Please support Siniša Jančan's novel, Silence in the Quiet of Peace . Info for the novel and how to purchase is here: https://tinyurl.com/bdfadx6w/ Summary For years, Bosnia drowned in blood and tears as Serb forces ravaged our land, razed our homes to the ground, and forced us into concentration camps, servitude, and hiding. The ethnic cleansing resulted in tens of thousands of deaths of innocent civilians and the displacement of several million people from their homes. From the siege of Sarajevo to the Srebrenica Massacre (the second greatest loss of life on European soil since WW2), the world watched as they laid waste to everything we knew, but in the ashes of their hate we found the strength to survive in the place we once called home!

  Noah Tapper reads his poem, “Untitled,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at Allways Lounge & Cabaret in New Orleans, LA.

Nick Perere reads his poem, “Coach O,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA .

  Louis Toliver Jr. reads his short story, “Sincerely George,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

The Louisiana Words Tour 2026 comes to Allways Lounge & Cabaret in New Orleans, LA on Sunday, July 5th at 5:00pm! LouisianaWords.com is the home of Louisiana's LGBTQIA+ writers and our allies! We help market new and seasoned writers for FREE! We primarily promote poetry and fiction! Our featured writers will include TQ Sims, Fritz Westenberger, Paige McRae, Sam Ray, Khary Wilson, Chris Anton, J. Michael Norris, and Louis Toliver Jr. We will also have an open mic for anyone who attends the show and has the passion to read any of their work. If you are interested in doing an open mic, all you have to do is show up! Fritz Westenberger will be reading from his new novel: The St. Charles Bible. Info for the novel and how to purchase is here: https://marsandpanbooks.com/store/p/the-st-charles-bible TQ Sims will also be reading from his 1st novel: Godspeed, Lovers - from his The Lovers Trilogy. Info for the novel and how to purchase is here:  https://marsandpanbooks.com/store/the-love...

  Get an up-close-and-personal look into the life of Ted A Richard - Author/Activist, who survived homophobia, addiction, abuse, and HIV/AIDS, in THE 16th SECOND: https://bit.ly/3VEpsLV . Summary: The 16th Second is the autobiography of a small-town gay boy from Deep South Louisiana who survived homophobia, alcohol and drug addiction, sexual abuse, rape, and HIV/AIDS to become somebody that no one, not even he, expected.   The story winds through his childhood, where Ted had become accustomed to coming in second. Weaving a tale of drama, heartache, and failure to the path led him to figure out what it takes to come in first and why it mattered.   His childhood recollection of “never being good enough” morphs into a world of delusions of grandeur as his search for fame seems never to materialize, which causes him to create his own definition of fame.   It is a story of redemption and success after years of searching helped him realize that he had to let go of th...

  The Louisiana Words Spring 2026 season is officially over and we are on summer break! No worries though, because we'll still be posting lives readings from last year's Louisiana Words Tour until we get to July 3rd - 5th! The Louisiana Words Tour 2026 is coming July 3rd - 5th, 2026! Please keep following us as we provide more promotions and information as we get closer the the tour! New content for Louisiana Words starts later this summer: July 19th!  

The Louisiana Words Tour 2026 comes to George’s Place in Baton Rouge, LA on Saturday, July 4th at 3:00pm LouisianaWords.com is the home of Louisiana's LGBTQIA+ writers and our allies! We help market new and seasoned writers for FREE! We primarily promote poetry and fiction! Our featured writers will include Sam Harty, Sinisa Juncan, Nick Perere, John Chenvert, Lance Wise, Khary Wilson, J. Michael Norris, and Louis Toliver Jr. We will also have an open mic for anyone who attends the show and has the passion to read any of their work. If you are interested in doing an open mic, all you have to do is show up! Siniša Jančan will be reading from his novel: Silence in the Quiet of Peace. Info for the novel and how to purchase is here: https://tinyurl.com/bdfadx6w/ All shows of the Louisiana Words Tour 2026 will be recorded and shared online for your friends, family, and the world to see! If you have any questions, please e-mail us at louisianawords@gmail.com; or message Louis Toliver Jr....

 

 

  The Louisiana Words Tour 2026 comes to Cavalier House Books in Lafayette, LA on Friday, July 3rd at 4:30pm!  LouisianaWords.com is the home of Louisiana's LGBTQIA+ writers and our allies! We help market new and seasoned writers for FREE! We primarily promote poetry and fiction! Our featured writers will include Gabi Miller, Laura Gary, Ted A. Richard, J. Michael Norris, and Louis Toliver Jr. We also will have an open mic for anyone who attends the show and has the passion to read any of their work. If you are interested in doing an open mic, all you have to do is show up!  Ted A. Richard will be reading from his novel: The 16th Second. Info for the novel and how to purchase is here: https://bit.ly/3VEpsLV All shows of the Louisiana Words Tour 2026 will be recorded and shared online for your friends, family, and the world to see!  If you have any questions, please e-mail us at louisianawords@gmail.com; or message Louis Toliver Jr. and the Louisiana Words FB page dir...

      Lance Wise reads his poem, "The Deferral" for the Louisiana Words Tour at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

  Nick Perere reads his poem, “Show Choir,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

 Louis Toliver Jr. reads his poem, “He Likes Me for Me,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

   On a regular, I order the Taco Bell Build Your Own Luxe Box.   I almost always get a Chalupa Supreme, a five layer burrito (easy on the beans), Fiesta potatoes, and a Baja Blast (upgrade to large).   All this for six dollars and eighty-one cents.   Meanwhile, tariffs go into effect.   What tariffs?   Nevermind on the tariffs.   High tariffs!   Beautiful tariffs destroying economies and people’s well-beings.   Canada is pissed at us.   Canada.   The Department of Education is being dismantled.   Concentration camps are being erected.   Let’s get rid of the National Weather Service amidst the floods, tornadoes, hurricanes.   Thrown into unbroken promise of no wars.   Breaking News!   BREAKING NEWS!   B R E A K I N G   N E WS!   The sole of my working shoes have given out.   Much like the soul of this constant chaos country.   But a constant I can rely on? Is a gr...

Let that fucker burn. Let the fire crackle like the whips once did— like bone meeting leather, like screams swallowed by the trees. Let the white columns crumble to ash. Not as tragedy— but as truth, unearthing itself from beneath generations of silence. Nottoway is not a mansion. It’s a mausoleum. A lie carved in stone to honor the hands that held the whip, not the backs that bore it. They called it the “White Castle.” A place of beauty. A place for weddings, for photo ops, for pretending that horror can be made elegant if the curtains match the guilt. But no paint can cover what happened there. Blood doesn’t wash out with white linens. And pain doesn’t forget just because you renamed it history. I’m not Black. And I won’t pretend to carry that weight. But I also won’t ignore it. My people—the Guanches—were taken too. Our language silenced. Our land stolen. Our names nearly erased. So yes, I know colonization. Yes, I know what it means to be disappeared. But I also know this— my skin ...

 

 

 

  Louis Toliver Jr. reads his short story, “Betsy Ross, the American Flag, & Me,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

  Nick Perere reads his poem, “The Harvest,” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

Noah Tapper reads his poem, “Link in Bio” for the Louisiana Words Tour 2025 at Allways Lounge & Cabaret in New Orleans, LA.  

 

It's cloudy outside. The world is delineated in every detail. Every little shadow and line is accented sharply by the ominous thunder rumbling across the belly of the sky. The bits of color in the flowers reach but cannot leave much of a mark on the pervading gloom. The inside of the house is warm and well-lit, peaceful and serene. The laughter of carefree children echoes down through the centuries of its wooden frame. Hospitable, smelling of a home-cooked meal, one gazes through the glowing panes of glass and can only conjure memories of rustling skirts covered by wide aprons, full-chested mothers sweeping and elbow-deep in dough, scolding their children and wiping away their tears. The house now stands abandoned and empty, only dust and cobwebs covering the windows. Long ago and far away, I recognized the nostalgia of the times that came before as I look down the neon street, the first drops starting to hurtle down from the dark heavens above.

  I had a rough night. I don’t have a friend nor family in sight. I’m driving home, tank almost empty. I feeling pretty low, but I’m a little high. I come behind an ambulance, a woman is on a stretcher inside. She looks like she is barely holding on. Oxygen mask. Low breathing. Paramedics in panic. My heart cries for her and envies her. Tonight, one of us is going to hell and one of is not. I should have just driven around the ambulance, it was a four-lane. But, I just wanted to cruise behind at speed that pulled along like an umbilical cord. Attached. Because, in that moment me and that woman, both, were on our way home.

 

 

  Let's express ourselves! Literacy helps free the mind! Literacy helps build community! Our voices matter more then ever! LouisianaWords.com is the home of Louisiana's LGBTQIA+ writers and our allies! We help market new and seasoned writers for FREE! Just submit your work and we’ll get you into our content rotation! You may submit your content to louisianawords@gmail.com or you may contact us through social media! Our Spring 2026 season of new Louisiana Words content started Sunday, April 26th! As of January 2025, Louisiana Words has officially become a nonprofit organization! So, we are looking to share the good news with a few live shows across the state of Louisiana. We are planning a Louisiana Words tour to showcase local LGBTQIA+ writers and spread the word about Louisiana Words, LLC . The show is free! The dates will be Friday, July 3rd – Sunday, July 5th. We will be visiting Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans in that order.   Friday, July 3rd: Lafayette - Ca...

  How did I get here? When I look at the blackness behind my eyes I am brought to a different place. The blackness and the color of my present perception are equally familiar. It is as if I am made up of three oscillating moments Playing the music of a life that is mine and others. The blackness keeps the time of my most beautiful and colorful moments So vivid in the blackness The current moment is filled with color and question It is the most real moment But the most uncertain It is the most confusing moment.... How did I get there? A more comforting moment rests in the future It flows to whatever rhythm I desire It is driven by the two moments of blackness and reality All three moments working together make up the movement of the mind.

In between the world and my sanctuary I get stuck in traffic. Just want to hear you call me baby. Just want to know you still exist and that nothing has come between you and me in the last couple of hours… but space and time. Nothing else can separate us. I don’t like to make things too simple. I don’t tend to ignore the more symbolic emotions. Nothing is taken lightly. You are more to me than a lover. I want a full heart from you…a full mind filled with ideas and poetry and art and arguments and understanding. With you. In between the world and my sanctuary I get lonely. Mostly because I forget that I’m not alone. I listen and sing along with my poets on disk. Sit there and remember where I was and recognize where I am. What I had and what I have. And I have to smile. Even with tears in my eyes. In between the world and my sanctuary, I am compelled to make myself available and open for people who have no sanctuary of their own. It complicates life, but gives me a purpose. I’m not just...

 

 

 

  Gabi Miller reads her poem, "Lightning Strikes," for the Louisiana Words Tour at Beausoleil Books in Lafayette, LA.

  Louis Toliver Jr. reads his fiction piece, "Two Virgins Don't Make a Right," for the Louisiana Words Tour at Cavalier House Books in Lafayette, LA.

  Gabi Miller reads her poem, "Hollow," for the Louisiana Words Tour at Beausoleil Books in Lafayette, LA.

  Louis Toliver Jr. reads his flash fiction, "Perfect," for the Louisiana Words Tour at Cavalier House Books in Lafayette, LA.

Our family needs you The country too Stop running away  Please do stay  Take responsibility  For our simplicity  I'm your little boy crying Holding in my pain dying  Papa love us strong  Don't make us wait too long  Papa please do preach  Let your heart teach 

“Why we gots to read this old stuff? The way they talks is stupid.” Teaching Shakespeare is quite an endeavor Especially, to students who read hardly ever But breaking down the fear of Shakespeare Is only possible if students persevere And once they realize they can connect They are enchanted by Romeo and Juliet Immortal words cast a spell And their interest I cannot quell They are miffed by how much they delight In one of literature’s greatest plights Slowly, they begin to see literature’s mission Which is to communicate the human condition After each day’s reading, they begin to understand The power of words written by hand I look forward to each day’s tomorrow Because students would say, “Parting is such sweet sorrow” I observe how the student who said, “The way they talks is stupid” Now departs the class and into the herd And he walks with a new respect for the power of a word.

 

 

 

  As the light shunned upon my face, The blessings of my life unveiled upon my brain. My soul began to ache with love from above, His mercy ever so abundantly given to me, Shed upon my twenty years on Earth, His grace stretched with his loving Arms of protection. I thought nothing about the world, but Rather being closer to Him, For the things of this world will inevitably Pass away, like a dream that one can’t Recall in the morning, you are left With nothing. There was no need for me to procrastinate, No angst or fear, except the fear of Him In thy soul, He will and has delivered Me from anguish, and destruction of my soul. Do not worry or dwindle your thumbs about The ending of your self-centered lives, but I urge you to take a step back and listen to God. He’s speaking, you should listen, Open your ears, the trumpets will soon Sound through the nations, open your ears, Your hearts, don’t worry about the End, Just listen to his voice, He is here, Prepare yourselves for Eternity, ...