Like
many college students, interests in other parts of campus turn into careers.
And so it was with John Slaughter, who studied English at Northwestern in
Chicago but frequented the film department. Over time he honed his photography
skills, and after returning from a trip to Guatemala looked for a new place to
live in his home state of Louisiana.
His
wife found a teaching job in Grand Coteau and Slaughter began both a
photography practice and a job at the Opelousas Daily World. In 1983, he and
his wife opened The Kitchen Shop in Grand Coteau, then Catahoula’s Restaurant,
known for its vibrant, oversized photos of Catahoula dogs.
Slaughter
has published a photographic tribute to the town he calls home titled “Grand
Coteau” (UL Press), with photos of the historic town spanning 35 years (1977-2012).
The book spotlights historic structures such as St. Charles Jesuit College and
St. Charles Borromeo Church, but also the restoration of homes, street scenes,
barnstormers, porch cats, barn billboards, fields and countryside and a host of
the town’s residents.
Patrice
Melnick, who owns Casa Azul in Grand Coteau and organizer of the annual
literary Festival of Words, has written the introduction and captions to the
photos. She interviewed many of the people spotlighted in the book, providing
fascinating insights into one of Louisiana’s jewels.
A
book release party and a presentation by Slaughter, who will discuss his vision
and process as a photographer, will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday at Catahoula’s
Restaurant, 234 Martin Luther King Drive in Grand Coteau. Special guests
will share oral narratives about Grand Coteau and there will be light
refreshments and books available for sale. For information, call Melnick at
(337) 662-1032 or email casa.azul.gc@gmail.com.
Gaines Award
The
Baton Rouge Area Foundation has named Stephanie Powell Watts winner of the 2012
Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for her novel “We Are Taking
Only What We Need.”
The
award will be presented to Watts on Jan. 18, 2013, at the Manship Theatre in
Baton Rouge. The ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. followed by a reception. Both
events are free and open to the public, though seating is limited and
reservations are required for this cocktail-attire event; contact Jessica Boone
at gainesaward@braf.org or
(225) 387-6126.
The
Gaines Award includes a $10,000 cash prize and honors outstanding work from
rising African-American authors while recognizing Gaines’ contribution to the
literary world.
Published
by BkMk Press, “We Are Taking Only What We Need” is a collection of short
stories chronicling the lives of African-Americans in rural North Carolina. The
book is Watts’ first and was named a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN
Award, the John Gardner Fiction Award, the USA Book News Award and the ForeWord
Reviews Award.
Watts
is a faculty member at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. She earned a
bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and a Ph.D.
from the University of Missouri.
Judges
for the 2012 Gaines Award were Thomas Beller, award-winning author and
professor of creative writing at Tulane University; Anthony Grooms, an author
and creative writing professor at Kennesaw State University; Phillip Lopate,
author and recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, two National
Endowment for the Arts grants and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants;
Francine Prose, author of more than 20 books, including “Blue Angel,” a nominee
for the 2000 National Book Award; and Patricia Towers, former features editor
for O: The Oprah Magazine and a founding editor of Vanity Fair magazine.
Dupré sale
The
Friends of Dupré Library Annual Book Sale will be Nov. 8 through 10 on the
first floor of the Edith Garland Dupré Library, 400 E. St. Mary Blvd. on the
UL-Lafayette campus. Hardcover books will be sold for $1 and paperbacks 50
cents. The sale also includes LPs and other recordings, priced at $1 for
singles and $2 for sets.
The
book sale will be 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Nov. 8 and 9, and 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10. Friends of the Library and UL faculty and
staff are invited to a preview from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7.
For
more information, call (337) 482-6677.
New releases
Dr.
Roger Carpenter, associate professor of history at the University of Louisiana
at Monroe, recently published “American Indian History Day by Day: A Reference
Guide to Events.” The book lists historical events in American Indian history,
and the day that each event occurred.
“The
Mi’kmaq Anthology Volume 2: In Celebration of the Life of Rita Joe,” edited by
Theresa Meuse, Lesley Choyce and Julia Swan, has been published by Pottersfield
Press of Nova Scotia. The Mi’kmaq Native Americans inhabited Nova Scotia and
other parts of the Canadian Maritimes, and came in contact with the Acadians.
“The
Delta Queen Cookbook: The History and Recipes of the Legendary Steamboat” by Cynthia
Lejeune Nobles, published by LSU Press, features 125 recipes
prepared by the steamboat’s former chefs during their tenures onboard.
Ernestine
Triplett, a native of Larose and now resident of Breaux Bridge, has published a
memoir titled “Story of a Broken Handmaiden,” set within the communities of
southeast Louisiana. The book is available as an ebook.
Angela Quezada Bertone of
Ponchatoula, a speaker and leader of spiritual retreats for women, has
published a spiritual self-help book titled “Good Morning Sunshine.” The book
is available on her web site www.angelabertone.com, most online bookstores and
at the Sonlife Christian Bookstore in Hammond.
Book events
Katherine
Soniat will read from and sign her sixth collection of poetry, “A Raft, A Boat,
A Bridge,” at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the University of New Orleans Sandbar in
New Orleans. This event is free and open to the public. Soniat’s “The Swing
Girl,” published by LSU Press, was selected as Best Collection of 2011 by the Poetry
Council of North Carolina and “A Shared Life” won the Iowa Poetry Prize. Her
work has appeared recently in Women’s Review of Books, Hotel Amerika, and
Crazyhorse. Soniat teaches in the Great Smokies Writers Program at
UNC-Asheville.
Last
week I mentioned Peggy Sweeney-McDonald’s new book, “Meanwhile, Back at Café du
Monde.” Sweeney-McDonald and local
contributor Chef Jay Ducote will be appearing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at
the Kitchenary at Heymann’s, 456 Heymann Blvd. in the Oil Center of Lafayette.
Michael
Allen Zell will sign copies of “Errata” from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday,
followed by a reading and signing from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Faubourg Marigny
Bookshop in New Orleans.
Ron
Thibodeaux will sign “Hell or High Water: How Cajun Fortitude Withstood
Hurricanes Rita and Ike” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, at the main Terrebonne
Parish Library.
Cheré Coen is the author
of “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of
“Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She
teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at
chere@louisianabooknews.com.
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