Clare Martin to present 'Crone' dramatic reading

Clare Martin

WHAT: Crone: a Dramatic Reading

WHEN: Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Teche Center for the Arts, 210 E. Bridge Street, Breaux Bridge

ADMISSION: $5 to benefit Teche Center of the Arts

Teche Center for the Arts presents a dramatic reading of poet Clare L. Martin’s newly-published book, “Crone” at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan 25, in Breaux Bridge. The stage will be set to explore mystical womanhood and the supernatural and natural worlds. Crone visits the cycles of life in its narrative through the voice of the Crone and the voice of her maiden apprentice. Bessie Senette will embody the “Crone” and Clare L. Martin will appear as the “Maiden” who learns secrets of life, birth, the body, spirit, and death that only the Crone possesses. Copies of “Crone” will be available for purchase and a book-signing will follow the performance.

Bessie Senette

Light hors-d'oeuvres will be served. Beer, wine and sodas will be available for purchase at the no-host bar. Admission is $5, which supports TCA’s mission to educate and enliven through arts, educational programs and the preservation and promotion of Cajun and Creole culture. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

Praise for “Crone,” available from Nixes Mate Books:

“Clare Martin’s ‘Crone’ is a feast for eyes and ears, seductive in its use of both imagery and sound. Celebrating the sometimes terrifying, sometimes life-giving teachings of the wise woman, Crone evokes a woman’s coming-to-power, an epic “cronesong” of spells and potions in the form of poetry.”  —Sheryl St. Germain, author of The Small Door of Your Death.

“Clare Martin’s ‘Crone’ glows equal parts magic, music, and muscle. Her lines are laced with ambergris and jasmine, ghosts and wolfbreath. I would call Martin’s art a gorgeous dream, but that would ignore the blood, bone, and heart that drive this book at its core. Crone is the creation of a poet at the height of her powers, in full voice, and mesmerizing. Immerse yourselves in these lines, friends. You’ll rise from their waters cleansed and awed.”—Jack B. Bedell, author of No Brother, This Storm, Poet Laureate, State of Louisiana, 2017-2019

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“Clare L. Martin is a mysterious spellcaster. ‘Crone’ is a lush and dizzying monster of a poem. Coming through it made me see the world anew.”—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of House of Broken Angels

For more information, contact Sandra Sarr or Clare Martin at (337) 205-2279 or info@techecenterforthearts.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.

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.

New Orleans investigative journalist Ethan Brown revisits Jeff Davis 8 in stirring new book

            The deaths of eight women in Jefferson Davis Parish between 2005 and 2009 have been the subject of many news outlets, including CNN and the New York Times. In 2014, New Orleans investigative journalist Ethan Brown published a long-form article on Medium.com titled “Who Killed the Jeff Davis 8?” that caused quite a stir, eluding that law enforcement officials in Jennings and Lake Arthur were involved in a sex and drug operation that resulted in those women’s deaths.

            Naturally, the fallback was intense. Brown was warned about taking the research further. He ignored that advice and his book “Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?” hit bookshelves Tuesday.

            “One of my contacts in southwest Louisiana who is deeply connected to the case told me, ‘I’ve already heard more than once that you’ll never get that book out.  You can take that however you want to. But is that book worth your life?’” Brown relates in the book.

            Once again, Brown suggests that the homicides were not the work of a serial killer but the fallout of Jenning’s sex and drug trade, linked to police involvement.

            The book offers in great detail through hundreds of hours of interviews and thousands of public records obtained by Brown that an elaborate system of corruption occurred and is possibly still occurring in Jefferson Davis Parish. He shows us the lives of the eight women and others who have died, pieces together information gleaned from witnesses and interviews and produces a disturbing scenario of crime and injustice. He also suggests that Rep. Charles Boustany, a current candidate for the Senate, had links to the owner of the hotel where crimes occurred.

            It’s a complicated web of intrigue and murder and one that will haunt you long after you put the book down. Why nothing has been done to those accused is even more frightening.

John Berendt, author of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” says this of the book: “Ethan Brown’s daring and dangerous exposé uncovers a murky inferno of violence and corruption in south Louisiana, where it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and the brutal murders of eight prostitutes go unpunished, though not necessarily unsolved.”

            Brown will be discussing and signing his book at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, at Octavia Books of New Orleans.

New releases

Patricia M. Gaitley was fascinated by the rich culture found in James Lee Burke novels featuring Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux. She studied his novels and their sense of place while getting a Ph.D. at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Gaitley discusses Burke’s rich examination of South Louisiana folkways in “Robicheaux’s Roots: Culture and Tradition in James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux Novels,” published by LSU Press.

“In creating Dave Robicheaux, Burke provides his readers with not only a character, but a culture,” Gaitley writes in the book’s introduction.

            Gaitley will be speaking on her book Oct. 29 at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge and the One Book One Festival section will be “Creole Belle,” a Dave Robicheaux mystery by Burke.

Bessie Senette of Lafayette has published “Cutting the Clouds: a Bayou Mystic’s Poems, Musings, and Imaginings,” an autobiographical collection of poems and essays about the life and culture of her bayou upbringing and the spirituality that informs her traditional healing gifts. Read more about her at https://thebayoumystic.com.

            Tallulah Caibre of Brooklyn, Miss., has a gift, although it’s not as strong as the rest of the family’s talents. It’s because of these quirky abilities that the town’s residents dare not come too close, especially after tragedy strikes and Tallulah realizes her talents are more than she imagined, in Em Shotwell’s gothic Southern novel, “Blackbird Summer.” Shotwell lives in South Louisiana where she writes “Southern-fried fantasy and magical realism.”

National Book Festival

            The 16th Library of Congress National Book Festival, the nation’s largest free book festival, will be Saturday in Washington, D.C. Representing Louisiana is children’s book author Johnette Downing who has just published an adorable book tied with the New Orleans Pelicans NBA Team and Audubon Nature Institute titled “Petit Pierre and the Floating Marsh.” The book is illustrated by Heather Stanley and helps children learn about the beauty and importance of Louisiana’s wetlands. Downing will be discussing and signing her book at 9 a.m. at the festival.

            Other authors participating include civil rights legend and graphic novelist Rep. John Lewis, NBA superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Caldecott Award-winning artist and writer Jerry Pinkney, documentarian Ken Burns, New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, rising star Yaa Gyasi, best-selling thriller writer Harlan Coben, Mexican novelist Álvaro Enrigue, historian Candice Millard, best-selling novelist Kristin Hannah, New Yorker cultural critic Adam Gopnik, Moroccan-born novelist Laila Lalami and two-time Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry.

For more information, visit loc.gov/bookfest/.

 

Book events

Jack McGuire will talk about his new book, “Win the Race or Die Trying: Uncle Earl’s Last Hurrah,” about Earl Long's successful 1960 campaign for Louisiana's Eighth Congressional District seat, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at South Regional Branch Library in Lafayette.

            Leigh Camacho Rourks and Caitlin Vance 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.

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.