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Program celebrates novel’s 50th anniversary on Halloween
BATON ROUGE, La. – Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, the State Library of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Book Festival announced the subject of this year's One Book, One Festival book discussion will be the Anne Rice classic novel Interview with the Vampire, commemorating the book’s 50th anniversary as well as the 2026 festival’s Halloween date.
One Book, One Festival participants read the featured material in advance and then join the scholar-led discussion with other event attendees at the State Library of Louisiana on Saturday, October 31. The program is open to all festival attendees and there is no charge to participate.
"Anne Rice gave the world an unforgettable vision of New Orleans," said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. "There's no better way to mark the 50th anniversary of Interview with the Vampire than at the Louisiana Book Festival on Halloween, and we're excited to welcome readers from across the state and beyond to Baton Rouge for this fascinating discussion."
Interview with the Vampire tells the story of Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire recounting his centuries-long existence to a young reporter in modern-day New Orleans, tracing a journey through guilt, longing, and the moral weight of immortality that begins in eighteenth-century Louisiana. A landmark of American gothic fiction, the novel launched Rice's bestselling Vampire Chronicles series and reshaped the genre by centering its protagonist's own consciousness and anguish. Its deep roots in Louisiana helped make Rice one of the state's most iconic literary voices and helped cement New Orleans as a capital of gothic imagination in popular culture.
"Anne Rice transformed the vampire genre into serious literary fiction, and fifty years later Interview with the Vampire continues to captivate readers and inspire writers," said State Librarian Meg Placke. "We are proud to honor one of Louisiana's most widely read authors through the One Book, One Festival program this fall."
The discussion will be led by Dr. Gary Richards, professor of English and former chairman of the Department of English and Linguistics at the University of Mary Washington. Richards is an expert on southern literature and culture who previously taught at the University of New Orleans and has facilitated thirteen previous sessions since One Book, One Festival began in 2008.
Free and open to the public, the Louisiana Book Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 31, 2026, at the State Library of Louisiana and Capitol Park area in downtown Baton Rouge.
For more information, visit LouisianaBookFestival.org and the Louisiana Book Festival Facebook page.
The Louisiana Center for the Book was established in the State Library of Louisiana in 1994. Its mission is to stimulate public interest in reading, books, literacy, and libraries and to celebrate Louisiana’s rich literary heritage. It is the official state affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book.
Contact information:
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Kevin Calbert |
Barry Landry |