“On Witness and Respair,” by Jesmyn Ward, Scribner, 256 pages. Jesmyn Ward remembers seeing the Mississippi Literary Map on the wall of her elementary school library. Iconic names and faces — Faulkner, Welty and Wright — staring out from the confines of a... See more
“From the Back of a Bus Named Desire” by Brenda Quant, University of New Orleans Press, 184 pages. In the late 1950s, while waiting for a late-night bus with her mother, 10-year-old Brenda Quant took a ride on the Whites-only swing set at Washington Squar... See more
“Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad: The Biology and Conservation of North America’s Favorite Crustaceans” by Zackary A. Graham, The University of North Carolina Press, 232 pages. As crawfish season winds down in Louisiana, my thoughts often turn to what the cru... See more
“The Oyster Diaries,” by Nancy Lemann, New York Review Book, 240 pages “The doom” is thankfully over. That’s the phrase New Orleans writer Nancy Lemann has used to describe the past two decades, a seemingly productive period that has — blame the big-house... See more
“The Hospital at the End of the World,” by Justin C. Key, Harper, 400 pages. Book critics rarely, if ever, write about book covers. That task, perhaps, is the domain of designers, artists and publicists. It’s what’s between the covers that matters. But th... See more
