Tulane professor, geographer and author Richard Campanella chosen for 2019 Louisiana Writer Award

Tulane University School of Architecture professor Richard Campanella has been selected as the recipient of the 20th Annual Louisiana Writer Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to documenting Louisiana’s history, culture, and people. He will be honored with this award at the opening ceremony of the Louisiana Book Festival Nov. 2 at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge.

  

Originally from Brooklyn, Campanella is the author of 10 books and 200 publications on Louisiana and New Orleans geography. His works include “Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans” (University of Louisiana Press, 2008), which the New York Review of Books described as “the single best history of the city….masterful.” His biggest project, “Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm” (University of Louisiana Press, 2006), which he says “took five years and weighs five pounds,” came out just after Hurricane Katrina. “Stunning in its analytical precision[,] wrote The Times-Picayune; “filled with photographs, maps, timelines and beautifully written essays[;] it is, indeed, difficult to imagine just how much painstaking research went into this book…. ‘Geographies of New Orleans’ is a powerful [and] dazzling book, unparalleled in its scope, precision, clarity and detail.”

Campanella is the only two-time winner of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year Award. Other awards include the Louisiana Literary Award, the Williams Prize, the Malcolm Heard Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Hannah Arendt Prize for Public Scholarship, and the Tulane Honors Professor of the Year Award. In 2016, the Government of France named Campanella as Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques. 

Further information regarding Richard Campanella, visit www.richcampanella.com.

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.