One of the true joys of writing this blog is meeting authors who I admire and watching their success and seeing writers that I love produce books of their hearts.
Margaret Simon of New Iberia has been writing for years and is a multi-published author but she’s also a gifted teacher and we mean that in both senses of the title. She’s been working for 31 years as an elementary school teacher, most recently teaching gifted students in Iberia Parish. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting her classroom and it's clear her love of creativity and literature has spread to her eager students.
Simon has just published “Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape,” a charming poetic journey that introduces readers to Louisiana life, then encourages them to write their own tales, draw their own renditions. I’m sure the focus of this small but inspiring book is on children as well as teachers looking for creative writing prompts, but I believe all ages will love exploring its pages.
“Any child who has this book has a sourcebook, field guide, workbook, nature guide, and a wonderful set of poems that teach everything a beginning poet needs to know…” wrote former Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque.
“Bayou Song,” published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, was selected to represent Louisiana in the “52 Great Reads” children’s book program at this year’s National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Viola Fontenot lands in the second category. Vi has been in my life writing (memoir) class for many years and wrote a series of stories growing up during the Great Depression on the Cajun Prairie near Church Point, Louisiana. Her family struggled with simple necessities, things we take for granted, such as indoor plumbing and affording new shoes. Her stories, although heartbreaking at times, also showcase the joie de vivre of Cajun life — the lively music and dances, the rich culture, growing up bilingual, and living close to the land.
Fontenot’s stories were published this summer by the University Press of Mississippi as “A Cajun Girl’s Sharecropping Years.” The publisher aims the title at young adult audiences but it’s fascinating for adults as well.
David Cheramie, CEO of the Bayou Vermilion District and former executive director of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, said this about the book: “With ‘A Cajun Girl’s Sharecropping Years,’ Viola Fontenot offers us not a glimpse, but a panoramic view of rural Cajun life on the cusp of a radical transformation, from scratching out a meager living on the fertile fields and bayous of southwest Louisiana to the promise of modern life in mid-20th-century America. Many scholarly books and articles have been written about the Americanization of the Cajuns, but never before have we had such a passionate and elegant first-hand account of what those changes felt like to someone who lived through them. Fontenot tells an un-romanticized tale of the struggles, heartbreak, and simple joys of growing up the daughter of hard-working, hard-living sharecropper. It is above all the true story of Cajun culture’s survival in spite of much adversity.”
Fontenot will sign copies from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at Books Along the Teche, 106 E. Main St. in New Iberia.
I had the pleasure of meeting Sami Parbhoo and learning of both his books and travels. Parbhoo lives in Lafayette now but has lived, worked and traveled throughout the world. He believes in the educational power that traveling offers a person.
“Traveling can make us humble and not so rigid in our ways, for there are many ways of living, many solutions to the world’s problems, many lessons to be learned,” he writes in his book, “Travels in the Seven Directions.”
The book is a fictional collection of stories following Yonotan “Yono” Ekzista in his travels around the world, experiences based on Parbhoo’s own travels. The book is peppered with colorful photos of his travels as well.
Other new releases
Amos Wright of Alabama, who now calls New Orleans home, has written a debut book of literary fiction titled “Nobody Knows How it Got This Good,” published by Livingston Press of the University of West Alabama. Kirkus calls the collection of contemporary Southern stories, “a finely crafted collection that perfectly evokes a place and culture.”
Alison Pelegrin, who teaches at Southeastern Louisiana University, has published the chapbook “Our Lady of the Flood” with Diode Editions. Pelegrin is the author of four poetry collections, most recently “Waterlines” with LSU Press. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, recent work of hers appears in The Southern Review, The Cincinnati Review and Image.
Douglas Villien Sr., a native of Abbeville and resident of Baton Rouge, who has written books about Maurice and Baton Rouge, has published “Des Montagnes aux Prairies: From Mountains to Prairies,” a bilingual short history of Maurice. His work has been featured in numerous regional publications.
Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "Emilie," book one of The Cajun Series, "Ticket to Paradise," book one of The Cajun Embassy series and "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.
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