 819 Canal Street, in front of the former D.H. Holmes department store (now the Hyatt French Quarter Hotel)—where the book’s unforgettable opening scene takes place. Other stops along Ignatious’s route include the (recently closed) Palace Café on Canal Street—which was once the site of Werlein’s Music Store—as well as St. Louis Cathedral Basilica.

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Walker Percy

Covington / St. Francisville

Walker Percy, known for his existential masterpiece The Moviegoer (1961), called Covington home for much of his life. The town, with its quiet Southern charm, deeply influenced his writing. As you explore the area, you can visit places that inspired his work while reflecting on the themes of identity and disconnection that run through his novels. There is a statue of Percy at the entrance to Bogue Falaya Park, and he is buried in the cemetery at St. Joseph Abbey a few miles north.

End the day by the Southern Hotel on Walker Percy Wednesdays for discounted Old Fashioneds, with proceeds going towards the Covington Public Art Fund.

Each fall, about two hours away in St. Francisville, community organizers put on a lively celebration of Percy’s literary legacy with readings, discussions, and bourbon-centered events honoring one of the South’s most celebrated writers.

Kate Chopin

Grand Coteau / Cloutierville / Grand Isle

The tiny community of Cloutierville, near Natchitoches, offers a glimpse into the life of nineteenth century author Kate Chopin. Known for her explorations of identity and freedom, Chopin’s legacy as an eccentric, independent, and socially exciting presence in the quiet town lives on.

Though her Main Street residence, which was built by the town’s founder, was tragically destroyed by fire in 2008, visitors can still explore the grounds that inspired much of her writing, including works like Bayou Folk (1894), A Night in Acadie (1897), and The Awakening (1899). It was while living in this area that she came to know the Cajun people who famously populated her fiction; her works are some of the earliest appearances of Cajuns and Creoles in nationally-recognized literature, especially by a woman.

For an understanding of Chopin’s early life, a drive out to Grand Coteau is in order. The young author-to-be wrote about her experiences at the (still-active) Academy of the Sacred Heart girls' school in surviving journals—which also give insight into her early literary interests in writers like Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, and Victor Hugo.

The Awakening was one of Chopin’s most influential novels, and itself is set in Grand Isle. Chopin drew inspiration from the island’s natural beauty and isolation, and visitors can still explore the area to connect with the setting that inspired one of America’s earliest feminist works of fiction.

Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps

Alexandria

The celebrated poet and short story writer Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana. Known for works like the novel Black Thunder (1936) and the poetry collection The Poetry of the Negro (1949), Bontemps was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the course of his lifetime, he wrote or edited over thirty books—typically concerning the everyday lives of Black Americans and their struggles for equality. His home on 3rd Street in Alexandria once served as a memorial and museum; though it is now closed, visitors can still visit the exterior and observe the marker detailing his life.

James Lee Burke

New Iberia

James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux mystery series famously captures the essence of New Iberia, immersing readers in Iberia Parish seat's swamps, small town politics, and secrets. Burke spent summers in the small Cajun town growing up, and lived on the Bayou Teche for some years as an adult. The Iberia Parish Convention & Visitors Bureau offers a free self-guided tour to iconic destinations featured in Burke’s novels, including the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes—which Robicheaux could see from his office window at City Hall; St. Peter’s Church, the Teche Motel, the Iberia Parish Courthouse, and Shadows-on-the-Teche. Downtown, fans can purchase signed first editions of Burke’s novels at the local bookstore Books Along the Teche.

Each spring, the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival honors Burke’s love affair with the city,  while also celebrating local authors. The festival includes author talks, readings, and a driving tour of key spots that inspired Burke’s stories, as well as the statue of the author on Main Street.

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Dr. Ernest J. Gaines

Pointe Coupée / Lafayette

The work of Dr. Ernest J. Gaines has long offered a profound portrayal of the struggles and triumphs of Louisiana's rural Black communities. Gaines was born on Riverlake Plantation in Pointe Coupée Parish—a place that became the premier setting for many of his works, including his most famous, A Lesson Before Dying (1993). Towards the end of his life, he’d return here to build a home and live out the rest of his days. Visitors to the area can find his grave in the historic Mount Zion Riverlake Cemetery near Oscar, Louisiana—which he spent decades restoring to honor the deceased people of his community.

From 1981 until his retirement in 2004, Gaines lived about an hour away in Lafayette, Louisiana—where he was a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Today, the Ernest J. Gaines Center, a museum and research center at the university, is the holding place for most of Gaines’s early papers, manuscripts, and artifacts—as well as a growing collection of scholarship on the writer’s work. Gaines’s home near the UL campus is also a point of interest for those exploring his roots.