UNO's Anne Boyd Rioux chosen for Humanities award

University of New Orleans English professor Anne Boyd Rioux, author of "Reading Little Women: The History of An American Classic," received a Public Scholar award from the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of 36 writers in the country to do so. She will receive a grant of $50,400, the maximum amount given through the award program (grants range from $25,200 to $50,400) that promotes the publication of scholarly nonfiction books for a general audience. Other grants recipients include Pulitzer Prize-winner Diane McWhorter, who is working on a book about the Moon landing and the civil rights era in Huntsville, Ala.; National Book Award-winner Kevin Boyle; National Book Award-winner Edward Ball, writing a biography of his great-great grandfather and Nicholas Basbanes, an independent scholar and author of “Cross of Snow: The Love Story and Lasting Legacy of American Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).” You can read more about Rioux winning the award in The Times-Picayune or in The Washington Post article.

Rioux is a professor of English at UNO and president of the Woolson Society. She is the author of "Wielding the Pen: Writings on Authorship by American Women of the Nineteenth Century," "Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist,” “Miss Grief and Other Stories” and “Writing for Immortality.”

Chere Dastugue Coen is the author of "Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History," "Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana" and "Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana" and co-author of "Magic's in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets." She also writes Louisiana romances under Cherie Claire, including "A Cajun Dream" and "The Letter." Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.