St. Germain to receive 2018 Louisiana Writer Award

Louisiana native Sheryl St. Germain has been selected as the recipient of the 19th annual Louisiana Writer Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to Louisiana letters and cultural life. She will receive the award at this year's Louisiana Book Festival on Saturday, Nov. 10, in Baton Rouge.

St. Germain is the author of five books of poetry, including her most recent publication, “The Small Door of Your Death,” which chronicles the loss of her only son to heroin addiction. She has also published two memoirs, “Swamp Songs: The Making of an Unruly Woman” and “Navigating Disaster: Sixteen Essays of Love and a Poem of Despair.” A new collection of essays, “Fifty Miles,” is forthcoming in Spring 2020.

St. Germain is the recipient of several awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship, the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, the Ki Davis Award from the Aspen Writers Foundation, and the William Faulkner Award for the personal essay. She has taught creative writing at numerous universities and colleges including The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and currently directs the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing at Chatham University in Pennsylvania where she also teaches creative nonfiction and poetry.

“My earliest poems and essays were inspired by the culture and nature of south Louisiana,” said St. Germain. “From the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain to the Atchafalaya Basin the landscape of Louisiana nurtured me as child and adult, and provided hope and a deep sense of history and belonging even when there were darker forces at work in our culture. I’ve written works celebrating the food, the music, and the passion for joy found in the people here, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say I owe my vocation as writer to Louisiana.”

Both Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser and State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton will be in attendance to present St. Germain with the 2018 Louisiana Writer Award on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. at the opening ceremony of the Louisiana Book Festival at the State Capitol. For more information on St. Germain and her work, visit http://www.louisianabookfestival.org/louisiana_writer_award.html.

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.