21st Annual Jambalaya Writers’ Conference: Saturday, April 25, 2026
Keynote Speaker Mary Manhein
Mary H. Manhein, Forensic Anthropologist, is the creator and retired director of the LSU FACES Laboratory (Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services lab). She has published multiple books on her case work, has lectured twice at Scotland Yard in London, and has given hundreds of presentations across America. She has also published both adult and children’s mysteries. Her newest publication is A Call to Rowan, a novella set in the 1950’s in rural North Louisiana, following the Korean War.
First Page Blind Auditions
NOW 90 minutes! Bring in your first page of your manuscript, novel, poem, fiction, or non-fiction. Here is a chance to have your work critiqued by experts anonymously – low risk! The library director will read each page aloud and give three professionals a chance to give you feedback.
- One page with no name: poem, short story, or manuscriapt
- Make sure it is a copy
- Your work will NOT be returned.
- Your work must be typed.
- Font must be 12 point or larger
- Must be simple font: Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.
- 5 line spacing minimum
- 1 inch margins
- First Come, First Serve
- Works can be turned in starting at 8:10 am.
- Numbers will be put on each submission as it is is handed in.
- They will be read in the order of submission.
- Due to time constraints, not every submission may be read.
- It is at the discretion of the director if a submission is appropriate or not and will or will not be read.
- All critiques offered by the panel are their opinions and are not necessarily the views of the Library, the Friends, or JWC.
Lunch (featuring local food trucks)
Book Sales & Vendors
Full Schedule
Each session is an hour. The sessions will run concurrently. Authors will be available in the
lobby for 15 minutes after the session for book signing.
8:30 a. m.
Registration/Sign In
Register for First Page American Idol
8:45 a. m.
Welcome with Mary Cosper-LeBoeuf, Library Director
9:00 a. m.
Genre Work in Writing The Recipe for a Cookbook: Nancy Rust and Carol Stubbs
The Business of Writing Writing is More than Books: Kyle Crosby
The Craft of Writing The ABC’s of a Good Ending: Marguerite Sheffer
10:00 a. m.
Meet the Author/Book Signing with Cavalier House Books
10:15 a. m.
Genre in Writing Science Fiction Prompt Workshop (Generative): Michelle Kelleher
The Business of Writing Literary Agents 101: Elizabeth Prats
The Craft of Writing Co-Authoring Your Book: Nancy Rust and Carol Stubbs
11:15 a. m.
Meet the Author/Book Signing with Cavalier House Books
11:15 a. m.
Food Trucks Blended Bean, NadieB’s, and Ms. Tweet’s
12:45 p. m.
Blind Auditions: First Page Critics: Jenny Keegan, Shai August, and TBA
2:30 p. m.
Genre in Writing Layers in Poetry: Mona Lisa Saloy
The Business of Writing Traditional Publishing: Jenny Keegan
The Craft of Writing The Four Tenets of Fantasy World Building: Shai August
3:30 p. m.
Meet the Author/Book Signing with Cavalier House Books
3:45 p. m.
Keynote Speaker: Mary Manhein
Presenters
Carol Stubbs grew up with a love of reading and writing that was encouraged by her family. Her writing career has included being a journalist, freelance writer, English teacher, and author. She is also a potter and enjoys creating designs inspired by Louisiana swamps and bayous. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Education from University of Louisiana in Lafayette. She is a member of the Louisiana Crafts Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. As a part of the Louisiana/Mississippi region, she leads the monthly SCBWI Acadiana Critique Group. She lives in South Louisiana with her husband and two cats, and likes traveling to visit children and grandchildren. Since 2011, Nancy and Carol have written five books together for readers of all ages. Learn more about the books at www.nancycarolbooks.com
Shai August is a country girl with a big imagination, more than a touch of wanderlust and a never-ending desire to live in both an RV traveling the world and a library. Her love language is words of affirmations followed by books, bacon and bourbon.
She’s a born and bred Louisiana native but has lived in ten states and visited forty-four. She is fluent in English, sarcasm and memes. Her goal is to write fast paced, character driven paranormal fiction for women of color.
She’s found all over the internet and social media as @ShaiAugust – feel free to follow and start any kind of conversation with her.
Shai August funnels her spare time into her publishing company, Three Fortnights Press.
Three Fortnights Press is an award-winning boutique press working to create a never-ending catalog of Black woman led books; with over 70 titles centering stories of love that uplift and celebrate healthy, affectionate, joyful, romantic love.
Kyle Crosby, founder of Louisiana Dread, is dedicated to preserving and sharing Louisiana’s rich history, culture, and folklore. Born and raised in Larose, Louisiana, he has built a significant online presence through engaging videos, articles, and podcasts that explore the state’s hidden gems, eerie legends, and fading traditions.
Beyond storytelling, Kyle is passionate about coastal land restoration and raising awareness of Louisiana’s rapidly vanishing coastline. Through his platform, he highlights the environmental challenges facing the region and advocates for preserving both its land and culture.
Committed to authenticity, Kyle meticulously researches each piece of content, collaborating with historians, folklorists, and local residents to ensure accuracy. Louisiana Dread has become a trusted resource for scholars, enthusiasts, and tourists seeking a deeper connection to the state’s heritage.
In addition to his digital work, Kyle hosts live events, leads immersive guided tours, and speaks at universities nationwide on topics like cultural preservation, land reclamation, and the loss of Cajun French. Through Louisiana Dread, he continues to educate, inspire, and instill pride in Louisiana’s unique culture.
Jenny Keegan is the trade editor at LSU Press, where she acquires books for general interest readers on topics ranging from food to sports to the environmental crisis, with a regional focus on Louisiana and the South. Before coming to LSU, she worked at Oxford University Press and Yale University Press.
M Kelleher is a speculative fiction writer and theater artist currently living in New Orleans, LA. She has over twenty years of experience helping to tell stories as a Stage Manager and Lighting Designer in New York (where she’s from) and New Orleans (where she lives with her wife). Her work has been published in Cosmic Horror Monthly, the Dread Monday’s anthology, and she is vice president and director of programming for the non-profit literary collective Third Lantern Lit. She has a collection of short stories coming out in late 2026 with Stanchion Books.
Nancy Rust is passionate about books and believes well-chosen words can empower young people and make the world a better place. After nearly three decades of teaching reading, writing, and literature, she sat down with her computer and began her career as an author. She likes to take early morning walks, go on road trips, see wildlife, and play word games. She majored in English at Western Kentucky University and got Master of Arts and Education Specialist degrees from Louisiana State University. She and her husband share their home near Lafayette, Louisiana, with a lively standard poodle named Truman.
Nancy and Carol have written five books together for readers of all ages. You can catch up with them on their Facebook page, Nancy & Carol Books, or learn more about their books and read their blog at www.nancycarolbooks.com.
Elizabeth Prats is an agented, Cuban-American author-illustrator and vice president at an award-winning communications agency. She writes middle grade and young adult stories featuring epic adventures and fierce Latine heroes. Based in New Orleans with her two cats, Elizabeth finds inspiration strolling the French Quarter with an iced latte in hand. Find her at @artlizified on Instagram, @lizified on BlueSky, and www.elizabethprats.com.
Marguerite Sheffer is the author of the collection The Man in the Banana Trees (University of Iowa Press, 2024) which won the Iowa Short fiction Award and was a Finalist for the 2025 PEN America Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The collection was also named a “Best Debut Book” by Debutiful and a “Most Exciting Debut Story Collection” by Electric Literature. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Cosmic Background, Cast of Wonders,
BOMB, Literary Hub and other magazines. At Tulane University Marguerite teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction as tools for social change. She is a founding member of Third Lantern Lit, a New Orleans writing collective, and the Wildcat Writing Group.
Mona Lisa Saloy, Ph.D. Louisiana Poet Laureate 2021-2023, is author, folklorist, Louisiana Folklife Commissioner, educator, and scholar of Creole culture in articles, documentaries, and poems about Black New Orleans before and after Katrina, is currently Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor of English, Dillard University. Books: Red Beans & Ricely Yours (has a banned poem “The N Word”), won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Second Line Home, on New Orleans Black Creole culture. Recent pubs: The Chicago Quarterly Review, Vol 33; “Introduction” to Black Fire!!! This
Time II; Southern Voices: fifty contemporary poets, (Tom Mack & Andrew Geyer eds.) Literary Press, Lamar University, Fall 2024. LMNL Poetry Anthology, fall 2024. Black Creole Chronicles: Poems (UNO Press 2023), choice for ONE BOOK ONE NEW ORLEANS 2024, & Book of the Month, The Whitney Plantation Museum. Saloy was named Louisianian of the Year in Literature: 2024 in Louisiana Life Magazine. Mentioned in “Read your way through New Orleans,” by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, NYT Book Review, Oct. 2024 . Most recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning! With former LA Poet Laureate John Warner Smith, Saloy edits Hurricanes Katrina & Rita at 20, an anthology of Poetry with Art, BLACK BAYOU PRESS, 2025. Mona Lisa Saloy writes for those who don’t or can’t tell Black Creole cultural stories. www.monalisasaloy.com
Honored for Women’s HIstory Month, March 2025 by the Whitney Plantation Museum, and a new poem published in Persimmon Tree Journal, winter issue, 2025.
*Funding for this project has been provided by the State of Louisiana and administered by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, program, exhibition, website) do not necessarily represent those of either the Louisiana vEndowment for the Humanities or the State of Louisiana.
Support for the Jambalaya Writers’ Conference was provided in part by the
- Friends of the Terrebonne Parish Library
- Explore Houma
- State of Louisiana
- Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
- Bayou Regional Arts Council
