LSU
Press has released the paperback edition of “Acadian Odyssey,” the 1955 book by
Oscar William Winzerling that details the history of the Acadian expulsion. Winzerling,
a Roman Catholic priest and educator who received his Ph.D. in history from the
University of California–Berkeley, uncovered and researched documents in
European national and private archives to explain the story of the expulsion of
the Acadians from their homeland in Nova Scotia and the subsequent journey
through America, England and France that led them to Louisiana. The
new edition includes a foreword by Carl A. Brasseaux, Acadian history, author
of more than 30 books and a former history professor at the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette.
New releases
Idealist
Jay Mize believes he can start an organic farm among the Mississippi hills and
throws his passion and finances into a farm beside a river. When the river
floods his land and Mize loses everything, his wife leaves him and he struggles
to stay alive. In the midst of his now paranoid agony, Mize discovers a dead
body on his flooded fields and hides the body instead of reporting it to the
authorities. Such begins Jamie Kornegay’s debut novel, “Soil,” deemed “the
arrival of an exquisitely deranged new voice to American fiction” by author
Jonathan Milles. Kornegay will read from and sign his haunting gothic Southern
novel at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans.
L.
Kevin Coleman became a flamenco guitarist at 17, performing for José Greco
and his Spanish dance company, then attended the Royal Conservatory of Music.
He graduated Tulane Law School in 1979 and has practiced law in New Orleans
ever since. Coleman has published a novel, “Different Springs,” and he will
offer a flamenco guitar presentation accompanied by a flamenco dancer, plus a
reading and signing of his book at 6 p.m. Saturday at Octavia Books in New
Orleans.
Gaines Award
Writers, freshen up the keyboard!
Entries are now being accepted for the ninth annual Ernest J. Gaines Award for
Literary Excellence, an award that includes a $10,000 cash prize. Sponsored by
Baton Rouge Area Foundation donors, the Gaines Award honors outstanding fiction
(novels or short-story collections) from rising African-American authors in
honor of Louisiana native Gaines’ contribution to the literary world. The 2014 winner was Mitchell S.
Jackson for “The Residue Years,” which was also named an Honor Book by the
Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
Previous award winners include “The Cutting Season” by
Attica Locke, “We Are Taking Only What We Need” by Stephanie Powell Watts,
who also won a Whiting Writers’ Award and “How to Read the Air” by Dinaw
Mengestu, who was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2012. Entries will be accepted through
Aug. 15. For more information, visit www.ernestjgainesaward.org.
Louisiana Book News is written by
Cheré Coen, the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom
Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “ExploringCajun Country: A
Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding
Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.
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