William Joyce to be honored as Humanist of the Year by Louisiana Endownment for Humanities

Author, illustrator, and pioneer in the digital and animation industry William Joyce will be honored as the 2017 Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. The award is given annually by the state's humanities council as part of its efforts to recognize the individuals and organizations making invaluable contributions to the culture of Louisiana. Joyce will be honored on Thursday at the 2017 LEH Bright Lights Awards Dinner at the Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge. The event is open to the public, and tickets start at $150.

In 2009, Joyce co-founded Moonbot Studios, a multimedia storytelling company in Shreveport, exploring books, apps, films and video games. The studio's projects have won numerous awards and accolades, including an Oscar for Best Animated Short for “The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore,” Annie Award, multiple Webby and Emmy awards and inclusion in the iTunes App Store Hall of Fame. Since beginning his career as children's book author and illustrator, Joyce has nearly 50 books to his credit.

The LEH will also recognize the following writers:

Humanities Books Awards goes to Shane K. Bernard, author of “Teche: A History of Louisiana’s Most Famous Bayou” and “Hard Scrabble to Hallelujah, Volume 1: Legacies of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana” by Christopher Everette Cenac with Claire Domangue Joller, both published by the University Press of Mississippi.

The Light Up for Literacy Award goes to Richard Louth, a professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University and founding director of the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project.

The Lifetime Contribution to the Humanities will be awarded to author, editor and archivist Susan Tucker, who served as Curator of Books and Records at the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women from 1988 to 2015.

Bayou State Book Talk

Historian John Troutman will discuss his new book “Kīkā Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the downtown branch of the Lafayette Public Library, part of the Bayou State Book Talks. Troutman has taught courses in public history, American music history and indigenous studies at UL-Lafayette. He recently accepted a new position as Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. His first book, “Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934,” won the Western History Association’s biennial 2011 W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for a first book on any aspect of the American West.

‘Garden Legacy’

The Historic New Orleans Collection, known for its publication of gorgeous coffee table-style history books, has added a new gem to its crown, “Garden Legacy” by preservationists Mary Louise Mossy Christovich and Roulhac Bunkley Toledano. The book offers a survey of more than three centuries of garden design in New Orleans. Both authors will be presenting their latest work at a book release party from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at The Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal St. in the French Quarter and at 6 p.m. April 18 at Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St. in New Orleans.

New releases

Andrea Brew received her bachelor’s degree from Southern, followed by a master’s in education from Northwestern, and she shares her love of the annual Bayou Classic, where Southern University and Grambling meet in both football and marching band competition, with “’Twas the Night Before Bayou Classic” (Mascot Books). The children’s book, illustrated by Agus Prajogo, follows a Southern University family on the eve of the Bayou Classic, when who should arrive but a Grambling fan. Brew is a Louisiana native and has been working in education for 14 years, most currently as an elementary school librarian.

Releasing this past week was C.S. Harris’s “Where the Dead Lie,” the 12^th book in the Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series.

Book events

The Civil War Book Review will sponsor a lecture at 11 a.m. Monday in Hill Memorial Library on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. Patrick Hayes will speak about his most recent publication, “The Civil War Diary of Rev. James Sheeran, C.S.s.R.” Irish-born Sheeran was chaplain to the 14th Louisiana Regiment of the Confederacy, one of only a few dozen Catholic chaplains commissioned for the Confederacy and one of only two who kept a journal.

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.

Discovering Gwen Bristow and her 'Plantation Trilogy'

I recently discovered Gwen Bristow, an author who loved bringing American history to life in novels, including her “Plantation Trilogy,” which was set in Louisiana. After graduating from Judson College in Alabama and attending the Columbia School of Journalism, Bristow worked as a reporter for The Times-Picayune from 1925 to 1934 in New Orleans. She began writing novels and screenplays after meeting her husband, screenwriter Bruce Manning, and they moved to Hollywood. Her literary career took off with “Deep Summer,” the first novel in her Louisiana trilogy, which follows Puritan pioneer Judith Sheramy who strives to build an empire in Louisiana around the time of the America Revolution. The trilogy included “The Handsome Road” and “This Side of Glory.” Bristow wrote other books about the American South and later the American West in her bestselling novels “Jubilee Trail,” which was made into a film in 1954. She also wrote the nonfiction “Golden Dreams” and a 1946 novel, “Tomorrow Is Forever,” which became a film starring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles and Natalie Wood. Bristow died in 1980.  

May Fest

The Thensted Center of Grand Coteau presents two days of family fun at May Fest this upcoming weekend, which includes the Family Amazing Race that allows families to compete for prizes as they make their way through challenges throughout Grand Coteau starting at 9 a.m. Saturday. Registration is $40 per team and student/teacher teams are required to have an adult sponsor. On Sunday, there will be barbecue dinners for sale, family bingo, games for children, music and other attractions. Author Mel LeCompte Jr. presents his new children’s book, “T-Boy and the Terrible Turtle” and local authors will share stories and sign books. In addition, the public can purchase spring plants for home and yard. To compete in the Amazing Race, buy dinner tickets or for more information, call Julia Richard at (337) 662-5838.

Festival of Words

Tony Duffy of Grand Coteau and poet John Warner Smith are the featured performers for the Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective evening of true stories and poetry beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Chicory’s Coffee & Café in Grand Coteau. There will be an open mic to follow.

Duffy is from Carencro where he learned to work with horses from his father; he will speak on the experience. Smith’s poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and his debut poetry collection, “A Mandala of Hands,” was published by Aldrich Press/Kelsay Books in 2015. His second collection, “Soul Be A Witness: Songs to Boys of Color,” is forthcoming from MadHat Press. Smith’s poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for the Sundress Best of the Net Anthology. A Cave Canem Fellow, Smith earned his MFA in Creative Writing at UNO. 

The oral history presentation will be videotaped and placed in the Cajun and Creole Archives at the Center for Louisiana Studies in the “Grand Coteau Voices” collection. Participants are welcome to bring poems, songs or stories for the open mic. For more information call Patrice Melnick at (337) 254-9695 or email festivalwords@gmail.com. 

  

Book news

Rosalyn Spencer, a leader in literary arts and education in South Louisiana, was chosen to lead a panel last week at the Split the Rock Poetry Conference in Washington D.C. The presentation titled “Language of the Unheard: Rural Children of Color and Literature” consisted of Spencer, Alex “Poetic Soul” Johnson, Patrice Melnick and Latasha Weatherspoon. The team presented strategies for teaching and planning activities that help advance local youth in the literary arts. 

Actor Wendell Pierce of New Orleans won a Christopher Award for his book, “The Wind in the Reeds,” the story of the city’s Pontchartrain Park and Pierce’s efforts to rebuild that community after Hurricane Katrina. Pierce is recently starring as Clarence Thomas in the HBO film “Confirmation,” as Teddy on CBS’s “The Odd Couple” and was a recurring character on the HBO series “Tremé.”

Book events

John Troutman will speak on “Kika Kilaawaiian: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music” as part of McNeese University’s SAGE Program from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, April 25. A booksigning will follow. Registration is required; visit www.mcneese.edu/leisure.

Poetry Month at the Ouachita Valley Branch Library will discuss children’s author Shel Silverstein at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 26.

Retired Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlie Spillers has published a non-fiction account of his experiences during 10 years undercover, six with the Baton Rouge Police Department and five with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics in “Confessions of An Undercover Agent: Adventures, Close Calls and the Toll of a Double Life.” He will sign books at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, at Lemuria Books in Jackson, Miss.

Bring plants, cuttings and seeds to share at the Spring Plant Swap beginning at 1 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at the West Ouachita Branch Library.

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.