TWSTL Hosts Streetcar & Beyond 10th Anniversary Season Book Signing at Left Bank Books
The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis (TWSTL) continues its Streetcar & Beyond 10th Anniversary Season with the second of many events to celebrate the milestone season. Famed author and scholar Tom Mitchell will sign copies of his book, Early Stories by Tennessee Williams at 6pm on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63108 in the Central West End. The book signing is free. Tickets for the 2025 Season are available April 2 at twstl.org.
Early Stories by Tennessee Williams is an edited collection of thirty previously unpublished short stories written in the 1930s, when Tennessee Williams was living in the Midwest during a tumultuous period for the nation and himself. The stories highlight aspects of the writer's biography relative to his young adult years in St. Louis, Columbia, and the Missouri Ozarks, offering insight into the relationships between the author, his family, and close friends. The influence of proletarian fiction and leftist ideas are evident in Williams's stories of the Great Depression, as are themes of sexual turmoil and inner passions inspired by authors like D. H. Lawrence.
“As one of our Streetcar & Beyond 10th Anniversary events, we are happy to team with Left Bank Books and the University of Iowa Press for the launch of a newly published volume of Tennessee’s short stories,” said Tennessee Williams Festival Executive Artistic Director Carrie Houk. “This wonderful book is edited by TWSTL scholar Tom Mitchell. TWSTL Advisory Board member Thomas Keith serves as contributor to the volume,” she said.
Said Mitchell of the collection, “I was excited about the stories in this collection when I first read them in the Tennessee Williams archives at the University of Texas.” “They are full of compelling characters wrestling with the challenges of live in neighborhoods of St. Louis, on rural farms, on college campuses, and in Ozark campgrounds. Each story is surprising.”
The stories have the same kind of thrilling drama as a Tennessee Williams play. Readers are able to imagine the action in their own theatre of the mind. I hope these stories will prompt readers to re-think their understanding of Tennessee Williams,” Mitchell said.
About the stories
Early Stories by Tennessee Williams is an edited collection of thirty previously unpublished short stories written in the 1930s when Williams was living in St. Louis during a tumultuous period for the nation and himself. Editor, Tom Mitchell, is Festival Scholar for the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. He has spoken on the author’s connections to the city and led tours of the many sites connected with Williams’s youthful days in St. Louis.
Tom Mitchell
Because for many readers Tennessee Williams is considered a writer associated with the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans, and the American South, but this collection highlights aspects of the writer’s biography from his young adult years in St. Louis, Columbia, and the Missouri Ozarks. It exposes the relationships between the author, his family and close friends. Williams’s themes of sexual turmoil and inner passions were inspired by authors like D.H. Lawrence. His stories from the Great Depression were influenced by the radical leftists in St. Louis and the proletarian fiction movement. Details about the times, the places, and the people are included in lively notes for each story. Many of the stories offer hints of what was to come in Tennessee Williams’s major works like The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Night of the Iguana, and Suddenly Last Summer.
Thomas Keith
A special essay by Thomas Keith analyzes the erotic content in Williams’s early stories. Keith has edited Tennessee Williams’s dramatic works and is also editor of Love, Christopher Street: Reflections of New York City, a collection of essays addressing LGBTQ life from Stonewall to the dawn of the 21st century.
about tennessee williams
Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Mississippi, Williams moved to St. Louis at age seven, when his father was made an executive with the International Shoe Company (where the City Museum and the Last Hotel are now located). He lived here for more than two decades, attending
Washington University, working at the International Shoe Company, and producing his first plays at local theaters. He credited his sometimes-difficult experiences in St. Louis for the deeply felt poetic essence that permeates his artistry. When asked later in life when he left St. Louis, he replied, “I never really left.” Most people are familiar with the famous works that have garnered multiple Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, and Academy Awards, such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer. He also wrote hundreds of additional plays, stories, essays, and poems, many of which are only now seeing the light of day as his estate permits greater access. He is today considered by many leading authorities to be one of America’s greatest playwrights.
TWSTL STREETCAR & BEYOND 10TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
AT-A-GLANCE
April 2025
Book Launch / Left Bank Books, April 2
“Early Stories by Tennessee Williams”
Tom Mitchell, Editor; Thomas Keith, Contributor
July 14, 2025
2025 Season Preview: St Louis County Library
Featuring Artists and Designers TWFest 2025
July 20, 2025
Tennessee Williams Annual Pool Party (fundraiser)
July 31, 2025
Thursday Nights At The Museum
Missouri History Museum Panel Discussion
August 7-17
10th Annual Tennessee Williams Festival
The Grandel Theatre in the Grand Center Arts District
“A Streetcar Named Desire” /Director Michael James Reed
“A Conversation with Austin Pendleton: A Life In The Theater Moderated by Dennis Brown”
Tennessee Williams Tribute :
A special evening of readings, song, dance and music celebrating the work of Tennessee Williams. A collaboration of other major St. Louis Arts Organizations including Opera Theater of St. Louis
Stella Shouting Contest / Grand Center
SATURDAY, August 9 GRANDEL THEATRE
9:00am Tennessee in St. Louis/Tennessee in New Orleans
Between 1938 and 1940 Tennessee Williams made a transition from St. Louis to New Orleans. Experts discuss the influence of New Orleans on the work of Tennessee Williams, especially A Streetcar Named Desire.
10:00am Ten Years of Tennessee: A Conversation with Carrie Houk, Tom Mitchell, and Mark Charney
Initiated as an act of love for St. Louis’s great playwright, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis has a decade of accomplishments. Founder and Executive Artistic Director, Carrie Houk, talks about the festival’s beginnings, challenges, and accomplishments.
11:00am Streetcar Adapted for Opera, Film, and Stage
Tennessee Williams’s great play has inspired adaptations in film, onstage, and in the opera. We will learn about Andre Previn’s operatic adaptation, Novid Parsi’s dramatic retelling within an Iranian immigrant family, and the influence of Streetcar in Pedro Aldomovar’s film.
SUNDAY, August 10 THE LINK AUDITORIUM, CENTRAL WEST END
9:00am Walking Tour of Tennessee’s Central West End
The Williams family first settled in the Central West End and the neighborhood became important to Tennessee’s work. Beginning and ending at The Link Auditorium, this walking tour will visit neighborhood sites that relate to his life and writing. Along the way, we will hear Williams’s own words describing familiar locations. The tour will end with a READING of “God in the Free Ward: A newly published story written in 1934 about Anna Wilkins, hospitalized with a puzzling illness, which reveals Tennessee Williams’s feelings for his sister Rose before her confinement in a mental hospital.
SPECIAL EVENT: GRANDEL THEATRE
1:00pm “My Life in Art” with Austin Pendleton
A conversation with the award-winning actor and director whose work has included productions of Tennessee Williams plays. Austin Pendleton long career has been distinguished by performances on stage, film and television in roles that are distinctive and committed. As a director, Pendleton has staged productions on and off Broadway and at major theatres around the country and abroad. He is also an influential acting coach. Among other plays, Austin Pendleton has worked on Tennessee Williams’s Vieux Carre, Night of the Iguana, Camino Real, The Glass Menagerie, and Small Craft Warnings. Moderated by Dennis Brown.
Central West End Walking Tour
Fall 2025
Trio Foundation of St Louis Playwriting Initiative Finalists Staged Readings / Fall 2025 “Flight” (TBD)
aBOUT THE TENNESEE WILLIAMS ST LOUIS FESTIVAL
In 2014, award-winning producer, casting director, actor, and educator Carrie Houk produced Williams’ Stairs to the Roof with such success that the ongoing annual Festival was established. The Festival, which aims to enrich the cultural life of St. Louis by producing an annual theater festival and other artistic events that celebrate the artistry and life of Tennessee Williams, was named the Arts Startup of the Year Award by the Arts and Education Council at the 2019 St. Louis Arts Awards. In its eight iterations since 2016, the Festival has attracted thousands to its readings, panel discussions, concerts, exhibitions, and productions, has reached hundreds of young people through its educational programming, and has garnered 13 awards from the St. Louis people through its educational programming, and has garnered 13 awards from the St. Louis
Theater Circle and was recently nominated for a St. Louis Theater Circle awards for Outstanding Performer in a Drama, Female or Non-Binary Role for 2023’s Suddenly Last Summer. TWSTL offices are located at 3301 Washington Ave. Suite 2F, St. Louis, MO 63103.
