Jason Berry to read from new book Last of the Red Hot Poppas

Loyola University New Orleans will host a reading and book signing by locally renowned author Jason Berry on Wednesday, October 18, from 7 – 9 p.m., in the Audubon Room in the Danna Center. Berry will read excerpts from his latest book, Last of the Red Hot Poppas. The reading is free and open to the public.

Last of the Red Hot Poppas is part ribald whodunit, part social satire and part "spiritual comedy," as Berry calls it. It's a chaotic romp through the many levels of "Looziana," but above all, it is a novel about the struggle to maintain one's integrity in a mad world of politics and power.

Berry has worked as a consultant for ABC News and is routinely interviewed in the national media about Catholic church issues and his native city, New Orleans. Vows of Silence prompted a Vatican investigation and demotion of one of the most powerful priests in Rome. The author is putting the finishing touches on a film documentary based on that book this summer. Mr. Berry is also a cultural chronicler of New Orleans in such books as Up From the Cradle of Jazz, a grand history of popular music. His play, Earl Long in Purgatory, won a 2002 Big Easy Award for best original work of theater.

Loyola University New Orleans is a Jesuit-Catholic institution with a total student enrollment of 4,724 including 800 law students.

For more information, contact Loyola’s Office of Public Affairs at (504) 861-5888 or publaff@loyno.edu