Poets Pelegrin and Fuller to read at Teche Center

Poets Alison Pelegrin and J Bruce Fuller will read from and sign their respective poetry collections at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the Teche Center for the Arts in Breaux Bridge. This event is free and donations welcome.

Alison Pelegrin is the author of four poetry collections, most recently "Waterlines" (LSU Press 2016). Her chapbook "Our Lady of the Flood" was a winner of the Diode chapbook prize and was published in 2018. Pelegrin is the recipient of individual fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and her recent work has appeared in Tin House, Poetry East, and The Bennington Review. Pelegrin teaches at Southeastern Louisiana University and lives in Covington with her family.

J. Bruce Fuller is a Louisiana native. His chapbooks include "The Dissenter's Ground," "Lancelot" and "Flood" and his poems have appeared at The Southern Review, Crab Orchard Review, McNeese Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Louisiana Literature, among others. He has received scholarships from Bread Loaf, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Stanford University, where he was a 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow. He is currently acquisitions editor at Texas Review Press.

For more information, visit the event's Facebook page here.

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.

Exciting new releases by Louisiana authors

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.

Longtime journalist Jim Bradshaw shares his years of stories with 'Cajuns and Other Characters'

            One of my finest memories working as features editor at The Advertiser years ago was listing to then columnist Jim Bradshaw explain how to pronounce his column, “C’est Vrai,” to our executive editor who hailed from Indiana.

            “Ray is drowning,” Bradshaw told her. “Save Ray!”

            If only all French expressions were that easy to explain.

            But it’s a prime example of Bradshaw’s creativity and humor, which he brings to his latest book, “Cajuns and Other Characters: True Stories from South Louisiana,” published by Pelican Publishing of New Orleans. The stories, that run the gamut from preachers to politicians, are gleaned from his “C’est Vrai” columns, and as you burrow further into the book you’ll realize, as I had in my newsroom days, that Bradshaw knows everything about everything!

            Bradshaw, by the way, worked in South Louisiana journalism for almost 50 years and won the Hal Boyle Award and the Prix de Louisiane, the latter given by the Council for Development of French in Louisiana for his writing about Cajun culture. 

New releases

Alison Pelegrin, a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, has published a collection of poetry titled “Waterlines” that resonated with my Louisiana soul. Published by LSU Press, I particularly loved “Hurricane Saint,” feeling that humid summer air behind plywood-bound windows, and the haunting “Healing Waters of Abita Springs.” Pelegrin has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

            Lisa Graley, assistant professor of English and humanities at UL-Lafayette, has published a captivating collection of Southern short stories titled “The Current That Carries,” published by the University of Georgia Press. Graley is the winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the author of the book of poetry, “Box of Blue Horses.” Robert Olen Butler said, “ ‘The Current That Carries’ is profoundly in touch with the ways the world can reveal transcendent grace through the simplest things, the humblest things, even in the quotidian clutter of modern life and culture…Lisa Graley is truly an important new writer.”

Ready for the holidays? “Holiday Temptation,” a collection of three Christmas love stories by Farrah Rochon of South Louisiana, Donna Hill and K.M. Jackson is now available. Rochon is a USA Today best-selling author and she will be one of several authors talking about ebooks (“Holiday Temptation” is in both ebook and print formats) at the Louisiana Book Festival Oct. 29 in Baton Rouge along with Lori Leger, Nancy Duplechain, Julie Smith and yours truly.

Ebooks

            Speaking of ebooks…I was delighted to learn that best-selling authors Erica Spindler and Haley North of New Orleans (actually St. Tammany Parish) have published their backlists as ebooks, along with new titles. And Trish Leger, who lives in South Louisiana, has published a romantic novella titled “Her Southern Temptation,” part of the Legacy Falls Romance Project. 

Writing contests

Students in grades 3-12 from across Acadiana are invited to participate in a writing contest sponsored by the Acadiana Writing Project and the Festival of Words. Students can enter original writing pieces into three writing categories of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. Writings should be submitted through a supervising teacher or school facilitator by sending them to kayla_menard@saintmartinschools.org. Parental permission must be granted by filling out the student writing contest entry form.  Awards will be given for first, second and third place winners. Contest winners will also receive an anthology of winning entries.

Final deadline for online submissions is Oct. 21.

The annual Festival of Words literary event will be Saturday, Nov. 5, in Grand Coteau. All entrants are invited to attend the festival and contest winners will be invited to read their original writing pieces on the festival’s Community Stage. For more information, visit www.festivalofwords.org.

Entries are now being accepted for the inaugural South Louisiana chapter of Romance Writers of America anthology. Stories must be Mardi Gras themed, set in New Orleans and have a romantic element. Word length is 2500–7500 words. Deadline is Nov. 1. Entry fee is $20 with all proceeds going toward SOLA’s programming and events. Stories will be selected by a panel of judges with an eye for quality writing and a variety of writing styles and genres. For more information, visit www.solawriters.org.

The On the Wall – First Page Contest is open to anyone who registers for the November Bridge to Publication Conference hosted by the Bayou Writers Group of Lake Charles. Only the first 20 entries who have both registered and properly formatted their submissions will be accepted. For the entry, each author should submit his/her best first page of a novel, short story, etc., as a typed, double-spaced page using 12-pt Times New Roman font. It should consist of no more than 250 words. The entry which receives the most votes at the conference wins, and its author will receive free admission to the 2017 conference as well as other prizes. 

The deadline of submissions is Nov. 1 and there is no entry fee. Send all entries to chalkiewoolwich@yahoo.com. For more information on the conference and contest, Visit http://bayouwritersgroup.com/on-the-wall-contest-2016/.

Book events

Claire Manes discusses her book, “Out of the Shadow of Leprosy: The Carville Letters and Stories of the Landry Family” from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Alexandre Mouton House/Lafayette Museum in downtown Lafayette. For information, call (337) 234-2208.

Barry Ancelet and artist Denise Gallagher will dicuss their book, Jean-le-Chasseur et ses Chiens, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Downtown Lafayette Public Library. The event is part of the CLS-sponsored Bayou State Book Talks series.

Bessie Senette will read and sign copies of her new book, “Cutting the Clouds: a Bayou Mystic’s Poems, Musings, and Imaginings,” at 4 p.m. Saturday at Artique in Breaux Bridge.

Reading between the Wines, a readers' social that involves wine, will be from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Conundrum Bookstore in St. Francisville.

            Diana Emmons and Judd Matt will read as part of the Thursday Night Reading presented by the UL-Lafayette English Department, EGSA and Sigma Tau Delta at 7 p.m. Thursday at Poets, 1043 Johnston St. in Lafayette.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country.” She writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.