Writes of Spring Writing Contest: Call for Submissions

The Lafayette Public Library is now accepting submissions for the 2019 Writes of Spring writing contest, an annual competition aimed at fostering creative writing among Acadiana’s youth. All entries are due by Friday, March 29, 2019.

The contest is open to students in grades K-12 who reside in Lafayette or in the surrounding parishes: Acadia, Iberia, St. Landry, St. Martin and Vermilion. Students may submit their own original unpublished work (in English or in French) in only one of the following genres: short fiction, nonfiction, drama or poetry. One entry per student will be accepted. Submissions should be double-spaced with 12-point font.

This year, all students are encouraged to enter the writing contest using the online entry/submission form at LafayettePublicLibrary.org. Paper (non-digital) submissions will be accepted from students in grades K - 6 only, and can be dropped off at any Lafayette Public Library branch. All other eligible students (7 - 12 grade) are required to submit their entry electronically using the online form, which is a Google Docs form and requires the use of a Gmail account.

First-, second- and third-place winners will be notified in late April before the award ceremonies in May. The K-8th grade Awards Ceremony will be held in the morning of Saturday, May 11 and the High School Awards Ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1. Author Jeff Zentner will give an author talk following the High School Ceremony and a short reception at 7:15 p.m.

For details about the writing contest and links to the entry forms, visit LafayettePublicLibrary.org.

Genre Submission Guidelines (see entry form for complete guidelines)
Poetry - 1-3 poems, 100 lines total
Fiction - K-6 graders: max. 750 words; 7-12 graders: max. 1500 words
Nonfiction - K-6 graders: max. 750 words; 7-12 graders: max. 1500 words
Drama/Screenplay - high school students only: max 1500 words

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.

UL Lafayette Press releases three titles this week

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press publishes three new titles this week.

For the nature lover, “Louisiana Swamps and Marshes: Easy-Access Hikes and Drives” by Anne Butler, with photography by Henry Cancienne, contains directions and information for 37 of Louisiana’s accessible natural parks and wetlands.

Author Tim Gautreaux describes Norman German’s “Dead Dog Lying and Other Stories” as a group of “offbeat tales” that “showcase a wide-ranging talent guaranteed to please any reader.” German is a native of Lake Charles, teaches English at Southeastern Louisiana University and is the author of novels “A Savage Wisdom,” “No Other World” and “Switch-Pitchers.”

And Abbeville native David Langlinais offers “Duck Thief and Other Stories,” a book John Ed Bradley calls “a stunning collection by a fine new voice in Southern literature.” Currently a resident of Dallas, Langlinais has published stories in numerous journals, including South Dakota Review, Los Angeles Review, The Dos Passos Review, Big Muddy, Deep South Magazine and The MacGuffin.

New releases

New York Times best-selling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Rick Bragg offers a collection of essays on life in the south with his latest, “My Southern Journey: True Stories From the Heart of the South.” Regions include Bragg’s native Alabama, Cajun Country and the Gulf Coast. Bragg is the author of “All Over But the Shoutin,’” “Ava’s Man” and “The Prince of Frogtown.” He is currently professor of writing in the journalism department at the University of Alabama.

Ciji Ware offers a tale of two cities famed for revelry and danger, both at risk of disappearing forever in her novel “That Winter in Venice.” New Orleans natives Serena Antonelli, an Italian-American costume designer, and Jack Durand, a Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental reporter, meet on a fateful flight bound for Venice where they confront a shared destiny spawned by a national tragedy.

Margaret Eby travels the South visiting the hometowns and stomping grounds of some of the South’s most beloved authors, including the Lucky Dog stands in the French Quarter featured in John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces,” in “South Toward Home: Travelsin Southern Literature.”

Susan Fleet has published another book in her Frank Renzi mystery series, in which New Orleans Police Department detective Renzi searches for a missing TV news anchor and her two small children. To view a trailer of “Missing,” visit http://susanfleet.com/missing.html.

Author Dinner

Award-winning Lafayette author John François is the featured speaker at this year’s Author Dinner by the Friends of the Lafayette Library. He will speak and sign books beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Petroleum Club. François is a past president of the Writers’ Guild of Acadiana and the author of six historical wartime novels. He has won recognition in national contests like The Annual Writer’s Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition and the Global eBook Awards for his novel, “Carrier-of-Bones.” He also writes short fiction, which have enjoyed local, regional and international recognition. For more information or to make reservations, call (337) 984-8661.

Book events

            Dianne Mouton Landry, a descendant of Governor Mouton and a Mouton family historian, will speak on “The Battle of Pinhook Bridge” at 2 p.m. today at the Alexandre Mouton House/Lafayette Museum. The talk is presented by the Alexandre Mouton House/Lafayette Museum and the Lafayette Public Library.

            Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) will sign “This May Sound Crazy” at 1 p.m. today at Barnes & Noble Metairie. The book is based on her Tumblr blog of the same name.

Sybil Haydel Morial will discuss and read from “Witness to Change: From Jim Crow to Political Empowerment” at 6 p.m. Monday at Garden District Book Shop and at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Octavia Books of New Orleans.

Best-selling and award-winning author-illustrator Marc Brown will talk about “The Aardvark Was My Warm-Up Act” at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Lafayette Parish Main Library Meeting Room.

Michael Allen Zell will read from and sign “Run Baby Run” at 6 p.m. Monday at Octavia Books in New Orleans.

Mark Couhig will discuss and sign “The Face of His Brother” at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Garden District Book Shop of New Orleans.

Christina Vella discusses and signs “George Washington Carver: A Life” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at East Bank Regional Library in Metairie.

Michael Llewellyn and Ciji Ware will discuss and sign “Creole Son: A Novel of Degas in New Orleans” and “That Winter in Venice,” respectively from 6 p.m. Thursday at Garden District Book Shop of New Orleans.

The General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series on World War II presents Kati Marton and “The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World” Thursday at the World War II Museum in New Orleans. The event begins with a 5 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. presentation and 7:30 p.m. booksiging in the U.S. Freedom Pavilion of The Boeing Center.

C.C. Lockwood signs “Louisiana Wild: The Protected and Restored Lands of the Nature Conservancy” at 6 p.m. Thursday at Octavia Books of New Orleans.

Romance Writers of America Crossroads Chapter in Indiana authors Jeana Mann, LeNora Mangano and Teresa Keefer join New Orleans chapter members Colleen Mooney and Dawn Chartier for a meet and greet, panel discussion and signing at 6 p.m. Friday at Octavia Books of New Orleans.

Dixie Poché will sign copies of “Classic Eateries of Cajun Country” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Teche Drugs and Gifts on Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Books Along the Teche in New Iberia.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is 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.” She also writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire, “A Cajun Dream” and “The Letter.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com. 

53 Acadiana women celebrated in new book

             Lafayette-based therapist Fran Clarke developed an eight-month “Heroine’s Journey: A Woman’s Search for Truth” program to help women find their path, from discovering their creative spark to expressing a personal truth. She has published a book based on her work featuring 53 women of Acadiana in “Treasures of the Journey: Awakening Feminine Wisdom, Beauty and Passion.”

            “When I first developed The Heroine’s Journey, I could never have imagined the holiness that I would experience through the unfolding beauty, spirit and power of the women in each circle,” Clarke wrote me. “Most of them had never written or created before participating in this program, but were able to access and express themselves from deep within.”

            “Treasures of the Journey” includes works of poetry, art and photography in 120 full-color pages.

            There will be a book release party from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. today at First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 1130 Johnston St. in Lafayette. A limited number of copies will be available for purchase with additional copies available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

New LSU releases

            LSU Press has published several new titles in the past few weeks, from political interpretation and American history to poetry.

            Ruth Salvaggio, professor of English and American Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, grew up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, while cleaning out her home, she discovered a book of Sappho’s poetry and worked to save it from the muck and mud. This discovery began a journey for Salvaggio, herself an author of several books of poetry. She writes about New Orleans’ poetry history, its words hailing from its many cultures and neighborhoods, in “Hearing Sappho in New Orleans: The Call of Poetry from Congo Square to the Ninth Ward.”  

            Sally Van Doren has released her second collection of poetry, titled “Possessive,” out this week from LSU Press. Van Doren’s first book, “Sex at Noon Taxes,” received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. She has taught in the St. Louis Public Schools and curates the Sunday Poetry Series for the St. Louis Poetry Center.

            David Huddle’s latest poetry collection, “Blacksnake at the Family Reunion,” told by a quirky, usually reticent great uncle, is now available from LSU Press. A native of Ivanhoe, Va., Huddle is the author of 17 books of poetry, fiction and essays, and has taught at the University of Vermont, the Bread Loaf School of English, the Rainier Writing Workshop and Hollins University.

            White Southerners loyal to the Republican Party during Reconstruction following the Civil War were often referred to as “scalawags,” labeled Union sympathizers, race traitors and “poor white trash.” Frank J. Wetta, a senior fellow at the Center for History, Politics and Policy at Kean University, seeks to debunk that myth in “The Louisiana Scalawags: Politics, Race and Terrorism during the Civil War and Reconstruction.” Wetta contends that these men were educated, held government positions in antebellum years and looked to form an alliance with the freedmen in a biracial political party, one that eventually failed in Louisiana.

Lafayette Library news

            Iberia Parish Library has kicked off its New Year by opening a Cyber Café featuring coffee, hot tea and water. Visitors may enjoy the café-style setting from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays in the Main Library’s large meeting room in New Iberia.

            The Lafayette Public Library is offering a class for children ages 5 to 12 to create a Mardi Gras poster at the following libraries: Jefferson Street Branch (261-5779) 
at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16; Milton Branch (856-5261)
at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22; Youngsville Branch (856-9385)
at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24; and South Regional Library (981-1028)
at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31. “Take It and Make It Craft” kits will be available, while supplies last, during the week of Jan. 22–28 at the following library locations: Broussard, Butler, Duson, North Regional, Scott and Chenier libraries.

            “Different Approaches: A Photography Exhibit” by Bob Adams, Jo Ann Gary and Karen Hoyt will be on display Jan. 9 through Feb. 27 at Galerie Lafayette in the Jefferson Street Branch, 538 Jefferson St. in downtown Lafayette.

           

Cheré Coen is the author of “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at chere@louisianabooknews.com.

Boudin lover Robert Carriker pens guide to South Louisiana sausage

            Robert Carriker, a UL professor of history and founder of the Boudin Cookoff and BoudinLink.com, has compiled a guide to South Louisiana’s boudin outlets, titled “Boudin: A Guide to Louisiana's Extraordinary Link.” The book offers a history of the sausage, some historic and recent photographs, a lesson on the sausage’s varieties and a listing of about two dozen boudin spots across South Louisiana, accompanied by photographs from Denny Culbert. Oral histories were provided by the Southern Foodway Alliance. I think many people will question the inclusion or exclusion of their favorite boudin makers in the book, but the author states that those included were meant “to represent a cross section of highly rated boudin from shops that provide a consistently superior experience.”

Other cookbook releases

            Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing opened Jack’s Luxury Oyster in New York, which the New York Times called “one of the most distinctive new restaurants to come along in years” and earned Allison the 2004 James Beard Rising Star award. But the couple chose their home region, moving to the New Orleans area in 2005 and opening first Longbranch days before Katrina, then MiLa in 2007. The couple has published “Southern Comfort: A New Take on the Recipes We Grew Up With,” with photographs by Ed Anderson. The couple’s bilingual — one from Louisiana and the other from Mississippi — so the book features Southern and New Orleans classics plus some innovative dishes, such as sweet potato pappardelle with rich shiitake sauce and cucumber and goat cheese “cannelloni” with marinated tomatoes. 

            Peggy Sweeney-McDonald’s husband has an expression relating to the restaurant that fills your soul, “the place you always go to, your own comfort food place.” When Peggy decided to start a show based on favorite foods in one’s life, she chose “Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde,” referring to the beignet icon of New Orleans and a personal favorite. Her show premiered in 2010 at the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, then began touring the country. Sweeney-McDonald chronicles her adventures discussing food stories in a book with recipes titled “Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde: Life Stories about Food.” Participants include noted chefs, food producers, actors, journalists and more with photos by Baton Rouge’s Troy Kleinpeter and an introduction by Karen Benrud, a member of the Café du Monde family.

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            Peggy and local contributor Chef Jay Ducote will be appearing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, at the Kitchenary at Heymann's, 456 Heymann Blvd. in the Oil Center of Lafayette.

           

Spell-a-bration

            The Lafayette Public Library Foundation will present its second annual spelling bee for adults. Spell-a-bration, a friendly competition among teams in the vein of the national spelling bee, will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, at the Lafayette Science Museum in downtown Lafayette. Louisiana Senator and Cajun personality Fred Mills will serve as emcee.

            All proceeds benefit the Foundation, which assists the Lafayette Public Library.

            Teams are invited to participate; call (337) 593-4770 or email spellabration@lplfoundation.com for information or to reserve a spot.

            General admission tickets to the event are $25 in advance, or $35 at the door, and include food and drinks from local restaurants and a special viewing of the museum’s bicentennial exhibit, “Louisiana: 200 Years Later,” which features The Fabrique Nationale/ Browning/Winchester Collection of historic, rare and modern firearms.

Book events

            Don’t forget, the Louisiana Book Festival will offer more than 125 authors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at the State Capitol grounds in Baton Rouge. There will also be children’s activities, books for sale, food and crafts and much more. The festival is free and open to the public and takes place at the State Library of Louisiana, the Louisiana State Museum, the Louisiana State Capitol and its grounds. In addition, there will be several “WordShops” offered for writers Friday at the State Library and the Capitol Park Museum. For more information, visit www.LouisianaBookFestival.org or www.facebook.com/LABookFestival.

            Coach Paul Dietzel, author of “Call Me Coach: A Life in College Football,” will speak at noon Wednesday, Oct. 24, as part of the Louisiana State Museum’s Lunchtime Lagniappe series. The event will be at the Capitol Park Museum in downtown Baton Rouge, is free and attendees are encouraged to bring their own lunch.

            Cory MacLauchlin, who recently published a biography on author John Kennedy Toole titled “Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’,” will speak at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at Saint Street Inn in Lafayette. We have heard that Saint Street Inn will be serving its own version of the Lucky Dog (the famous New Orleans hot dog which features prominently in “A Confederacy of Dunces”).

Cheré Coen is the author of “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at chere@louisianabooknews.com.