N.O. Lit

A recent Reuters story is headlined "New Orleans writers struggle to pen rebirth story." It begins:

Quirky characters, raucous music, jazz funerals, a warm climate and plenty of service-industry jobs made New Orleans an ideal base for writers and a rich backdrop for their work.

But, 16 months after Hurricane Katrina, the southern city that inspired Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, John Kennedy Toole and Anne Rice risks losing its unique place on the literary landscape. The city's recovery is plodding and many writers remain in exile around the United States....

The article doesn't really sync up very well with that headline. I think there's just one example of a specific new piece of post-Katrina fiction, a play called "Rising Water," by John Biguenet, a Loyola English prof. But perhaps there's more to come.