Submissions now being accepted for Gaines Award

Entries are now being accepted for the 13th annual Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. The deadline is Aug. 15. Information on criteria and entry forms for the award, which includes a $10,000 cash prize, is available at www.ernestjgainesaward.org.

Sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the Gaines Award was created to honor outstanding literary work from rising African-American authors while recognizing Louisiana native Ernest Gaines’s extraordinary contribution to the literary world. The upcoming Gaines Award will honor outstanding fiction – novels or short-story collections – published in 2019. Galleys for 2018 publications are also accepted.

A native of Pointe Coupee Parish, Mr. Gaines’ critically acclaimed novel, “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” was adapted into a 1974 made-for-TV movie that received nine Emmy awards. His 1993 book, “A Lesson Before Dying,” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. He is Writer-in-Residence Emeritus at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

The Gaines Award winner is chosen annually by a panel of professional writers and academics.

The award has found promising writers early in their careers. For instance, two previous Gaines Award winners have later won the $50,000 Whiting Award. Another was chosen a MacArthur Fellow, a $625,000 award given over five years.

Previous winners, starting with the latest, are Jamel Brinkley, Ladee Hubbard, Crystal Wilkinson, T. Geronimo Johnson, Mitchell Jackson, Attica Locke, Stephanie Powell Watts, Dinaw Mengestu, Victor Lavalle, Jeffery R. Allen, Ravi Howard and Olympia Vernon.

The Ernest Gaines Award event will be held Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020 at the Manship Theatre in downtown Baton Rouge.

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.

Gaines award submissions now being accepted

Ladee Hubbard

Entries are being accepted through Aug. 15 for the 12th annual Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, with the winner chosen by a panel of professional writers and academics. Sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the Gaines Award was created to honor outstanding literary work from rising African-American authors while recognizing Louisiana native Ernest Gaines’ extraordinary contribution to the literary world. The Gaines Award honors outstanding fiction – novels or short-story collections – published in 2018. Galleys for 2018 publications are also accepted. Information on criteria and entrance forms for the award, which includes a $10,000 cash prize, is available at www.ernestjgainesaward.org. The Ernest Gaines Award event will be held Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019 at the Manship Theatre in downtown Baton Rouge.

Today’s Faulkner Society Event
The Faulkner Society, Louisiana State Museum and the Faulkner House Books will host an afternoon with authors Ladee Hubbard and Zachary Lazar at 2 p.m. today, May 20, at the Presbytere in Jackson Square of New Orleans. Hubbard, who recently won the Ernest Gaines Prize and the Faulkner Society’s Gold Medal for Best Short Story, is the author of “The Talented Ribkins.” Lazar is the author of the new novel, “Vengeance.” The event is free and open to the public and includes complimentary refreshments. Books will be available for purchase. Advance RSVPs are required to receive passes for free admittance to the museum; email faulkhouse@aol.com or call (504) 524-2940.

Book events the week of May 20-31

Emilie “Lee” Leumas, director of Archives and Records for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, will discuss the history of the Ursulines at 7 p.m. Monday, May 21, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

Alexander Books, an independent bookseller in Lafayette, will debut Stories Matter, a live reading series with writers, beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 22. They are hoping to make this a monthly event where authors read and share excerpts of their work. Tuesday’s free event will feature author Patrick Holian, Leigh Camacho Rourks and Zack Godshall.

Walter C. Stern will discuss and launch his new book “Race and Education in New Orleans: Creating the Segregated City, 1764-1960” at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at Octavia Books of New Orleans.

Royd Anderson, a local documentarian who focuses on Louisiana history, will screen The Continental Grain Elevator Explosion at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 24, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie. The screening occurs as part of the regularly scheduled meeting of the Jefferson Parish Historical Society. The 30-minute documentary tells the story of the 1977 Westwego Continental Grain elevator explosion, which caused 36 people to lose their lives and remains the deadliest grain dust explosion of the modern era. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, though federal and state investigators at the time thought that the blast was caused by a buildup of grain that had not been moved because of a national dockworkers' strike that year. 

Genaro Ky Ly Smith and Clare Martin

On Friday, May 25, Clare L. Martin and Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith will read from their work and sign books beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Teche Center for the Arts in Breaux Bridge. The event is free, although donations are welcomed, and there will be a no-host bar. 

Martin’s second full-length collection of poetry, "Seek the Holy Dark," is the 2017 selection for The Louisiana Series of Cajun and Creole Poetry from Yellow Flag Press. Her debut collection of poetry, "Eating the Heart First," was published by Press 53. She founded and edits the online poetry magazine, MockingHeart Review. 

Smith is the author of "The Land Baron’s Sun: The Story of Lý Loc and His Seven Wives" (UL Press), which won the Indie Book Awards in 2015. His novel "The Land South of the Clouds," the second in the trilogy and reviewed by this blog, earned second place for multi-cultural fiction for the same award in 2017.  The third book, a collection of short stories and novellas entitled "The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born," will be published this fall.

Debut young adult author Mark Oshiro will discuss his book, “Anger is a Gift,” “in conversation” with author Daniel Jose Older at 6 p.m. Friday, May 25, at Octavia Books of New Orleans. Oshiro is the Hugo-nominated writer of the online "Mark Does Stuff" universe (Mark Reads and Mark Watches), where he analyzes books and TV series. He was the nonfiction editor of Queers Destroy Science Fiction!, the co-editor of Speculative Fiction 2015, and is the President of the Con or Bust Board of Directors. When not working Oshiro engages in social activism online and offline. Older is the New York Times bestselling author of "Salsa Nocturna," the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series from Penguin’s Roc Books and the Young Adult series the "Shadowshaper Cypher."

Tamalyn Dallal, author of “40 Days and 1001 Nights,” discusses the book as well as the basics of Middle Eastern dance at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 31, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.

Crystal Wilkinson wins 2016 Ernest Gaines Award

Kentucky writer, poet and educator Crystal Wilkinson’s novel, “Birds of Opulence,” has been named winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. The award will be presented to Wilkinson at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 19 at the Manship Theatre in downtown Baton Rouge. The ceremony is free and open to the public, although reservations are requested at gainesaward@braf.org. 

Now in its 10th year, the Gaines Award is a $10,000 prize handed out annually by Baton Rouge Area Foundation donors to recognize outstanding work from rising African-American fiction writers while honoring Louisiana native Ernest Gaines’ contribution to the literary world.

“Birds of Opulence” is Wilkinson’s first novel, although “Blackberries, Blackberries,” a collection of short stories, won the 2002 Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature and “Water Street,” another short-story collection, was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the U.K.’s Orange Prize for Fiction.

            Wilkinson earned a journalism degree from Eastern Kentucky University in 1985 and a master’s degree in fine arts for creative writing from Spalding University in Louisville. As an educator, she has taught creative writing at Eastern Kentucky, Indiana University-Bloomington and Morehead State University. Currently, she serves as writer in residence at Berea College in Kentucky.

            “Birds of Opulence” follows several generations of women in the Goode-Brown family in the fictional Southern black township of Opulence. The family is plagued by mental illness and illegitimacy, as well as the accompanying embarrassment. As younger generations watch their mothers and grandmothers pass on, they also fear going mad and must fight to survive.

The national panel of judges for the 2016 Gaines Award are: Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize winner for his 2003 novel, “The Known World;” Anthony Grooms, an author and creative writing professor at Kennesaw State University; author Elizabeth Nunez, professor of English at Hunter College-City University of New York; Francine Prose, author of more than 20 books, including “Blue Angel,” a nominee for the 2000 National Book Award; and Patricia Towers, former features editor for O, The Oprah Magazine and a founding editor of Vanity Fair magazine.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. She is also the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.