“The Last Laugh: Wit, Wisdom, and Ten Years
of the Walker Percy Weekend.”

Good food, craft beer and bourbon, live music, and a great time talking about books and Southern culture under the live oaks: That's what the tenth annual Walker Percy Weekend has to offer when it returns to celebrate the acclaimed novelist's life and work, September 19–20, 2025 in St. Francisville, LA.

During this tenth (and likely final) festival, participating authors, academics, and comics will explore the theme “The Last Laugh: Wit, Wisdom and Ten Years of the Walker Percy Weekend”

Intellectually serious but delivered with a glass of bourbon and a grin, the annual festival invites fans of Southern literature to pursue appreciation of Percy’s thought and writing while attending presentations by renowned scholars, panel discussions, participatory book clubs, and spirited social and culinary events inspired by the author’s most famous works. Events take place at locations around St. Francisville’s historic district.

Festival proceeds support the JULIUS FREYHAN FOUNDATION—an organization dedicated to restoring the historic Freyhan School building to serve as a community and cultural center for West Feliciana Parish. A note to returning attendees. We are overjoyed to report that restoration work on the Freyhan School building will be completed this summer. In plenty of time for the building to host the 2025 Walker Percy Weekend. AT LAST!

“Life is fits and starts,

mostly fits.”

—Walker Percy