Acclaimed author and New Orleans native Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the 2023 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. Ruffin is the twenty-fourth recipient of the prestigious award presented to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary Louisiana writer’s body of work.

A former corporate lawyer and restaurateur, Ruffin is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at Louisiana State University. He has published two books as well as dozens of short stories, poems, and essays with a primary focus on the lived experiences and history of the diverse Black community of New Orleans where he resides.

Ruffin is the author of The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, which was published by One World Random House in August 2021. It is the 2023 One Book One New Orleans selection. The book was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and longlisted for the Story Prize.

Reviewer Lauren Leblanc of the Los Angeles Times in describing The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You said, “Ruffin’s first career as a lawyer offers some insights into the role justice plays in his work. His analytical mind has revealed itself in nonfiction pieces published in literary journals, on gentrification, white nationalism and other threats to the communities he loves. But as with any true New Orleans artist, the message transcends Ruffin’s various mediums; up-tempo or blues, the song remains the same.

“Indeed, for all of Ruffin’s clear literary homages and influences, there are also, I sense, musical structures embedded in these intimate, often playful stories. The pieces function as movements on a theme, each touching different notes and neighborhoods. A sense of controlled improvisation allows him to lay claim to his city without resorting to either satire or pseudonym. It makes his book achingly truthful and incredibly accessible.”

His first book, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN America Open Book Prize. It was longlisted for the 2021 Dublin Literary Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. The novel was also a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

In The New York Times, bestselling author and book reviewer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah said of We Cast a Shadow, “At any moment, Ruffin can summon the kind of magic that makes you want to slow down, reread and experience the pleasure of him crystallizing an image again. The narrator’s intellectual style also allows for a lot of sentence-level fun. We’re never far from an alliterative flourish (‘flaky fried fowl fingers’) or a stroke of sudden beauty (‘I grabbed the knob with both hands, a transparent crystal bulb, a dollop of frozen light’) that makes us pause and say, damn, as we realize just how closely the narrator is paying attention to the world around him.”

Ruffin is also the author of the forthcoming historical novel, The American Daughters, which will be published in 2024 by One World Random House.

His writings have been translated into other languages, including Turkish and German.

Of Ruffin’s work, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Kiese Laymon stated, “Ruffin, more than any of the greats I read, searches for that idea, that style, that genre we think is impossible to do well, and he makes it look easy. What he is doing in these short stories is breathtaking. They are so singular and so reliant on each other for wholeness.”

Ruffin is the winner of several literary awards and prizes, including the Iowa Review Award in fiction and the William Faulkner–William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award for Novel-in-Progress. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford American, Garden & Gun, Kenyon Review, and Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America. Ruffin was the recipient of the 2022 Louisiana Board of Regents ATLAS grant. Ruffin has taught at numerous residencies and conferences including Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Maine Media, Randolph College MFA, and Longleaf. Ruffin was a co-curator of the Read My World Literary Festival (Amsterdam) in 2017 and a contributor in 2022. Ruffin is also part of the Artists Network of Narrative 4, an organization dedicated to aiding the educational opportunities of young people by promoting empathy through shared storytelling. He served as the 2020-2021 John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. And too he was the 2022 Grand Marshal of the Mardi Gras Krewe of House Floats.

While Ruffin credits countless authors for the inspiration of his work, including Ernest Gaines, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, and Ralph Ellison, his primary inspiration is the people of Louisiana and, specifically, New Orleans. Ruffin wishes to pay his inspiration forward and has said, “My long-term hope is that my work will inspire and support the next generation of young, Black New Orleans writers to tell their own stories.”

Regarding the Louisiana Writer Award, Ruffin says, “This is the highest possible honor, and I accept it on behalf of all the storytellers of New Orleans and Louisiana whose stories are yet to be received."

Short works by Maurice Carlos Ruffin are included in these anthologies:

Louisiana born and raised, author David Armand is the 2022 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. Armand is the twenty-third recipient of the prestigious award presented to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary Louisiana writer’s body of work.

Having worked previously as a drywall hanger, a draftsman, and a press operator in a flag-printing factory, Armand is currently assistant professor of creative writing at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he served as Writer-in-Residence from 2017 through 2019.

“Whether I’m speaking from my perspective as his former teacher, his friend, his faculty colleague, a fellow husband and father, or another south Louisiana author, I am here to tell you David Armand is a treasure,” says 2017-2019 Louisiana Poet Laureate Jack Bedell. “Both in his writing and in his life, David is driven by honesty and hope. His memoirs, poems, and works of fiction lean heavily into these two themes, but they never blink in the face of hard times, nor do they shy away from the work it takes to persevere through those trials on the way to salvation. It’s rare to find a writer, or a human being, capable of being an honest example of that struggle. David Armand is that writer and that person, and I am very proud we are celebrating him for his accomplishments and for the person he is.”

In 2010, Armand won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for his first novel, The Pugilist’s Wife, which was published by Texas Review Press, a member of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium. Since then, he has published three more novels, three collections of poetry, and a memoir. His latest book, a collection of nonfiction essays, Mirrors, is forthcoming from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press in spring 2023.

Of Armand’s first novel, 2009 Louisiana Writer Award recipient Tim Gautreaux said that it was “a powerful Southern brew of violence and religion. The writing is intense, fast-paced, linguistically rich, well-crafted, and ultimately riveting.” The novel was listed by the Times-Picayune alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson (Gilead) as one of five "hot read[s]" in March 2012. Further, The Baton Rouge Advocate remarked, “The storyline is compelling [...] and the characters ring true. Armand’s writing is concise but also lyric […] and well-suited to the tenor of his tale.”

Harlow, Armand’s second novel, which follows a young boy as he searches for his father along the backroads of Louisiana, was listed as a top ten book of the year by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, alongside Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus, and George Saunders’s Tenth of December. A reviewer for that publication stated, “Armand writes in a comfortingly familiar literary voice that blends Ernest Hemingway’s laconic but rhythmically complicated explorations of the mysteries of masculinity with William Faulkner’s more fabulist, Southern Gothic twang. It’s a heady, seductively intoxicating combination.” The book was also reviewed favorably in the New York Journal of Books, Dallas Morning News, and Foreword Reviews.

New York Times bestselling author Wiley Cash said, “If Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy had a literary child, its name would be David Armand. His novel Harlow combines O’Connor’s Gothic violence and sense of humor with McCarthy’s unforgiving landscapes and Old Testament themes. But while he pays homage to the icons, David Armand is his own writer, and Harlow stands alone as an incredible look into the oldest of stories: man’s search for his father. But rarely are fathers this wayward, sons this compelled to search, and their shared histories this soaked in whiskey, blood, and Louisiana clay.” An excerpt from Harlow was featured in Louisiana Cultural Vistas magazine, after which David was invited to read from his novel at the Louisiana Humanities Center in New Orleans.

His third novel, The Gorge, which was loosely based on a local murder case that made national headlines after Sister Helen Prejean counseled one of the killers on death row, was also reviewed favorably for its authenticity and sense of place. The Portland Book Review wrote, “Armand paints Louisiana with simplicity and darkness, carrying us through wide-open fields, houses that have been abandoned, dirt roads, and mystery. [It’s] nostalgic and whimsical without trying hard to be. The storytelling itself is as rugged as its country – meandering and beautiful.”

Most recently, Armand’s fourth novel, The Lord’s Acre, which explores religious fanaticism—particularly in what Flannery O’Connor called the “Christ-haunted” south—and the consequences of giving in to blind faith, has been praised by The Southern Review of Books, who called it “[A] realistic and hard biting portrait of an adolescent boy who simply wants to survive [...] [The] point of view is so intimate, so realistic that the reader will hope throughout the story that he will somehow turn out fine. That very hope, a gift to a boy who has no other reason to believe that life will ever be any better, is what makes Armand’s novel such a compelling read.” And it is this sense of hope that pulses throughout all of Armand’s work, no matter how dark the subject matter may seem. Poet Katherine Hoerth, author of Goddess Wears Cowboy Boots and Flare Stacks in Full Bloom wrote, “Every sentence was masterfully crafted, filled with vivid imagery, and steeped with emotion and meaning. It’s simply gorgeous. We follow the life of Eli and his parents through some difficult patches—homelessness, a troubled marriage, a questioning of faith—and just when things can’t seem to get any worse, they meet a man who could be their savior, a charismatic preacher and healer known only as Father. Set in the landscape of rural Louisiana, this book was one I couldn’t put down for both its art and its story.”

In addition to these novels, Armand has also published a memoir about being given up for adoption by his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia, and his reunion with her when he was an adult. It explores the failed mental health system in Louisiana, but also a son’s reckoning with who he is and where he came from. The 2018 Louisiana Writer Award recipient Sheryl St. Germain called the memoir “A gut-wrenching personal narrative of family love and loss. My Mother’s House is the compelling story of Armand’s relationship with his mother and also a penetrating critique of the American mental health system. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning what it’s like to lose someone you love to mental illness. Armand’s memoir, dramatic and fast-paced, has all the hallmarks of a fine work of fiction. I couldn’t put it down, and was sorry when it ended.” Bret Lott, author of Oprah’s Book Club Selection Jewel and former editor of The Southern Review stated, “This is a difficult story, well told. My Mother’s House is a tale of survival told by the son given up for adoption only to be brought into a family riddled with abuse; it is also the tale of reuniting with his birth mother, only to be introduced into even more difficulties. But within the morass of psychological maladies that breed, oftentimes generationally, further layers of trouble and sorrow, there is hope, and this story of a son’s trek through his life in search of the meaning of family is a beautiful one.”

Armand’s three poetry collections, The Deep Woods, Debt, and The Evangelist, touch on these themes of family, addiction, and hope as well. They are also poems about growing up in a small, hardscrabble town, but how the author’s turning to books and music and art was a way for him to escape. Of Armand’s poetry, former Louisiana Poet Laureate Jack B. Bedell says, “Good poems bring us home with them for a spell. They build trust over time and share their experiences with us bit by bit. Great poems, though, feel like home from their first line on. David Armand’s books are full of great poems. They are about fathers, and sons, and of a world so real you can smell piney woods and see steam rising off a newborn foal. The joys, and pains, of these poems are at once familial and universal, individual and metonymic. There’s not much more you could ask a poem to do, not much more a poet could deliver, than what Armand gives us.” Armand’s poems have appeared in literary journals such as Arkansas Review, The Texas Review, and others.

Armand has been recognized by the St. Tammany Commission on Cultural Affairs, which named him the 2016 St. Tammany Parish President’s Literary Artist of the Year. He was also named one of Gambit Magazine’s “40 Under 40” recipients, and he was awarded the President’s Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity from Southeastern Louisiana University.

David has spoken as a visiting writer at James Madison University, Southeast Missouri State University, and twice at the Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium at the Mississippi University for Women. He is also a frequent participant at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville and at the Louisiana Book Festival, where he has participated six times – in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2021 – and where he once introduced the first Louisiana Writer Award recipient, Ernest J. Gaines. He also has appeared as a panelist at the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. In 2020, Armand was awarded an artist’s residency grant from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council. He has been interviewed in Oxford American, New Orleans Review, and on NPR for Susan Larson’s The Reading Life.

In 2021, the University Press of Mississippi essay collection Twenty-First-Century Southern Writers: New Voices, New Perspectives, edited by Dr. Jean W. Cash and Richard Gaughran, featured a critical analysis of Armand’s body of work, which was placed alongside essays about contemporary writers including National Book Award–winner Jesmyn Ward, as well as Michael Farris Smith and Louisiana authors Barb Johnson and Skip Horack.

Armand’s latest book, Mirrors, a collection of interconnected essays about being an adoptee and ultimately finding his biological father through a DNA test, will be published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press in 2023. The title essay, which was first published in Belmont Story Review, was named a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays 2020 anthology. Other essays from the collection previously appeared in Southbound Magazine, Deep South Magazine, Hobart, and The McNeese Review.

Most recently, Armand has completed a fifth novel, Walk the Night, as well as a craft memoir, Gardens, which details his journey from growing up in a small Louisiana town to becoming a nationally recognized writer. He’s also completed a full-length play, Late Shift, which is about his time working as a telemarketer.

Upon being notified of the selection, David responded, “As a lifelong Louisianan, I can't begin to express how much being honored by my home state in this way means to me. This is the biggest honor I've ever received for my work, and I am very much looking forward to representing our great state's cultural achievements. This means more to me than anything ever has in my writing life.”

David lives in Hammond, Louisiana, with his wife and two children.

Acclaimed author and Louisiana native Fatima Shaik is the 2021 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. Shaik is the twenty-second recipient of the prestigious award presented to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary writer's body of work.

Fatima Shaik is a literary author whose meticulous research and commitment to the languages of Louisiana are evidenced by a nearly half-century professional writing career in books, magazines, and newspapers. Her books include her recent nonfiction work on a largely forgotten aspect of Louisiana history, two short story collections, two picture books for children, and a young adult novel, all set in Louisiana.

Shaik is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the John Anson Kittredge Fund, and the Platforms Fund sponsored by the Andy Warhol and Joan Mitchell Foundations. Her books have received Kirkus stars and accolades from a variety of publications.

The current that runs through Shaik’s books is her desire to parse the truth from oral tradition and document it, incorporating Louisiana musicality and ancestral weight.

Her first book, The Mayor of New Orleans: Just Talking Jazz, of which the title story is written in the scat patter of conversing musicians, is, according to National Public Radio, a “terrific charging solo.” Publishers Weekly said that the “three lush and evocative novellas…capture the special ambiance of southern Louisiana.” Shaik’s second adult book, What Went Missing and What Got Found, which describes members of a community before and after Hurricane Katrina, is a "collection of fabulous short stories,” according to Susan Larson of The Reading Life. Bostonia magazine wrote, “Shaik’s strengths as a writer are in creating everyday dialogue, in painting her characters’ lives, in moving her plotlines quietly and slowly along. She brews her characters—their status, their intellect, even their skin color—slowly, like tea steeping in a porcelain pot…In compelling fiction such as this, there is power, and truth.”

In picture books published by Penguin, Shaik introduces readers to the syncopation of New Orleans drumming by the phrasing of text, the history of racial segregation through parade traditions, and the names of 19th century Creole authors through rhyming as children dance past a cemetery. Shaik captures African call and response communication “through her rhythmic language that reflects both the complex pattern of jazz music and the emotion and energy it evokes from the second liners” (Marigny Dupuy, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans). Recommended by Parents’ Choice, The Jazz of Our Street, according to Kirkus, is a “compact cultural history.” On Mardi Gras Day was chosen as one of the Best Holiday Books of 1999 by the Bank Street College of Education.

Melitte is a YA novel narrated by a child in 18th century Louisiana who learns that she is enslaved and the daughter of her captor. “The emotional first-person narrative and well-researched historical detail paint a vivid picture of the times and provide a wrenching look at slave life….Accessible and affecting historical fiction,” according to School Library Journal. Melitte received a Best Books for Young Adults recognition from the American Library Association and was an American Booksellers Association Pick of the Lists. The book has been translated into German as Melinde.

The New York Times wrote that Shaik’s seventh book, a nonfiction narrative entitled Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, published by The Historic New Orleans Collection, “is so inviting that the true depth of its scholarship is revealed only in its bibliography, which lists dozens of archival and other sources. Shaik’s monumental book…is lyrical and mysterious and always captivating.”

Besides The New York Times’s review, Economy Hall has been described as “a must read” and “a landmark work in Louisiana history” (Susan Larson, The Reading Life), “stunning” (America magazine), “remarkable” (The Iron Lattice), and “lively, readable” (Kirkus starred review). Shaik’s research has been referred to as “painstaking” (Christian Science Monitor), “extensive” (American History Review) and “prodigious and fascinating (Washington Independent Review of Books).

Author and historian Caryn Cosse Bell said about Economy Hall, "Afro-Creole writer and activist Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes first offered a glimpse into the Société d’Economie’s early history in Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire....Now, Shaik, a twenty-first century heir to the Desdunes’s legacy, proposes to open an exciting new window onto the city’s rich multiethnic, multiracial history. As her eloquent 'Prologue' indicates, she is ideally suited for the task."

Fatima Shaik’s family can be traced to the 1700s in Louisiana and includes enslaved and free ancestors from Europe, Africa, India, and the Americas. She was born in the historic Seventh Ward of New Orleans and was bred on the oral history of her Creole family and neighbors.

Shaik began working professionally at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans in the summer between her junior and senior years in college, where she spent free time rummaging through its “morgue.” One of her early articles was about Marie Laveau, in which she quoted from an 1875 article. She spent her first two years of college at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her undergraduate thesis for Boston University’s School of Public Communication described the Black newspapers in 19th century New Orleans. She received a B.S. in Journalism in 1974 from BU and an M.A. in Political Science from New York University in 1978. Before attaining her Master’s, she was a summer reporter for the Miami News, statewide editor for the Louisiana Newsleader, and Assistant Editor and Foreign Digests Editor for McGraw-Hill World News.

Shaik was a Scholar-in-Residence at New York University and taught as a tenured faculty member at Saint Peter’s University where she founded its Communication degree program in 1992, received tenure in 1998, and retired from faculty after 28 years.

Shaik’s work appears in several anthologies including N. O. Lit: 200 Years of Louisiana Literature (Lavender Ink), Men We Cherish (Doubleday), African-American Literature (HarperCollins), Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience (Penguin), and Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Fiction (Penguin-Viking), and she is featured in A Booklover’s Guide to New Orleans. Shaik has written for The Southern Review, Callaloo, Tribes, The Root, the Review of Contemporary Fiction, Literary Hub, and The New York Times among others. Her articles have appeared in the foreign-language magazines Nikkei Architecture and L’Expansion. Her four-part series of essays after Hurricane Katrina for the magazine In These Times followed the evolution of her community over a decade.

Live at the NYPL featured Shaik on its program entitled "Reshaping New Orleans History,” and author Jennifer Egan interviewed her for the Brooklyn Public Library on C-SPAN. Shaik also appeared on a panel called “Mining History” for the 2021 PEN World Voices Festival along with Kaitlyn Greenidge and Saidiya V. Hartman, moderated by Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf. For PEN’s digital festival the previous year, Shaik was one of the “Writers in Residence” and cooked Gumbo Z’herbes. She explained, “This was survival food that carried my family and many others through the centuries. I think about these families and their silent histories when I write. I write stories about Louisiana. I write in its language, and I like to keep that language in my mouth…I wanted you to know this food, so its story goes into the wider world.”

Shaik has also appeared at the Miami Book Fair, the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, Louisiana Historical Association conferences, the National Conference of Social Studies, the Satchmo Fest, and more.

A member of The Writers Room in New York City, Shaik is an ex-officio trustee of PEN America as co-chair of the Children’s and Young Adult Books committee. With PEN, she spearheaded the transfer of a children’s library from New York to the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. That effort evolved into a visiting authors program for the Martin Luther King Jr. School for Science and Technology that has lasted more than 12 years. She is the subject of an upcoming documentary, The Bengali, by director Kavery Kaul.

Shaik is married to the abstract painter James Little, lives in New Orleans’s Seventh Ward and Manhattan, and has three daughters.

Regarding the Louisiana Writer Award, Shaik says, “I am honored to be recognized by my state. Louisiana is dear to my heart and its cultural history is central to my work. Anyone who knows me knows that Louisiana is ‘home.’"

The Wikipdedia article for Fatima Shaik is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Shaik

Acclaimed author and historian John Barry is the 2020 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. Barry is the twenty-first recipient of the award presented to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary writer's body of work.

John M. Barry is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author whose books have won multiple awards. The National Academies of Sciences named his 2004 book, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, a study of the 1918 pandemic, the year's outstanding book on science or medicine. His earlier book, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, won the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians for the year's best book of American history; in 2005, the New York Public Library named it one of the 50 best books in the preceding 50 years, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His books have also been embraced by experts in applicable fields: in 2006 he became the only non-scientist ever to give the National Academies Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture, a lecture which honors contributions to water-related science, and he was the only non-scientist on a federal government Infectious Disease Board of Experts. He has served on numerous boards, including ones at M.I.T.'s Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Society of American Historians. His latest book is Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the New England Society Book Award.

His books have involved him in two areas of public policy. In 2004, he began working with the National Academies and several federal government entities on influenza preparedness and response and he was a member of the original team that developed plans for mitigating a pandemic by using "non-pharmaceutical interventions"-- i.e., public health measures to take before a vaccine becomes available. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have sought his advice on influenza preparedness and response and he continues his activity in this area.

He has been equally active in water issues. After Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana congressional delegation asked him to chair a bipartisan working group on flood protection and he served on the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East, overseeing levee districts in metropolitan New Orleans, from its founding in 2007 until October 2013, as well as on the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which is responsible for the statewide hurricane protection. Barry has worked with state, federal, United Nations, and World Health Organization officials on influenza, water-related disasters, and risk communication.

His writing has received not only formal awards but less formal recognition as well. In 2004,  GQ named Rising Tide one of nine pieces of writing essential to understanding America; that list also included Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." His first book, The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington, was cited by The New York Times as one of the eleven best books ever written about Washington and the Congress. His second book,  The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer, coauthored with Dr. Steven Rosenberg, was published in twelve languages. And a story about football he wrote was selected for inclusion in an anthology of the best football writing of all time, published in 2006 by Sports Illustrated.

A keynote speaker at such varied events as a White House Conference on the Mississippi Delta and an International Congress on Respiratory Viruses, he has also given talks in such venues as the National War College, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Harvard Business School. He is co-originator of what is now called the Bywater Institute, a Tulane University center dedicated to comprehensive river research.

His articles have appeared in such scientific journals as Nature and Journal of Infectious Disease as well as in lay publications ranging from Sports Illustrated to Politico, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, and Esquire. A frequent guest on every broadcast network in the US, he has appeared on such shows as NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's World News, and NPR's All Things Considered, and on such foreign media as the BBC and Al Jazeera. He has also served as a consultant for Sony Pictures and contributed to award-winning television documentaries.

Before becoming a writer, Barry coached football at the high school, small college, and major college levels. Currently Distinguished Scholar at Tulane's Bywater Institute and a professor at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, he lives in New Orleans.

New Orleans native Johnette Downing is the recipient of the 2017 Louisiana Writer Award given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual life exemplified by a living writer's body of work. Downing is the eighteenth recipient of the annual award given by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. She is the second children's author to receive the award; William Joyce was honored with the award in 2008.

Called the "Pied Piper of Louisiana Music Traditions," Johnette Downing is a multi-award winning musician and author dedicated to sharing her Louisiana roots music, books, and cultural heritage with children around the world. With ancestors dating back to one of the first families of colonial Louisiana, Johnette is a proud Creole, with a lineage of Canary Islands Spanish, French, Native American, Irish, Scottish, and German. Her facility for sharing and thus preserving her culture has carried her to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, Central America, South America, North America, and the Caribbean, as well as 61 of Louisiana's 64 parishes. (She hopes to visit the remaining three in the very near future!) Her talents have garnered her thirty-two awards and have earned her the sobriquet "The Musical Ambassador to Children."

Johnette developed a love of music and books at an early age. As a child, her tuba-and-violin playing father and her saxophone-and-piano playing mother regularly took Johnette and her three siblings to the French Quarter in New Orleans, where they would stand in the doorways of clubs listening to jazz and ragtime. Johnette's father was an avid reader who had a library in their home, filled from the floor to the ceiling on all four walls with books. Johnette would sit in that library for hours reading and visualizing her own books upon those shelves. Stories and songs resonated off the library walls and permeated her family life.

Former Louisiana Poet Laureate Dr. Julie Kane writes, "Johnette Downing thinks like a kid, but writes like a magician." Johnette's passion for combining Louisiana roots music and books, and for sharing that passion with children in the way her parents had shared it with her, led Johnette to write numerous "singable" books over her thirty year career. Her body of work comprises nineteen picture books and one board book with Pelican Publishing Company, two board books with River Road Press, and ten recordings on her own label Wiggle Worm Records.

Her children's music career began organically when a fellow children's musician, Judy Stock, told her, "You would be great performing for children," after seeing Johnette perform in a folk music trio at the then Neutral Ground Coffee House in New Orleans. Once the "eureka moment" bell rang in Johnette's head, there was no un-ringing it. Johnette was hired on the spot by troubadour and teacher Philip Melancon to perform at his school. She worked for many years as an itinerant music therapist for children with special needs for the Jefferson Parish School System and as an early childhood music teacher for Isidore Newman Lower School in New Orleans. Her educator workshops on how to use music to teach English as a second language have been employed on five continents.

She is a regular performer at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the French Quarter Festival, and the Louisiana Book Festival, as well as in schools, libraries, performing arts centers, and museums. For almost a decade, she has performed a free monthly Family Friendly Friday in the French Market concert series at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park Visitor's Center.

Johnette's first record, Music Time, is a snapshot of a day in the life of a child. It received five awards including a Parents' Choice Recommended Award. Her next recording, From the Gumbo Pot, celebrated all things dear in Louisiana, earning her a Parents' Choice Silver Honors Award. A standout among her other award-winning recordings is Dixieland Jazz for Children, the first-ever jazz recording of its kind, with trumpeter Jimmy LaRocca and his Original Dixieland Jazz Band. This historic recording received an iParenting Media Award and a Parents' Choice Approved Award.

Author, freelance writer, and Louisiana Book News columnist Cheré Coen writes, "Johnette Downing's vibrant storytelling makes every book a celebration between covers." Johnette's career as a published author, like her children's music career, began organically: illustrator Deborah Ousley Kadair Thomas approached Johnette after a library concert and said, "I like your 'Today is Monday in Louisiana' song. Do you mind if I illustrate it and submit it to my publisher?"

Downing's first picture book, Today Is Monday in Louisiana, is a culinary calendar of unique Louisiana dishes for each day of the week. In the decade since its publication, it has become an institution across the Bayou State, where teachers, students, and families know both the story and her adaptation of the traditional song by heart. The book is now in its fifth printing and has received a National Parenting Publication Award. Further, it is being petitioned through a grassroots effort by teachers to be the official Louisiana State song for children and has given rise to Today Is Monday books for Texas, New York, and Kentucky.

Johnette is renowned for her original songs, stories, haiku, and Southern folktales. Her books Why the Crawfish Lives in the Mud and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Bugs are on the Accelerated Reader list. Today Is Monday in Louisiana was selected for The Big Read young reader component in 2010. Why the Crawfish Lives in the Mud, Petit Pierre and the Floating Marsh, and Mumbo Jumbo, Stay out of the Gumbo, her latest book, were chosen to represent the State of Louisiana at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2008, 2016, and 2017. In addition to her parenting media accolades are a New Orleans CityBusiness Magazine Women of the Year Award, a New Orleans Magazine 2014 Top Female Achievers Award, a Gambit Weekly 40 Under 40 Award, and a New Orleans Magazine Thirty People to Watch Award.

In 2016, Downing was commissioned by the Audubon Nature Institute and the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team to write a picture book about a pelican and the wetlands. Petit Pierre and the Floating Marsh, written by Downing and illustrated by Heather Stanley, was a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award finalist and was donated by the Audubon Nature Institute and the New Orleans Pelicans, as part of their wetlands education initiative, to every public library and elementary school in the state at a ceremony at the 2016 Louisiana Book Festival.

Mumbo Jumbo, Stay Out of the Gumbo is an original Cajun folktale about a clever little rooster who outwits the Courir de Mardi Gras revelers. Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Cultural notes and a recipe for 'green gumbo' cap this mildly subversion nod to a Mardi Gras tradition and a delicious regional dish."
Other books by Johnette include Down in Mississippi; Ten Gators in the Bed; Bugs on the Rug; Louisiana, the Jewel of the Deep South; The Fifolet; Macarooned on a Dessert Island; How to Dress a Po'Boy; Why the Possum Has a Large Grin; Why the Oyster Has the Pearl; Amazon Alphabet; Chef Creole; My Aunt Came Back from Louisiane; and Down in Louisiana.

In 2017, Johnette received a Grammy Participation Certificate for co-writing two songs and singing back-up vocals on the Grammy Award-winning Best Traditional Blues Album Porcupine Meat by blues legend Bobby Rush, which also earned her husband, producer Scott Billington, his third Grammy Award.
Downing and Billington are embarking on a new venture as the children's music duo "Johnette and Scott," with a new record titled Swamp Romp slated for a 2018 release. Writer Herman Fuselier called them "a match made in roots music heaven."

On the horizon for Johnette is the picture book Mademoiselle Grands Doigts – A Cajun New Year's Eve Tale, illustrated by Heather Stanley and slated for a fall 2018 release by Pelican Publishing Company.
Johnette's recordings include Reading Rocks, Boogie Woogie Bugs, Fins and Grins, The Second Line –Scarf Activity Songs, Silly Sing Along, Wild and Woolly Wiggle Songs, and New Moon – Music for Little Folk.

Johnette holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana, and lives in New Orleans with her husband Scott Billington.

The State Library of Louisiana through its Louisiana Center for the Book is pleased to announce that New Orleans native Christina Vella has been selected as the 2016 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, an honor bestowed annually to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life.

CHRISTINA VELLA is a native of New Orleans. She received her Ph.D. in Modern European and U.S. history from Tulane University. For many years she has taught at Tulane as a Visiting Professor, most recently in the Master of Liberal Arts program.   She has been a consultant and writer for the U.S. State Department, NPR, PBS, and the History Channel.

Celebrated both as historian and biographer, Dr. Vella is the author of Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of the Baroness de Pontalba; The Hitler Kiss written with Radomir Luza; Indecent Secrets: The Infamous Murri Murder Affair; George Washington Carver: A Life; and Ataturk and the Unveiling of Turkey, in publication.

When her first book, Intimate Enemies, was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, Dr. Vella began receiving invitations to lecture all over the country. She still enjoys lecturing to groups, conventions, and academic gatherings on a variety of topics in literature, Louisiana history, and world history. Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of the Baroness de Pontalba was a biography of a plucky little Creole who built the American Embassy residence in Paris and the lovely Pontalba Buildings in New Orleans after her father-in-law shot her four times and killed himself. The book serves as a kind of comparative study of daily life in New Orleans and Paris in the 19th century.

Several more history books, centered in biography, followed. The Hitler Kiss, written with Radomir Luza, described the resistance movement that formed in Czechoslovakia after Hitler’s occupation of Central Europe.

Next came a book about the Murri case, Indecent Secrets. The work recounted a trial in Italy in 1905 in which a prominent woman had gathered four of her admirers and inspired them to kill her husband. The true story was made into a soap opera that ran for ten years on Italian television.

Dr. Vella’s next book was a biography of man who was considered a scientific giant in the 1940s, but whose name has faded now—George Washington Carver.

And currently in publication is a long biography of that hero of secular governance, Kemal Ataturk of Turkey. All but one of Dr. Vella’s books were published by LSU Press, which she considers one of the very finest academic presses in the country.

Dr. Vella is currently experimenting with fiction; she is writing a novel in which the main character is imaginary but two other major characters are actual historical figures —Enrico Caruso and Constantin Brancusi—rendered with biographical accuracy, aside from their bogus relationship with the heroine.

Susan Larson, host of WWNO’s “The Reading Life,” says “Intimate Enemies is one of those books that will be around forever as part of the Louisiana and New Orleans canon, and her Carver biography is fantastic.  Christina is a writer who is generous and smart, and she is a great example of a scholar with an independent writing career.

Vella’s presentation on her Carver biography at the 2015 Louisiana Book Festival was one of those selected for national broadcast by C-SPAN’s Book TV.

Dr. Vella is often asked how she chooses the people she writes about. “First and foremost,” she says, “they have to be characters I find interesting, living in a time I want to know more about. They have to be so interesting that I’m willing to spend a couple of years learning about them.” She typically writes four complete drafts of a work, and describes herself as “a sedulous reviser.” 

In addition to full-length works, Dr. Vella has written a number of book chapters:  “The Country for Men with Nerve” in Degas and New Orleans;  “New Orleans at the Time of the Battle,” in The Battle of New Orleans Reconsidered;  “The Czech Lands,” in European Resistance and the Second World War;  “Dorothy Dix” and “The Baroness Pontalba,” in Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times; “Paris in the 18th Century,” in Concorde: Hotel de Talleyrand and George C. Marshall Center; “El Corazon de España,” in Permanencia Cultural de España en Nueva Orleans. She has contributed several articles to the online encyclopedia, Louisiana History.

Dr. Vella has received grants and honors over the years, including the Paul and Elizabeth Selley Fellowship; the Association of Secondary Teachers Recognition Award; “Best Books of 1997” in Publishers Weekly, New York Times, and Times-Picayune; Louisiana Endowment for the Arts grant; Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (four teaching grants); Foundation for Historical Louisiana Preservation Award; The Humanities Book Award; Battle of New Orleans Historical Symposium dedication; Gamma Beta Phi Society recognition award; Nunez History Lecture Series Appreciation Award; and now the Louisiana Writer Award.

Christina Vella has two daughters, Dr. Christie Riehl of Princeton, NJ, and Dr. Robin Vella Riehl of Houston, TX.  

Dr. Christina Vella, 75, passed away March 22, 2017.

New Orleans resident Tom Piazza is the recipient of the 2015 Louisiana Writer Award given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual life exemplified by a writer's body of work. Piazza is the sixteenth recipient of the annual award given by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana.

Past recipients of the Louisiana Writer Award include novelists Ernest J. Gaines, James Lee Burke, Christine Wiltz, John Biguenet, Shirley Ann Grau, Elmore Leonard, Tim Gautreaux, Valerie Martin and James Wilcox; children's author William Joyce; historian Carl Brasseaux; scholar Lewis P. Simpson; and poets William Jay Smith, Yusef Komunyakaa and Darrell Bourque.

Tom Piazza is celebrated both as a novelist and as a writer across all aspects of American music. His twelve books include the novels A Free State and City Of Refuge, the post-Katrina manifesto Why New Orleans Matters, and Devil Sent The Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America, a collection of his essays and journalism. He was a principal writer for the innovative New Orleans-based HBO drama series Treme. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Bookforum, Oxford American and many other periodicals.

Piazza grew up on Long Island and graduated from Williams College in 1976. In New York City he worked as a jazz pianist, wrote about music for periodicals including the Village Voice, Newsday and Down Beat, and began to write fiction. His early stories appeared in The Quarterly, Story, American Short Fiction and other literary magazines. In 1991 he moved to Iowa City to attend the Iowa Writers' Workshop, earning an MFA in Fiction Writing in 1993. In 1994 he moved to New Orleans, where he has lived ever since.

In both his fiction and his nonfiction, Piazza explores themes of cultural and personal identity, often using music as a prism through which to view American life. His 2015 novel A Free State, set in Virginia and Philadelphia just before the Civil War, explores the difficult, many-layered relationship between blackface minstrelsy and slavery, and the deep, painful, and still-contemporary riddles of race and society.

Piazza's 2008 novel City of Refuge follows the stories of two New Orleans families, one black and one white, during and after Hurricane Katrina; it was that year's One Book, One New Orleans selection and it won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. His 2003 novel My Cold War won the Faulkner Society Award for the Novel, and his debut short-story collection Blues and Trouble, published in 1996, won the James Michener Award. His book-length essay Why New Orleans Matters, published two and a half months after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, won the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities' 2006 Humanities Book of the Year Award.

His writing on American music, including jazz, blues, country and bluegrass, has been similarly recognized. He is a three-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing (for his books The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz and Understanding Jazz, and for his Oxford American column on Southern Music) and in 2004 Piazza won a Grammy Award for his album notes to the five-CD set Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey. His music pieces have been widely anthologized, appearing in Best Music Writing 2000, The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing, Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader and many other collections.

Piazza has traveled far and wide as a teacher and lecturer. He has held the Eudora Welty Chair for Southern Studies at Millsaps College and he has been the Visiting Writer in Residence at Loyola University, the Trias Visiting Writer at Hobart & William Smith Colleges, a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa and a core faculty member at the Bennington Writing Seminars. He has delivered lectures and readings at Columbia University, Middlebury College, Williams College, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of North Carolina, the Chautauqua Institute, the National Arts Club and the Library of Congress, among many other venues.

Darrell Bourque has published nine collections of poems: Plainsongs (Cross-Cultural Communications, Merrick, NY); The Doors between Us (Louisiana Literature Press, SELU, Hammond, LA); Burnt Water Suite (Wings Press, San Antonio); The Blue Boat (University of Louisiana Press); In Ordinary Light: New and Selected Poems (UL Press); Call and Response: Conversations in Verse, a collaboration with Louisiana poet Jack B. Bedell (Texas Review Press of the Texas A&M Press Consortium); Holding the Notes (a commissioned chapbook, Chicory Bloom Press, Thibodaux, LA); Megan's Guitar and Other Poems from Acadie (UL Press) and if you abandon me, comment je vas faire: An Amédé Ardoin Songbook (Yellow Flag Press, Lafayette, LA).

Plainsongs was the inaugural issue of Cross-Cultural Communications' Cajun Writers Chapbook Series, and The Doors between Us was the inaugural issue of Louisiana Literature's annual chapbook series (Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond).  The Blue Boat was the first issue in the Louisiana Writers Series published by University of Louisiana Press.

Bourque's Megan's Guitar and Other Poems from Acadie was a finalist in Foreword Review's annual poetry competition (2014) and the 2014 winner of the Best Poetry Book Award given by Independent Book Publishing Professional Group and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Novelist and short story writer Ernest J. Gaines, first recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, says of the poems in The Blue Boat, "Whether he is writing about old women fishing from bridges, or children playing in the house, or a member of the family standing for a portrait, Darrell wants you to see, feel, and hear that moment----which you do."  Of the same collection, Louisiana poet Sheryl St. Germain says, "I know of no one who has created a language like Bourque's.  His striking originality may come out of his straddling for most of his life, two languages.... The syntax has remnants of French, remnants of the syntax of Cajuns speaking English, and remnants of the formal English one learns in school."

Of Megan's Guitar and Other Poems from Acadie, novelist Colum McCann writes, "These poems begin in the everyday and end in the infinite.  He takes the mysterious and strips it raw. Then, somehow, he makes hope and legend rhyme."   And, Zachary Richard, first Poet Laureate of French Louisiana, says, "I am happy to see that Darrell Bourque has jumped into the pit of his Acadian heritage like a bull dog.  Not easy to wrestle with the faded glories of our past. Not easy to remember without romanticizing. Not easy to evoke without pandering, and yet this is what this poet has done: pages full of light and insight, a vision of ourselves which makes us better for the telling."

In 2007 Bourque was named the Louisiana Poet Laureate by Governor Kathleen Blanco and renamed to that position for a 2009-2011 by Governor Bobby Jindal.  His adopted mission for his tenure as poet laureate was bringing poetry into community centers, community libraries, and the pre-college classroom with workshops, lectures, and poetry readings.  During his tenure he also premiered the "Just Listen to Yourself" program at the State Library of Louisiana, a program designed to bring the diverse voices of Louisiana poetry to state workers in the Capitol complex during their lunch hour but open to the public as well. The event takes place every April during National Poetry Month. 

Bourque has served as President of the National Association for Humanities Education (now HERA, Humanities Education Research Association) and as the editor of its journal Interdisciplinary Humanities.  He is professor emeritus of English at the University of Louisiana Lafayette where he served as director of the Deep South Writers Conference, the director of the Freshman English Program, the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program, the director of the creative writing program, and head of the Department of English.  He was recipient of the ULL Foundation's Distinguished Professor Award and its Outstanding Teacher Award.  He was also the first Friends of the Humanities/Board of Regents Honor Professorship, a position he held until his retirement in 2003.

His current projects include work with Festival of Words-Grand Coteau, a literary festival bringing local and internationally known writers to a largely underserved and underprivileged rural community, and serving on the board of the Ernest J. Gaines Center at University of Louisiana Lafayette where he directs the Young Writers Apprenticeship Program for high school students.  He is also a founding member of Narrative4, an international story exchange program based in Chicago and New York; and he serves on the advisory board of NuNu's Arts and Culture Collective, a multidisciplinary creative place-making initiative based in Arnaudville, LA.

Bourque has been selected as one of the Louisiana artist to participate in Degrees of Separation, a two-year Louisiane-Bretagne exchange (Oct. 2014-Oct. 2016).  The exchange will involve Louisiana literary and visual artists interacting and collaborating with literary and visual artists from Bretagne in France.  The exchange is sponsored by The Ann Connelly Gallery, NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, Les Articulteurs in Redon, France, as well as the Consulate of France in New Orleans and The Walls Project.

With the publication of if you abandon me, comment je vas faire: An Amédé Ardoin Songbook Bourque initiated an effort to create a public commemorative for the iconic pioneer Louisiana Creole musician Amédé Ardoin who died at the Central Louisiana Hospital in Pineville in 1942 and was buried in an unmarked graveyard in the "Negro" cemetery. The aim of the project, which is co-directed by Patricia Cravins, is to honor the place that Ardoin holds in both Creole and Cajun cultures and to symbolically "bring him home" to St. Landry Parish.

Bourque lives and works in rural St. Landry Parish with his grandson Will Turley, a painter, and his wife Karen, a glass artist.

Novelist, essayist and screenwriter Christine Wiltz has been named recipient of the prestigious Louisiana Writer Award for 2013. The Louisiana Writer Award is chosen annually by a State Library-appointed committee to recognize extraordinary contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life.

Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne and State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton presented Wiltz the Louisiana Writer Award Nov. 2, 2013 in a ceremony kicking off the Louisiana Book Festival. Wiltz also discussed her work, including her latest book Shoot the Money, in a festival program with Susan Larson, host of WWNO’s The Reading Life.

The Louisiana Writer Award is given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana. Past recipients include novelists James Lee Burke, Ernest J. Gaines, Shirley Ann Grau, Elmore Leonard, Tim Gautreaux, Valerie Martin, James Wilcox and John Biguenet; children’s author William Joyce; poets Yusef Komunyakaa and William Jay Smith; historian Carl A. Brasseaux; and scholar Lewis P. Simpson.

Christine Wiltz is the author of five novels, all set in New Orleans, as well as numerous articles and essays that have appeared in such publications as the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times and Louisiana Life. Home to a vibrant and diverse literary scene, Wiltz’s native New Orleans has inspired much of her work, providing settings in which her characters must question everything, then act on their answers whether right or wrong.

“To be born in New Orleans is simply a terrific piece of luck, especially if you’re a raconteur, but then, every person you meet anywhere has a story they’d like to tell you,” Wiltz said. “In New Orleans they don’t hesitate. This is a city where creativity flourishes, from the downtown art scene to the dialogues you overhear in the aisles at the grocery store.”

After reading Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, Wiltz was inspired to write about New Orleans the way Chandler wrote about Los Angeles. The result was The Killing Circle (1981) — her first book-writing endeavor — which grew into a mystery trilogy that also includes A Diamond Before You Die (1987) and The Emerald Lizard (1991).

The trilogy centers on Irish Channel detective Neal Rafferty who, like many New Orleanians, has a large dysfunctional family. Wiltz explained that Rafferty “was shaped to his own peculiarities by the city where he’d been born.”

Wiltz later wrote Rafferty, a screenplay adaption from The Killing Circle. She also co-wrote, co-directed and was associate producer of Backlash: Race and the American Dream, a 1992 documentary about David Duke and his followers that aired on PBS.

Wiltz’s novel Glass House (1994) is based on the true story of a police officer who was murdered near one of the most violent housing projects in New Orleans. The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld (2000) is based on interviews with Norma Wallace, operator of New Orleans’ last French Quarter parlor house, and more than 100 people.

Wiltz described her latest novel, Shoot the Money, as “social commentary disguised as a dark-humor crime novel” that investigates women’s ambition for money and a better life alongside themes of friendship, rivalry and violence. The novel is a product of Wiltz’s curiosity about the ways people — especially women — deal with money and secrets.

“Like my other books with New Orleans settings, its themes are both those that are peculiar to New Orleans, especially in the aftermath of Katrina, and many that are more universal,” Wiltz said.

Wiltz conducts creative writing seminars and has been a writer-in-residence and adjunct professor at Tulane University and Loyola University. She has delivered numerous speeches and readings and served on panels at literary events.

Wiltz is a board member of the New Orleans chapter of the Women’s National Book Association and the Walker Percy Center for Writing and Publishing at Loyola University. She has also served in a variety of leadership and planning capacities for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.

Join us at the 2013 Louisiana Book Festival as we recognize Louisiana Writer Award recipient Christine Wiltz and celebrate Louisiana’s culture and literary traditions.

Multitalented novelist, short story writer, playwright, columnist, translator and essayist John Biguenet has been named recipient of the prestigious Louisiana Writer Award for 2012. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state’s literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

The Louisiana Writer Award is given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana. Past recipients include novelists James Lee Burke, Ernest J. Gaines, Shirley Ann Grau, Elmore Leonard, Tim Gautreaux, Valerie Martin and James Wilcox; children’s author William Joyce; poets Yusef Komunyakaa and William Jay Smith; historian Carl A. Brasseaux; and scholar Lewis P. Simpson.

John Biguenet has published seven books, including Oyster: A Novel and The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories, released in the U.S. by Ecco/HarperCollins and widely translated.

Biguenet’s work received an O. Henry Award for short fiction and a Harper's Magazine Writing Award among other distinctions and his poems, stories, plays and essays have been reprinted or cited in The Best American Mystery Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Best American Short Stories, Best Music Writing, Contemporary Poetry in America, Katrina on Stage and various other anthologies. His work has appeared in such magazines as Granta, Esquire, North American Review, Oxford American, Southern Review, Storie (Rome), Story and Zoetrope.

Named the first guest columnist of The New York Times, Biguenet chronicled in both columns and videos his return to New Orleans after its catastrophic flooding and the efforts to rebuild the city.

Biguenet’s radio play Wundmale, which premiered on Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Germany's largest radio network, was rebroadcast by Österreichischer Rundfunk, the Austrian national radio and television network. Two of his stories have been featured in Selected Shorts at Symphony Space on Broadway, the Long Wharf Theatre and elsewhere. The Vulgar Soul won the 2004 Southern New Plays Festival and was a featured production in 2005 at Southern Rep theater; he and the play were profiled in American Theatre magazine.

Rising Water was the winner of the 2006 National New Play Network Commission Award, a 2006 National Showcase of New Plays selection, a 2007 recipient of an Access to Artistic Excellence development and production grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the 2007 Big Easy Theater Award for Best Original Play. In 2008, Biguenet was named Theatre Person of the Year at the Big Easy Theatre Awards, the region’s major professional theater awards.

Shotgun, the second play in his Rising Water cycle, premiered in 2009 at Southern Rep Theater, with subsequent productions at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Florida Studio Theatre and elsewhere; it won a 2009 National New Play Network Continued Life of New Plays Fund award and was a 2009 recipient of an Access to Artistic Excellence development and production grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Shotgun is published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Biguenet was awarded a Marquette Fellowship for the writing of Night Train, his newest play, which he developed on a Studio Attachment at the National Theatre in London and which premiered at New Jersey Repertory Company Theater in 2011. Broomstick, currently in development, has had staged readings over the past year at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, the Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans and Portland Stage in Maine.

The third play in his Rising Water cycle, Mold, will premiere in 2013 at Southern Rep theater. This ongoing cycle of plays about the flooding of New Orleans has been the subject of articles in American Theatre, The American Scholar and elsewhere.

Biguenet has twice served as president of the American Literary Translators Association and as writer-in-residence at various universities. He is the Robert Hunter Distinguished University Professor at Loyola University in New Orleans.

The State Library of Louisiana named author Valerie Martin as the recipient of the 2010 Louisiana Writer Award.

Annually, the Louisiana Center for the Book presents the Louisiana Writer Award as way of honoring contemporary Louisiana writers whose published body of work represents a distinguished and enduring contribution to the literary and intellectual heritage of Louisiana. Martin is the eleventh recipient of the prestigious award, and the second woman to be chosen, with novelist Shirley Ann Grau having received the recognition in 2004. The first award went to Ernest J. Gaines, who now has a literary award named after him. Others who have followed include novelists James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard; poets Yusef Komunyakaa and William Jay Smith; historian Carl A. Brasseaux; scholar Lewis P. Simpson; and children’s author William Joyce. Author Tim Gautreaux was the recipient of the 2009 award.

As State Library Rebecca Hamilton noted with the announcement of Martin's selection, "Valerie Martin has drawn on her life experiences as a New Orleans native, with six of her nine novels set, in whole or in part, in Louisiana. In addition, all of her short story collections contain stories set in New Orleans." She went on to say, "Valerie, through her enormous talent and dedication to her craft, has contributed significantly to Louisiana’s rich literary legacy. We are proud to honor her with the Louisiana Writer Award and are so excited that she was able to travel home to Louisiana to accept the award in person."

Martin is the author of nine novels, three collections of short stories and a biography of St. Francis of Assisi. In 1990, her novel Mary Reilly, which purports to be the diary of Dr. Jekyll's housemaid, won the Kafka prize, was translated into 16 languages and was the subject of a film directed by Stephen Frears. Her novel Property, narrated by another voice from the past, that of a woman slave-owner in antebellum New Orleans, won Britain’s Orange Prize, was short-listed for France's Prix Femina Etranger and placed on the long list for Ireland's Impac award.

Starting college at the University of New Orleans, Martin began to write and to read the novels that would provide her with the thematic material that has sustained her through the years. She then attended graduate school at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, receiving an MFA in Creative Writing in 1974. Her first novel, Set in Motion, was published in 1978. Other novels and collections of short stories followed.

Martin’s teaching career took her to various institutions: the University of New Mexico at Las Cruces, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, the University of New Orleans, Mt. Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts, Sarah Lawrence College and in the fall of 2009, after a twenty year absence, back to Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Between 1994 and 1997 she lived in Italy, the setting of her novel Italian Fever and a biography, Salvation: Scenes from the life of St. Francis.

For the past twelve years, Martin has lived in upstate New York with her partner John Cullen and her cat Jackson Gray. She has one daughter, Adrienne Martin, who is a professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Award-winning author Tim Gautreaux was named recipient of the prestigious the Louisiana Writer Award. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state’s literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

"Louisiana enjoys a wealth of exceptional writers who are acknowledged as such both nationally and internationally," said then Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, whose office in the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism oversaw the State Library. "It is with great pride that we honor one such Louisiana writer, novelist Tim Gautreaux, with the Louisiana Writer Award."

Gautreaux’s awards include a National Magazine Award, Southeastern Booksellers Award for best novel, Mid-South Booksellers award, The Heasley Prize, The John Dos Passos Prize and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship.  He was the John Grisham visiting writer in residence at The University of Mississippi. Welding with Children was chosen by the New York Times as a notable book of the year.  The Clearing, published by Alfred A. Knopf, made several top ten lists, including the USA Today list of the ten best books of 2003.  Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Proulx called it “The finest American novel in a long, long time.”  His most recent novel, The Missing, appeared in 2009 to positive reviews.

"We reserve the Louisiana Writer Award only for extraordinary authors whose body of literary work as a whole stands out," said State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton. "Tim has proven time and again that through his talents and dedication to his work, he has contributed to the fine legacy of Louisiana writers."

Tim Gautreaux was born in Morgan City in 1947. He attended Nicholls State University and the University of South Carolina where he earned a Ph.D in English Literature. He has studied writing under such literary notables as James Dickey, George Garrett and Walker Percy. In 1972 he began teaching creative writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he directed the creative writing program until his retirement in 2003. 

His published fiction includes two collections of short stories (Same Place, Same Things, Welding with Children) and three novels (The Next Step in the Dance, The Clearing, The Missing).  His stories have appeared repeatedly in Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, GQ and many other magazines.  Over the years his work has been printed regularly in Best American Short Stories and New Stories from the South. He has been published in O. Henry Prize Stories as well as in several university literature textbooks. His essays have appeared in The Oxford American and Preservation Magazine.  For several years he served as editor of Louisiana Literature.

He is married to Winborne Howell and has two sons, Robert and Tom, and a grandchild, Lily. 

Presently Gautreaux maintains a connection to Southeastern Louisiana University as professor emeritus and writer in residence. The State Library of Louisiana honored Gautreaux at an award ceremony during the seventh annual Louisiana Book Festival on Oct. 17, 2009.

The Louisiana Writer Award is given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual heritage of Louisiana. Past recipients include children’s author William Joyce; poets Yusef Komunyakaa and William Jay Smith; historian Carl A. Brasseaux; novelists James Lee Burke, Ernest J. Gaines, Shirley Ann Grau and Elmore Leonard; and scholar Lewis P. Simpson.

Award-winning author and illustrator of best-selling children’s books William Joyce was named winner of the 2008 Louisiana Writer Award. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state’s literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

William Joyce was the first children’s author to earn the Louisiana Writer Award. He wrote his first book in the fourth grade. Since then, he has produced award-winning, best-selling classics that are loved by both children and adults. Hailed by Newsweek as one of the top 100 people to watch in the new millennium, William Joyce’s distinct and striking drawings and imaginative storytelling depict a world full of whimsy, fun and adventure - the kind of world a child would want to jump into.

In addition to his artistic endeavors, Joyce also is dedicated to giving back to his community. As a native Louisianan, he came to experience first hand the human tragedies wrought by the storms of 2005. In an effort to help his fellow Louisianans, he has used his art in at least two approaches to raise funds for those affected. "Faces of Katrina" was an exhibit that combined the work of several photographers. With the goal of empowering evacuees through photography sessions, the exhibit sought to restore the face of dignity to these evacuees. Joyce also created an original work of art, "Katrinarita Gras." The piece was originally done as a potential cover for The New Yorker magazine. The editors asked Joyce to develop a piece that would epitomize the storms and aftermath.

"Coming up with a concept that tempered my rage with some hope was not easy, but I got inspiration from an old photograph of Mardi Gras in the '30s by J. Guttman, called the ‘The Game’. It's a wonderful, eerie image of New Orleans and its curious magic," said Joyce. “Katrinarita Gras” is available at http://stores.ebay.com/Katrinarita-Gras-Foundation.

Joyce is an award-winning author and illustrator of such best-selling children’s books as George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and his Adventures with the Family Lazardo, Rolie Polie Olie, The Leaf Men and The Brave Good Bugs and A Day with Wilbur Robinson. In addition to being a recognized figure in the world of children’s literature, Joyce’s illustrations have appeared numerous times on the cover of The New Yorker and his paintings are displayed at museums and art galleries across the nation.

Joyce has won three Emmys for his popular children’s show William Joyce’s Rolie Polie Olie, an animated series that airs on the Disney Channel, and he has lent his creative expertise to the feature film world by creating conceptual characters for such films as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. Joyce’s second television series, George Shrinks, is aired daily on PBS stations across the country. In March 2005 William Joyce released his first major animated feature film entitled ROBOTS with Twentieth Century Fox. Joyce served as both a Producer and Production Designer of this critically acclaimed and commercially successful hit film. William Joyce’s latest film with Disney Feature Animation based on his classic tale A Day with Wilbur Robinson debuted in theatres in March 2007 as Meet the Robinsons. Look for it now on DVD.

All of Joyce’s eccentric characters charm children and adults alike with their imaginative adventures. Joyce observes that his upbringing by "a congenial horde of southern screwballs" allowed writing and illustrating to come easily to him.

Joyce is a native of Shreveport where he lives with his wife Elizabeth and their children, Jack and Mary Katherine. They have a dachshund named Rose and a canine-like destruction device named Rex. Their school of goldfish recently escaped to waters unknown.

The State Library of Louisiana honored Joyce at an award ceremony during the sixth annual Louisiana Book Festival, presented on Oct. 4, 2008.

The Louisiana Writer Award is given periodically to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual heritage of Louisiana. Past recipients include poet Yusef Komunyakaa; historian Carl A. Brasseaux; novelists James Lee Burke, Ernest J. Gaines, Shirley Ann Grau, Elmore Leonard; scholar Lewis P. Simpso; and poet William Jay Smith.

Bogalusa native and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa (koh-muhn-YAH-kuh) recieved the 2007 Louisina Writer Award. Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, La., on April 29,1947. His poetic interests are founded upon and driven by a wide range of influences that include the poetry of the Bible, the cultures of Africa as captured in blues, jazz and gospel music, the poetry of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks and the Western canon in general. Of particular consequence are his childhood experiences of Bogalusa and later, the Vietnam War; during the war, he reported events from the front lines and edited a military newspaper as an “information specialist” in the army.

Komunyakaa credits reading James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name as the catalyst for inspiring him to write; he began writing poetry while still in high school. His principal books of poems include Gilgamesh: A Verse Play (with Chad Gracia, 2006); Thieves of Paradise (1998), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977-1989 (1994), which received the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley-Tufts Poetry Award; Dien Cai Dau (1988), which won The Dark Room Poetry Prize; and I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head (1986), winner of the San Francisco Poetry Center Award.

His honors include the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes; the Thomas Forcade Award; the Hanes Poetry Prize; fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam. In 1999 he was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. Currently, he is Professor & Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program.

The Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana established the Louisiana Writer Award in 2000 to honor Louisiana writers and scholars whose published works represent distinguished contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual heritage. Elmore Leonard was honored in 2006 for his outstanding contributions to the literary heritage of Louisiana.

Elmore John Leonard, Jr. was born Oct. 11, 1925, in New Orleans. During his highly successful career, he has written numerous short stories and screenplays, and more than forty western and crime novels, including the bestsellers The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool, Get Shorty and Rum Punch, and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, When the Women Come Out to Dance, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2003.

Detailed information on Elmore Leonard is available at www.ElmoreLeonard.com.

Essayist, professor and former co-editor of The Southern Review Lewis P. Simpson received the Louisiana Writer Award in 2005. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state's literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

The prestigious Louisiana Writer Award has been given annually since 2000 to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana.

Simpson authored or edited 12 books, seven of which were published by the Louisiana State University Press. His works include The Fable of the Southern Writer and Mind and the American Civil War.

In addition to the Louisiana Writer Award, Simpson was recipient of the Avery O. Craven Award of the Organizations of American Historians, the Hubbell Medal, the Jules and Frances Landry Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.

Born in 1916, Simpson grew up in Jacksboro, Texas. He received Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1948, Simpson moved to Baton Rouge, where he was a professor of English at Louisiana State University until 1987. He was named Boyd Professor at LSU in 1980.

He served as co-editor of the Southern Review from 1965 to 1987.

Simpson was a founding member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He was also president of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature.

Simpson died in 2005.

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, short story writer and Louisiana native Shirley Ann Grau was named recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award in 2004. She was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for her extraordinary contributions to the state's literary heritage exemplified by her body of work.

The prestigious Louisiana Writer Award has been given annually since 2000 to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana.

Grau has written three short story collections: The Black Prince and Other Stories, The Wind Shifting West and Nine Women. She is also the author of novels such as The Hard Blue Sky and The Condor Passes.

For her 1964 novel The Keepers of the House, Grau was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1965.

Grau has contributed stories and articles to journals and magazines, including Atlantic, New Yorker, Redbook, Mademoiselle and Reporter.

Grau was born in 1929 in New Orleans. She studied English at Tulane University and graduated with honors in 1950. From 1966 to 1967, Grau served as a creative writing teacher at the University of New Orleans.

In addition to the Louisiana Writer's Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Grau has received honorary doctorates from Rider College and Spring Hill College.

Grau is a board member of St. Martin's Episcopal School in New Orleans.

Historian and Louisiana native Carl Brasseaux received the Louisiana Writer Award in 2003. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state's literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

The prestigious Louisiana Writer Award has been given annually since 2000 to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana.

Brasseaux was born in 1951 in Opelousas, La. He studied at University of Southwestern Louisiana, receiving a B.A. in political science in 1974; he earned an M.A. in history in 1975. He completed post-graduate studies at Louisiana State University Law School in 1972 and Louisiana State University from 1976 to 1978 in history. In 1982, Brasseaux earned a doctorate in North American studies from the University of Paris.

At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly the University of Southwestern Louisiana), Brasseaux has served as assistant director of Center for Louisiana Studies since 1975, curator of Center for Louisiana Studies colonial records collection since 1980, and as a professor of history since 1987. In 1994, he served as a visiting professor at the Université Laval in Québec. He was named a University Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1995. In 2000, he was made a Louisiana Historical Association fellow.

Brasseaux has been interviewed for television and radio, making appearances on NPR, Australian National Broadcasting, Polish National Television, Canadian Broadcasting Company, Radio France, Belgian National Radio, CNN and German National Public Radio.

Brasseaux has authored more than 30 books, including numerous works on Louisiana history such as Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877, Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country, The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 and Scattered to the Wind: Dispersal and Wanderings of the Acadians, 1755-1809.

Under the pseudonym Antoine Bourque, Brasseaux has also written fiction.

In addition to the Louisiana Writer Award, Brasseaux has received the Kemper Williams Prize, 1979, for best manuscript on Louisiana history; Robert L. Brown Prize, 1980, for best article in Louisiana History; Presidents' Memorial Award, Louisiana Historical Association, 1986, for article "The Moral Climate of French Louisiana, 1699-1763" (published in Louisiana History, XXVII, 1986); book prize, French Colonial Historical Society, 1987; special lifetime achievement award, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1987, for contributions to the study of Louisiana genealogy; Golden Achievement Award, Breaux Bridge Historical Society, 1989; Chevalier, l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, diplôme, 1991, medal, 1994; and National Daughters of the American Revolution Award, 1995.

Bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke was named recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award in 2002. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state's literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

The prestigious Louisiana Writer Award has been given annually since 2000 to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana.

Burke is noted for his crime novels. He is the author of the Dave Robicheaux series, which is comprised of works such as Black Cherry Blues, A Stained White Radiance and Jolie Blon's Bounce. He also wrote the Edgar Award-winning Cimarron Rose.

Burke has published a total of 25 novels, along with a number of short stories.

Burke has also been awarded a Breadloaf fellowship, 1970; Southern Federation of State Arts Agencies grant, 1977; National Endowment grant, 1977; Pulitzer Prize nomination, 1987, for The Lost Get-Back Boogie; Edgar Allan Poe awards for Best Novel, Mystery Writers of America, 1989, for Black Cherry Blues, and 1998, for Cimarron Rose; Guggenheim fellowship, 1989; Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for best novel and Hammett Prize nominee, North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers, both 2003, both for Jolie Blon's Bounce.

Burke was born in 1936 in Houston, Texas. He worked as a surveyor and social worker in Los Angeles from 1962 to 1964; as a newspaper reporter in Lafayette, La., in 1964; and as an English instructor at colleges and universities, including University of Southern Illinois, University of Montana, Miami-Dade Community College and Wichita State University, as well as at the U.S. Forest Service, Job Corps Conservation Center, Frenchburg, Ky., as an instructor from 1965 to 1966.

Poet and Louisiana native William J. Smith was named recipient of the 2001 Louisiana Writer Award. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state's literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

The prestigious Louisiana Writer Award has been given annually since 2000 to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana.

Smith's poems include "The Tin Can," "Venice in the Fog" and "Typewriter Birds." Smith had also written children's poems such as "Laughing Time," "If I Had a Boat" and "Ho for a Hat!"

Smith's poetry has appeared in a number of such anthologies and textbooks as The War Poets, Day, 1945; The New Poets of England and America, Meridian, 1957; Modern Verse in English, 1900-1950, Macmillan, 1958; Poems for Seasons and Celebrations, World Publishing, 1961; Contemporary American Poets: American Poetry since 1940, Meridian, 1969; and Talking like the Rain, Little, Brown, 1992.

He has also served as translator of numerous works. Smith's translations from Russian, Hungarian, Swedish and French, particularly of the poems of Jules Laforgue and Andrei Voznesensky, have appeared in periodicals and books.

Smith added the Louisiana Writer Award to a long list of accolades, including Young Poets Prize, Poetry magazine, 1945; alumni citation, Washington University, 1963; Ford fellowship for drama, 1964; Union League Civic and Arts Foundation prize, Poetry magazine, 1964; Henry Bellamann Major award, 1970; Russell Loines Award, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1972; National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1972 and 1995; D.Litt., New England College, 1973; National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1975 and 1989; Gold Medal of Labor, Hungary, 1978; New England Poetry Club Golden Rose, 1980; Ingram Merrill Foundation grant, 1982; California Children's Book and Video Awards recognition for excellence (preschool and toddlers category), 1990, for Ho for a Hat!; medal (médaille de vermeil) for service to the French language, French Academy, 1991; Pro Cultura Hungarica medal, 1993; René Vasquez Diaz prize, Swedish Academy, 1997.

Smith was born in 1918 in Winnfield, La. He received a B.A. from Washington University in 1939 and a M.A. in 1941. Smith attended l'Institut de Touraine and earned a diplôme d'études françaises from l'Université de Poitiers. He also performed graduate study at Columbia University from 1946 to 1947, at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar from 1947 to 1948 and at the University of Florence from 1948 to 1950.

Smith has taught poetry and writing at a number of institutions. Amond them are Washington University, St. Louis, MO, assistant in French, 1939 to 1941; Columbia University, New York, NY, instructor in English and French, 1946 to 1947, visiting professor of writing and acting chair of writing division, 1973, 1974 to 1975; Williams College, Williamstown, MA, lecturer in English, 1951, poet-in-residence and lecturer in English, 1956 to 1964, 1966 to 1967; Arena Stage, Washington, DC, writer-in-residence, 1964 to 1965; Hollins University, Hollins, VA, writer-in-residence, 1965 to 1966, professor of English, 1970 to 1980, professor emeritus, 1980 to present. He has also served as lecturer at Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1975; Fulbright lecturer, Moscow State University, 1981; and poet-in-residence, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1985 to 1988.

Smith served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1941 to 1945, becoming a lieutenant and receiving commendation by French Admiralty. He also was a Democratic member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1960 to 1962.

He was a Library of Congress consultant in poetry from 1968 to 1970 and an honorary consultant from 1970 to 1976.

Novelist, National Humanities Medalist and Louisiana native Ernest J. Gaines was named recipient of the first Louisiana Writer Award in 2000. He was honored by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana for his extraordinary contributions to the state's literary heritage exemplified by his body of work.

The prestigious Louisiana Writer Award has been given annually since 2000 to recognize outstanding contributions to the literary and intellectual life of Louisiana.

Gaines is the author of novels Catherine Carmier, Of Love and Dust, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, In My Father's House, A Gathering of Old Men and A Lesson Before Dying. He has also written a collection of short stories, Bloodline, which includes "A Long Day in November."

Gaines' writings have been translated into other languages, including German and French. Several of his works have inspired media adaptations, including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (CBS, 1974), which won nine Emmy Awards. "The Sky Is Gray," a short story originally published in Bloodline, was adapted for public television in 1980. A Gathering of Old Men, adapted from Gaines' novel, aired on CBS in 1987. In My Father's House was adapted for audiocassette. A Lesson Before Dying was filmed for Home Box Office in 1999 and was adapted for the stage by Romulus Linney in 2001.

In addition to the Louisiana Writer Award, Gaines is recipient of a Wallace Stegner fellowship, Stanford University, 1957; Joseph Henry Jackson Award, San Francisco Foundation, 1959, for "Comeback" (short story); National Endowment for the Arts award, 1967; Rockefeller grant, 1970; Guggenheim fellowship, 1971; Black Academy of Arts and Letters award, 1972; fiction gold medal, Commonwealth Club of California, 1972, for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and 1984, for A Gathering of Old Men; Louisiana Library Association award, 1972; award for excellence of achievement in literature, San Francisco Arts Commission, 1983; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters literary award, 1987; MacArthur Foundation fellowship, 1993; National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, 1993, for A Lesson before Dying; made Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France), 1996; inducted into Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, Chicago State University, 1998; Emmy Award for Best Television Movie, 1999, for adaptation of A Lesson before Dying; National Humanities Medal, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2000.

Gaines was born in 1933 in Oscar, La. He attended Vallejo Junior College, received a B.A. from San Francisco State College (now University) in 1957 and did graduate study at Stanford University from 1958 to 1959. He has received honorary doctorates of letters from Denison University, Brown University, Bard College, Whittier College and Louisiana State University.

Gaines has been a writer-in-residence at Denison University, Stanford University, University of Southwestern Louisiana at Lafayette and Whittier College. He also served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955.