FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUSAN LOVE FITTS IS FEATURED AUTHOR
AT TENNESSEE WILLIAMS FESTIVAL

Montgomery, TX, October 15, 2001 - Local poet Susan Love Fitts was a featured author at the annual

Tennessee Williams Festival held October 12-13 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning

playwright. The festival was highlighted by discussion groups, plays, walking tours, interpretations, music, varied

cuisine and other events centered around Williams' works.

   At the invitation of the Festival Committee, Fitts read poems from her new book Licking the Bones Dry at

Clarksdale Station. Fitts also read "Gothic Women", a poem about three women in Tennessee Williams' plays. "I

wrote 'Gothic Women' especially for the festival," said Fitts, "and feel I have been these women (Laura, Stella, and

Blanche) at different times of my life."

   Also on hand was Dakin Williams, brother of the playwright and only surviving member of the Williams family.

Dakin Williams gave a reading of Tennessee Williams' poetry and some selections from his plays.

She was also a judge for the state-wide high school drama competition held during the festival at Coahoma

Community College in Clarksdale.

   Fitts said, "It was truly an honor for me to be invited to participate in this annual festival paying tribute to Tennessee

Williams, whose work I have long admired. It was very inspiring to be surrounded by so much of what Tennessee

Williams loved and wrote about."