
Wide Awake in the Pelican State
Stories by Contemporary Louisiana Writers
Ann Brewster Dobie(Editor)
Louisiana State University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. May 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-8071-3034-6 (ISBN)
Description
Wide Awake in the Pelican State -- which mimics the title of Dinty W. Moore's contribution to the collection -- brings together twenty-one of the finest modern writers who claim Louisiana as home, having lived all or some part of their lives in the Pelican State. Each author shares the knack of telling a good story, a Louisiana tradition that dates back two hundred years to the tales told by African American griots and the stories swapped among Mississippi river workers on boats, in taverns, and around campfires.
Though united by talent and place, these writers speak with inflections that vary by gender, race, education, religion, and time spent elsewhere. Their stories are also richly diverse, ranging from Ernest Gaines's humorous portrait of black culture in rural Louisiana to Tim Parrish's aching depiction of white working-class family life in Baton Rouge, from Ellen Gilchrist's acerbically funny rendering of wealthy New Orleans bankers to Richard Ford's flinty unfolding of a father-son relationship in the marshy netherworld south of the Crescent City. The pieces span the full swath of Louisiana experience, be it the life of a Vietnamese refugee in Lake Charles or the miraculous appearance of the image of Jesus on a refrigerator in Holly Springs.
In addition to their Louisiana-rooted inspiration and highest regard for craft, the stories in Wide Awake in the Pelican State share a deep humanity. These are stories about people -- noble and nefarious, some living high and others down on their luck -- as they fathom the tragic depths and comic heights of love, betrayal, family, change, and life writ large.
Contributors to Wide Awake in the Pelican State: John Biguenet, James Lee Burke, Robert Olen Butler, Kelly Cherry, Moira Crone, Albert Belisle Davis, Charles deGravelles, John Dufresne, Richard Ford, Ernest J. Gaines, Louis Gallo, Tim Gautreaux, Norman German, Ellen Gilchrist, Joan Arbour Grant, Shirley Ann Grau, Dinty W. Moore, Tim Parrish, Tom Piazza, Nancy Richard, James Wilcox.
Though united by talent and place, these writers speak with inflections that vary by gender, race, education, religion, and time spent elsewhere. Their stories are also richly diverse, ranging from Ernest Gaines's humorous portrait of black culture in rural Louisiana to Tim Parrish's aching depiction of white working-class family life in Baton Rouge, from Ellen Gilchrist's acerbically funny rendering of wealthy New Orleans bankers to Richard Ford's flinty unfolding of a father-son relationship in the marshy netherworld south of the Crescent City. The pieces span the full swath of Louisiana experience, be it the life of a Vietnamese refugee in Lake Charles or the miraculous appearance of the image of Jesus on a refrigerator in Holly Springs.
In addition to their Louisiana-rooted inspiration and highest regard for craft, the stories in Wide Awake in the Pelican State share a deep humanity. These are stories about people -- noble and nefarious, some living high and others down on their luck -- as they fathom the tragic depths and comic heights of love, betrayal, family, change, and life writ large.
Contributors to Wide Awake in the Pelican State: John Biguenet, James Lee Burke, Robert Olen Butler, Kelly Cherry, Moira Crone, Albert Belisle Davis, Charles deGravelles, John Dufresne, Richard Ford, Ernest J. Gaines, Louis Gallo, Tim Gautreaux, Norman German, Ellen Gilchrist, Joan Arbour Grant, Shirley Ann Grau, Dinty W. Moore, Tim Parrish, Tom Piazza, Nancy Richard, James Wilcox.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baton Rouge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8071-3034-6 (9780807130346)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2006
1st Edition
LSU Press
€33.39
Available for download

E-Book
05/2006
1st Edition
University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
€19.49
Available for download
Persons
Ann Brewster Dobie is the editor of Something in Common: Contemporary Louisiana Stories and Uncommonplace: An Anthology of Contemporary Louisiana Poets. For thirteen years she served as director of the National Writing Project of Acadiana and now coordinates the Louisiana Writing Project. She is a professor emerita of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.