I’ve only missed the Louisiana Book Festival once, and it poured. I’m sure it was because I wasn’t there. Seriously, every year at the festival the weather is sparkling gorgeous and this year was no different. Even though the temperatures were unusually low due to a cold front, the sun emerged after a day of rain and the sky was breathtaking.
There were many highlights for me, mainly being honored to moderate two panels full of exceptional mystery and fantasy authors. Reviews of their books coming soon. I also spoke with Emile Waagenaar of the Netherlands, who heard Cajun music in his homeland and traveled to Louisiana to witness and photograph this unique sound. He would meet someone at a dancehall or concert who would introduce him to a musician, then another, and another. Over time, and more trips to Louisiana, Waagenaar photographed numerous musicians as black and white photographs that make up “Arrete pas la musique! Portraits of South Louisiana.” This gorgeous coffee table book, with a foreword by Ann Savoy, could be the hit of this year’s holiday giving. Definitely, check it out.
I also got to hang with Paul Schexnayder and Denise Gallagher, two South Louisiana artists who have authored children’s books. Schexnayder of New Iberia created a painting of a Trojan horse, a king and a blue monkey and pondered their story while it hung on the wall. The result is the whimsical “In the Time of Joy and Wonder,” which celebrates the discovery of a tree seedling that grows into a live oak tree with the care of the three explorers. It reads like the tale continues. Let’s hope so.
Denise Gallagher of Lafayette, who has illustrated books and worked with designers and advertisers, has produced her own story with “A Tip Tap Tale,” the adorable story of BouZou, a hound dog who loves to perform in the swamps of Louisiana. BouZou makes it big and travels to New Orleans but he never forgets his roots.
I came home with a pile of books to read, which you’ll hear about soon enough.
LSU Press
LSU Press has a few new titles out this fall, including “Robert E. Lee’s Louisiana Infantrymen, Reconsidered” by Civil War scholar Terry L. Jones, professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and author or editor of many books on the Civil War, including “The Civil War Memoirs of Captain William J. Seymour” and “Campbell Brown’s Civil War.” Jones’ book examines the 12,000 Louisiana infantrymen who fought with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, a group which earned a reputation for being drunken and riotous in camp but courageous and dependable on the battlefield.
Kathryn K. Fontenot, an assistant professor and extension associate with the LSU AgCenter’s School of Plant, Environmental and Social Sciences, offers a guide for everything you need to plant a Louisiana garden in “The Louisiana Urban Gardener.”
Richard Campanella, a geographer with the Tulane School of Architecture and author of nearly 200 articles about New Orleans and 10 books, has published “Cityscapes of New Orleans,” explaining the why behind the iconic elements of the city, such as the origins of faubourgs, the strange street grid and why shotguns exist next to mansions.
300 years of New Orleans history
The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, in partnership with New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation and the 2018 NOLA Foundation, has published “New Orleans and the World: 1718-2018 Tricentennial Anthology.” The book will serve as a centerpiece for the yearlong celebrations of New Orleans’ 300th anniversary in 2018. Contributors include Campanella, Emily Clark, Lawrence N. Powell, Michael White, Sally Reeves, Keith Weldon Medley, Alison Fensterstock, Daniel Usner and Freddi Williams Evans, with forewords by Leah Chase and Walter Isaacson. Copies of the book are $60 plus tax and shipping. Proceeds from the sale of the book support free public programs in New Orleans during 2018.
Book news
Meagan Cass, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction for her story collection, “ActivAmerica,” to be published this month by University of North Texas Press. Cass is an assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois Springfield, where she is a co-curator of the Shelterbelt Reading Series, edits Shelterbelt Books and serves as an assistant editor for Sundress Publications. She is the author of the fiction chapbook “Range of Motion.”
Book events
Lynne Farwell White, author of “Giving and Gifts: The Art of Thoughtful Giving,” will sign copies of the book at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Garden District Book Shop of New Orleans. Also at the bookstore is Joel Dinerstein, author of “The Origins of Cool in Postwar America,” in conversation with Maurice Carlos Ruffin at 6 p.m. Thursday.
The Ernest J. Gaines Center will host a book talk with author Dr. Ernest J. Gaines about his newest book, the novella “The Tragedy of Brady Sims,” at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Oliver Hall Auditorium of the Dupre Library on the UL-Lafayette campus. This event is free and open to the public.
Louisiana Poet Laureate Jack Bedell will host a poetry workshop beginning at 6 p.m. Friday at the Paul & Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum on the UL-Lafayette campus. The event is $25 for non-members, $20 members. Participants will engage in writing activities and discussion of their own work as well as that of fellow poets.
Historian Ronald J. Drez of New Orleans will discuss and sign copies of his book “Predicting Pearl Harbor: Billy Mitchell and the Path to War” at noon Saturday at Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge. Drez serves as the chief historian for Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours.
Louisiana Book News is written by journalist Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and paranormal mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. The first books in her award-winning series are FREE as ebooks! For more information and to sign up for her newsletter visit www.cherieclaire.net.
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