New Orleans is notable for musicians, artists, and many fantastic writers sharing histories and weaving tales. While Mardi Gras is a moment for every costumed person to become a storyteller in their own way, creative expression exists year-round and there’s always a community ready to welcome you in. Talking with Danny Cherry Jr, president of Third Lantern Lit (and frequent ANTIGRAVITY contributor), it was clear how central the creation of community is in this local literary nonprofit. Founded in 2022, Third Lantern Lit (3LL) brings together writers of all levels, offering free access to events like “Writing Craft Q&A with Philip Fracassi” and workshops with local published writers, including Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Jami Attenberg, Alex Jennings, and more. Curated topics in sessions like “A Producer’s Guide to Writing a Novel” and “Getting Your Book on Shelves: A Panel with Local Bookstores and Libraries,” provide education around the writing process both during and after the text is complete, from finding an agent to getting your work out into the world. Hosting events, in addition to their annual galas, is another way 3LL continues to foster spaces for local writers to come together, network, learn, and create.
How long have you been involved with 3LL?
I want to say it was a couple months after I went to the first event. We became a 501(c)(3) [in December 2022] and that’s when I officially became the treasurer on paper instead of just in name only.
And what was your biggest draw?
People to talk about writing with—I didn’t really have that at that point. I was just with people on Reddit in this writing group. Doing 3LL, there’s a social aspect too, because those are the people I’ve come to consider friends and not just randoms online.
Writing can be a very vulnerable space. What are some ways that you would say 3LL creates a welcoming, safe environment?
I don’t know if it’s because we meet at breweries and places like that—which helps people get out of their little social bubble—but I would definitely say, at least in my experience, that we’re just very welcoming to people of all different levels.
With everything that AI is doing with the media and news and society, how do you feel this affects the need for communities like 3LL?
So we definitely do not endorse the use of AI and I think the importance of meeting people in person is that you actually have a person to talk to and get feedback from. I’m not 100% sure of everything people use AI for, but I think that it’s not a replacement for having an actual person to sit there and critique you and talk with about your story. Also, just being around other artists helps you generate ideas. In our meetings, we all just talk for the first 10 to 15 minutes, and that’s when you’re forming relationships, you’re talking about ideas. That’s part of the reason why I stayed on so long. I get this creative spark from being around other writers. And that’s actually why I was open to being a part of the board and being one of the organizers—I instantly bought into the mission of not writing alone. A big part of it is that we want to make a community. We want to educate people too, but we also want to feel there’s a writing scene.
Yeah—I love that, and it’s very important! Can you tell me about the recurring Get Lit Series?
Essentially we show up, for the first 10 to 15 minutes people get seated, get their drinks, talk amongst themselves, and from there we’ll typically do three writing sprints where the entire goal is to not overthink—just sit there and write. Somebody will go up to the front and say, “I’m gonna set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes and write as much as you can throughout that time.” And that’s kind of the gist of it: write as much as you can for as long as you can and not think about it too much. Just get words on a page. And then [there’s time at] the end for people to talk about what they wrote. So there’s the social aspect and there’s also the getting work done aspect.
And you said that people can write about anything they want. Do you ever have themes of what people can write?
We do have an event, it’s a three-part thing called “Page to Stage” and that is themed. Whenever we typically have a workshop leader come in—always a published author who is local, who knows a lot about the genre, who’s published a lot in the genre—they’ll give you exercises. It’s a lot of education going on, but there’s also a generative aspect too, and most of the time people leave that night with a story of their own. So then the second step is an editorial workshop—that’s where you take the thing you just wrote and another workshop leader comes in and helps you edit it to be genre-specific. And then the third step is our Page to Stage: It’s where we take what you wrote, what you edited, and now you go up on the stage and you practice how you perform in front of people. It’s open to anybody, and you don’t even necessarily have to have been to the first two parts of it because we print out little short stories that you can read while you’re on stage. So you can still get the practice in. Another powerful component is that people can submit the stories they wrote throughout that three-part cycle and they can be randomly selected for what’s called Fiction Sessions, and that’s our quarterly reading series.
That’s cool!
Yeah, we’re very excited about that, we started that last year. And what I love about it is that it’s writers of different levels of experience. [For some] new writers, our Fiction Sessions is their first time ever reading. So we’re very democratic in that way. We’re not exclusive.
Adrian Van Young speaks at the Third Lantern 2025 gala at BK House (photo by Sophia Hodgson)
How do you determine what the genres or artists are going to be each series?
Our [director of event coordination, Michelle Kelleher] generates the ideas and then we all as a group come together and it takes on a life of its own from there.
I’m curious in general how, aside from participating in events, people can contribute to the topics?
Sometimes we have people reach out to us and say, “Hey, I have this workshop I would like to lead.”
Have you been able to collaborate with any nonprofits in the work you do?
Oh yeah, Tennessee Williams [Fest] is one of our biggest supporters and another fellow nonprofit literary organization. We recently, in November, partnered with Macmillan Publishers’ imprint called Tor Nightfire and we did an author Q&A with Philip Fracassi. We also partner with businesses too. We consider Blue Cypress to be a business partner and we’ve done a good bit of events with them at their place. Verret’s Lounge has donated alcohol to us for the past three galas and there’s Miel, Courtyard—I could name a thousand, and SPORTS DRINK [has] also been very generous with their space.
So the Gala! I know you just had one recently, in November? Is that a yearly thing?
That was our third annual one and 3LL has existed for about four years, but we’ve only been a nonprofit for about three—I want to say we got our certification in December 2022. As soon as we started, that year we became a nonprofit is the year we started doing our gala. And the last one was our biggest one yet—we had at least 100 people there, [and] readings with seven writers who are all local. And we view it to be just one big celebration of the writing community. The last gala felt more like a party. We had drinks, we had door prizes, we had a lovely space that BK House had donated to us for the night. People were dressed up all nice. The theme was the Bohemian Ball, so a lot of people in nice suits and dresses and gowns. It was good to see a lot of people from our events show up to the gala, and for other people who’ve been to our past events who just wanted to have the community.
So great! So, you accept donations through the website, you have your annual galas. Can you tell me a little bit more about priorities in where those donations go?
I would definitely say for spaces that we have. We do have people that are generous and do donate their space, but for Page to Stage and for the Fiction Sessions series we do have to pay for that space. Something we want to start this year is paying our workshop leaders an honorarium. So our highest priority for this year is going to be paying our workshop leaders.
Are there any other ways that people can either volunteer or contribute to the organization in some way that’s not financial?
We definitely need volunteers. We’ve grown a lot! We’ve had 75 events roughly in just this past year, which is a crazy amount of events being that we only had 53 in the first two years of our existence combined! We definitely need all the people power we can get. If anyone wants to volunteer, just reach out to us on Instagram or email us.
Has there been a workshop, whether that be an event or a certain series, maybe a certain artist, that’s really stuck out to you?
For me personally as a writer, I learn something different each workshop that we do, but the one I remember the best, because I was able to get a lot of writing done—like I actually left with a story idea—was when Michelle Kelleher led a workshop on world building and fantasy. I typically don’t write [that genre] but I actually did come up with an idea I really liked that night and she was very informative. And I’m not just saying that because we’re friends and on the board together. [laughs] I actually got something out of it!
Is there any advice you would give someone who is interested in writing but maybe doesn’t know where to start or is nervous about starting?
I would tell that person to find their people, find their group. [When] I found 3LL it wasn’t just a writing group for me anymore because I actually did make friends. And that’s whenever I felt as though my writing started to get better. I mean, I can’t really pathologize it, I’m not really sure why, per se. I think there’s something about being around like-minded people that can inspire you. So I would definitely say find your people in-person if that is an option for you! And if you’re nervous about starting writing in general, start with one word. It definitely does help to have people that are pushing you. We’ve had a lot of newcomers come to our organization and tell us that they’ve continued with their writing because of our event. It’s not like you’re trying to push a boulder up the hill by yourself—now you have people who are with you.
For more info about Third Lantern Lit, check out thirdlanternlit.org or @thirdlanternlit on Instagram and Discord.
Top photo: Danny Cherry Jr. hosts Get Lit at Miel Brewery on January 20 (photo by Katie Sikora)
