Contemporary New Orleans Literature booklist
Today, an overview of the books i've had to read for one of my courses. (These aren't Amazon Affiliate links or anything BTW--honestly, i don't see myself taking the time to set that kind of referral-program crap up.)
I am really looking forward to this course, because admittedly before this class, my nebulous idea of what "New Orleans Literature" might be was confined to Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite novels, and a few Tennessee Williams plays. It's clear that there's a sort of schism in New Orleans creative art, of that produced pre-Katrina and that produced post-Katrina, and it's really been fascinating to see how various members of the New Orleans artistic community (writers, musicians, painters, performers, etc) have been struggling so hard to retain or reestablish communication and ties with what is now the New Orleanian post-Katrina creative diaspora.
Anyhow, here are the books:
New Orleans Lit: Short Story Collections
Dream State by Moira Crone--Written in 1995, pre-Katrina.
Southern Cross by Skip Horack--Written in 2008, post-Katrina, but not steeped in hurricane-lit. Haven't enjoyed a collection of short stories this much since i read Breece Pancake's. Which, maybe "enjoy" isn't quite the word, because most of them are super grim, but good.
French Quarter Fiction edited by Joshua Clark--Lots of stories either set in the French Quarter or written by authors living in it. I loved about ten of them, hated about ten of them, and the rest could take or leave.
New Orleans Lit: Poetry
The I of the Storm by Bill Lavender--Post-Katrina poetry collection, though the first half of the book is pre-K poetry.
New Orleans Lit: Novels
And the Parade Goes On Without You by Andrea Boll--This came out post-Katrina, but is set pre-Katrina. Really loved this one, as a postmodern-collage-style novel of second-line parades.
Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden--Hands down my favorite book of the bunch. This novel takes place between Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. I literally stayed up all night reading this book because i couldn't put it down. I might give copies of this to people for Christmas.
New Orleans Lit: Anthologies
Year Zero, compiled by NOLAFugees.com--This was the collection that kept me from getting actively depressed by the post-K survivor accounts. In this collection, the authors got past being beat down enough to express some fatalistic dark humor, which felt like a first rung on the ladder to New Orleans returning psychologically to itself, if that makes sense.
Voices Rising, edited by Rebeca Antoine--This one, i read before Year Zero, and it was overwhelming. Really good in terms of personal accounts and the stories people told about surviving the disaster, but hard to get through, which is in and of itself hard to consider, since I'm just reading about what they went through, and they're the ones that went through it.
Big Bridge Crescent City Sturm und Drang, edited by Dave Brinks and Bill Lavender.
And, there is one more anthology, a literary journal which i cannot find any links to online, a post-Katrina edition of Callaloo which you can only get to on like, JSTOR (I read it through the UNC library login i've got with work).
FIVE DAYS, Y'ALL. :D
I am really looking forward to this course, because admittedly before this class, my nebulous idea of what "New Orleans Literature" might be was confined to Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite novels, and a few Tennessee Williams plays. It's clear that there's a sort of schism in New Orleans creative art, of that produced pre-Katrina and that produced post-Katrina, and it's really been fascinating to see how various members of the New Orleans artistic community (writers, musicians, painters, performers, etc) have been struggling so hard to retain or reestablish communication and ties with what is now the New Orleanian post-Katrina creative diaspora.
Anyhow, here are the books:
New Orleans Lit: Short Story Collections
Dream State by Moira Crone--Written in 1995, pre-Katrina.
Southern Cross by Skip Horack--Written in 2008, post-Katrina, but not steeped in hurricane-lit. Haven't enjoyed a collection of short stories this much since i read Breece Pancake's. Which, maybe "enjoy" isn't quite the word, because most of them are super grim, but good.
French Quarter Fiction edited by Joshua Clark--Lots of stories either set in the French Quarter or written by authors living in it. I loved about ten of them, hated about ten of them, and the rest could take or leave.
New Orleans Lit: Poetry
The I of the Storm by Bill Lavender--Post-Katrina poetry collection, though the first half of the book is pre-K poetry.
New Orleans Lit: Novels
And the Parade Goes On Without You by Andrea Boll--This came out post-Katrina, but is set pre-Katrina. Really loved this one, as a postmodern-collage-style novel of second-line parades.
Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden--Hands down my favorite book of the bunch. This novel takes place between Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. I literally stayed up all night reading this book because i couldn't put it down. I might give copies of this to people for Christmas.
New Orleans Lit: Anthologies
Year Zero, compiled by NOLAFugees.com--This was the collection that kept me from getting actively depressed by the post-K survivor accounts. In this collection, the authors got past being beat down enough to express some fatalistic dark humor, which felt like a first rung on the ladder to New Orleans returning psychologically to itself, if that makes sense.
Voices Rising, edited by Rebeca Antoine--This one, i read before Year Zero, and it was overwhelming. Really good in terms of personal accounts and the stories people told about surviving the disaster, but hard to get through, which is in and of itself hard to consider, since I'm just reading about what they went through, and they're the ones that went through it.
Big Bridge Crescent City Sturm und Drang, edited by Dave Brinks and Bill Lavender.
And, there is one more anthology, a literary journal which i cannot find any links to online, a post-Katrina edition of Callaloo which you can only get to on like, JSTOR (I read it through the UNC library login i've got with work).
FIVE DAYS, Y'ALL. :D
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