Recent News & Media

REVIEW

The Advocate on A White Hot Plan

NEW INTERVIEW

Reviewer Michele Sharpe Interviews C.W. Cannon, author of I Want Magic

NEW INTERVIEW

Amber Edwards and Justin Scott on Reading and Writing Podcast

NEWS

Lafayette author Gayle Webre featured in The Acadiana Advocate

NEWS

When I Was an Alligator to Represent Louisiana at National Book Festival

NEW REVIEW

Country Roads Magazine "The Acadian Accordion"

NEW ARTICLE

WBTV on Jean Laffite Revealed

NEW INTERVIEW

Conversation with John McNally and Sadie Hoagland

NEWS

Made in Louisiana awarded Excellence Overall for the 2022 Southern Books Competition

NEW PODCAST

Lafayette Cook Book featured on "Louisiana Eats!" NPR podcast with Poppy Tooker

A White Hot Plan by Mike and Ayan Rubin

Mike and Ayan Rubin

Mike Rubin Interview with Talk Louisiana, WRKF 89.3

Author and attorney Michael H. Rubin talks his latest work, A White Hot Plan with Talk Louisiana host Jim Engster. Listen here.

I Want Magic by C.W. Cannon


C.W. Cannon

Reviewer Michele Sharpe Interviews C.W. Cannon

If there is any doubt about God having a sense of humor, the old joke goes, you need only look at his decision to combine the human sex organs with the sewage disposal system. Questionable design, to be sure . . . Read Now

 

Forty Days and Forty Nights by Amber Edwards and Justin Scott


Amber Edwards and Justin Scott

Reading and Writing Podcast Interview

Interview with Amber Edwards and Justin Scott, husband and wife co-authors of Forty Days and Forty Nights . . . Listen Now

 

Cablog by Dege Legg

Dege Legg

Bayou Hack Press: CABLOG author, Dege Legg, talks music, life, quarantine and, of course, his book

Award-winning writer and musician Dege Legg, aka Brother Dege, has charted an unconventional career course, following a creative spirit and impulsive gut along a zig-zag path . . . Read Now

Largehearted Boy: Dege Legg's Playlist for His Memoir Cablog

Being a musician and writer, there is always music in my head. Sometimes it is my music. But mostly it is the music of great songwriters, rattling around in my subconscious. They inform every moment . . . Read Now

KRVS Interview with Dege Legg

An interview with Grammy nominee, journalist, and author Dege Legg . . . Listen Now

Fox 8 Interview with Dege Legg

Fox 8 interviews author and musician Dege Legg about his book Cablog: Diary of a Cabdriver . . . Watch Now

The Fear of Everything by John McNally

John McNally

Kelly Fordon Discussion with John McNally

“The Phone Call” by John McNally, is a story that will deposit you deep in a closed timeline curve and though it is quite a trip, I have faith that you will make it back to reality in one piece . . . Listen Now

Reading and Writing Podcast Interview with John McNally

The 333rd episode of the Reading & Writing podcast features an interview with John McNally, author of the collection The Fear of Everything: Stories . . . Listen Now

Fiction Writers Review Interview John McNally

I read The Fear of Everything in one sitting, a thing I rarely do with collections of stories. But, from the first pages, I found it hard to pull away from the sense of tangible longing at its core . . . Read Now

Largehearted Boy: John McNally's Playlist for His Story Collection The Fear of Everything

When I write short stories, I’m increasingly less interested in how things change during the course of the narrative in terms of action and increasingly more interested in how to push the narrative forward through mood . . . Read Now

WRKF Radio Interview with John McNally

General Russel Honore‘ discusses The Fear of Everything with John McNally . . . Listen Now

Jean Laffite Revealed by Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough

Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough

Fox 10 Mobile "Exploring History with "Jean Laffite Revealed"

Fox10's Chelsey Sayasane interviews Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough about the famous pirate Jean Laffite and uncovering the truth of how he spent his final years . . . Watch Now

WCNC Charlotte "The Mystery of Jean Laffite and Lincolnton"

Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough sit down and talk about the famous pirate Jean Laffite and his connection to the made Lorenzo Ferrer who lived in Lincolnton . . . Watch Now

Lincoln Times-News on "the secrets behind the ties of the pirate Jean Laffite to Lincolnton"

That the infamous New Orleans pirate Jean Laffite has ties to Lincolnton is not well known. That’s about the change with the release of a book by Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough, two Lincoln County writers, “Jean Laffite Revealed: Unraveling One of America’s Longest Running Mysteries . . . Read Now

Denver Citizen "In search of Jean Laffite: Was Lincolnton man really the famous pirate?"

Lincolnton natives Ashley Oliphant, an English professor at Pfeiffer University, and her mother, Beth Yarbrough, author of the blog “Southern Voice,” spent two years researching Ferrer – a man who many people believed was the pirate Jean Laffite – for their book, “Jean Laffite Revealed: Unraveling One of America’s Longest Running Mysteries” . . . Read Now

Lincoln Herald "Jean Laffite Book Sheds Light On Mysterious Pirate"

Piracy has been with us, a fact of life in maritime nations, for long millennia. It remains alive and well to this day, all over the world. But most folks, when they think of piracy, surely conjure up the images of its golden age, which lasted some 80 years and ended not quite three centuries ago. . . Read Now

Mirrors by David Armand

Mirrors by David Armand

Deep South Magazine "Ornaments of Memory: A Review of ‘Mirrors and Other Reflections’"

"How did we get to where we are now? What were the scrapes, stutters and blemishes on the way here? There are little ornaments of memory decorating all of us. These moments may seem unassuming as they happen, even insignificant, but one day when we drive past an old street sign or catch sight of a crack in a coffee table, we realize that they’ve somehow morphed into the structural parts of how we came to be. . ." Read Now

Made in Louisiana by Marc Savoy

Made in Louisiana by Marc Savoy

"Excellence Overall" award for the 2022 Southern Books Competition

"Made in Louisiana represents the best in combining research with graphic design. The size and binding of the book make it appropriate for a coffee table or an academic bookshelf. The graphic design work on the various accordions shown on endpapers and within the text is intricate and precise, allowing for a dimensional quality to the layouts. The balance between historical information and images is well thought out, further making it engaging to the reader or casual peruser."

Country Roads "The History of the Acadian Accordion"

"In a new memoir, accordion-maker Marc Savoy chronicles the instrument’s history in Cajun Country. . ." Read Now

Songlines "The story of an instrument from the man who made it"

“Eighty-one-year-old Marc Savoy (pronounced ‘Sa-vwa’) states, near the start of his passionate and idiosyncratic book, that, ‘the stimulus that inspired me to pursue music… actually had nothing to do with music. It was my love for the people around me that made me want to do what they did.’” . . . Read Now

Americana UK "Cajun Corner: Book Review"

"The great instrumental triumvirate of Cajun music is the guitar, the fiddle, and the accordion but, surely, the greatest of the great is the accordion. Without the fluidity of the button accordion, it’s really hard to accept a tune as being authentically Cajun" . . . Read Now

Jean Laffite Revealed by Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough

Jean Laffite Revealed by Ashley Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough

225 Magazine "Fresh Reads: Add some Southern flair to your reading list for those long summer days"

“I’m a sucker for deep dives into history that peel away the layers of legend and rumors. For anyone who has ever heard the stories of this famed pirate’s exploits in New Orleans or the claims of pirate ancestry among residents of Grand Isle, this is sure to offer new insights into a historical figure who always seemed so close to our local hearts yet still shrouded in mystery.” . . . Read Now

WBTV "The Lincolnton, N.C. Pirate: Unraveling the mystery of Jean Laffite"

In the 1820s, pirate Jean Laffite, a smuggler from the Gulf Coast area in Louisiana, allegedly faked his death. He resurfaced in North Carolina under a different name, an alias. . . . Read Now

The Stanly News & Press "Pfeiffer professor and her mother pen book uncovering the truth behind the pirate Jean Laffite"

"While Laffite, who was born near the end of the 18th century, is probably not as familiar to the average person as Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, people like Oliphant and her mother who grew up in Lincolnton have a special connection with the man.” . . . Read Now

Cablog by Dege Legg

Cablog by Dege Legg

Offbeat Magazine "CabLog Diary of a (Musical) Cabdriver"

In mid-’90s New Orleans, the bar Check Point Charlie wasn’t for the faint of heart, especially after midnight. Lurking on the edge of the French Quarter, Check Point doubled as a laundromat, late-night eatery and pool . . . Read Now

The Advocate on Dege Legg and Cablog

Legg based "Cablog" on the fare logs he kept for City Cab Company from 2003 to 2008. He blogged contemporaneously about the experience, amassing 800 pages of source material . . . Read Now

The Blasting Days review of Cablog

Cablog is 200 pages of interesting stories, with people that are often not what you’d expect at first, with all their complexities and contradictions, strengths and failures . . . Read Now

Bayou Hack Press review of Cablog

Dege Legg’s Cablog, a five-year account of night shift cab driving in Lafayette, Louisiana, is, quite simply, so good, it’s difficult to put down . . . Read Now

Antigravity Magazine on Cablog

Legg has a knack for telling these stories in short, on-the-head entries certain to captivate both obsessive literary hounds and non-readers alike . . . Read Now

When I Was an Alligator by Gayle Webre and Drew Beech

When I Was an Alligator by Gayle Webre and Drew Beech

225 Magazine "Fresh Reads: Add some Southern flair to your reading list for those long summer days"

"A gorgeous book and fun to read aloud with the kids. It’s about a curious Cajun girl transforming into a series of wetland creatures. Imagination and ecology in a brilliant package!" . . . See More

Manhattan Book Review on When I Was an Alligator

Children will love this imaginative tale. They will lavish in its predictability and will look forward to seeing what transformation awaits them next . . . Read Now

The Fear of Everything by John McNally

The Fear of Everything by John McNally

Deep South Magazine Lists The Fear of Everything as a Best Fall/Winter Read for 2020-21

If you want some short stories full of twists and turns that send shivers down your spine, look no further than John McNally’s The Fear of Everything. . . . Read Now

The Sunlight Press on The Fear of Everything

The nine stories in this collection seem to take the reader on a roller-coaster ride: They’re full of eventful highs and somber depths — and you can’t get off once you start . . . Read Now

New York Journal of Books on The Fear of Everything

Although McNally’s stories seem unbelievable at first, they throb with a recognizable human heartbeat, powered by love and regret and the mystery of life . . . Read Now

Foreword Reviews on The Fear of Everything

These stories are not inhabited by traditional supernatural monsters, but rather by the specters of regret for decisions made or not made, and by the repercussions of unrealized opportunities and events long past . . . Read Now

Another Chicago Magazine on The Fear of Everything

I’m here to say John McNally’s new story collection has reenergized me as a reader and a writer, and I fully expect it will exert those powers on you . . . Read Now

A White Hot Plan by Mike and Ayan Rubin

The Advocate on A White Hot Plan

The third of Michael and Ayan Rubin’s Louisiana thrillers debuted last month, published by the University of Louisiana Press. Titled "A White Hot Plan," it tells the story of a once distinguished, but now disgraced, former New Orleans police detective who slowly realizes that the south Louisiana parish where he now works as a lowly deputy is a center of major national and international crime . . . Read Now

Rebel Bayou authors spotlighted in ActionNews17 (11/13/2022)

Southeastern Louisiana University Leon Ford Endowed Chair, Professor of History, and Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies Director Samuel Hyde and his wife Sarah, River Parishes Community College professor of history, have combined their talents to produce a work of historical fiction titled Rebel Bayou. . . Read Now

Samuel and Sarah Hyde featured in The Acadiana Advocate (11/13/2022)

Professors of history Samuel Hyde and his wife Sarah, have combined talents for "Rebel Bayou," a work of historical fiction. Samuel Hyde is the Southeastern Louisiana University Leon Ford Endowed chair, professor of history, and Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies director. Sarah Hyde teaches at River Parishes Community College. . . Read Now

Lafayette author Gayle Webre featured in The Acadiana Advocate (8/27/2022)

Lafayette author Gayle Webre is using her debut children’s book, “When I Was an Alligator,” and its “curious Cajun kid” to bring a taste of Louisiana’s wetlands to a national audience at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.. . . Read Now

When I Was an Alligator Selected to Represent Louisiana at the National Book Festival (8/10/2022)

The Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana has selected one youth book and one adult book by Louisiana authors from Louisiana publishers to represent the state at the 2022 National Book Festival. Youth Book: When I Was an Alligator by Gayle Webre (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press). . . Read Now

The Acadiana Advocate on Roy House Conference Room Naming (12/23/2021)

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which owns the 120-year-old historic Roy House home at the intersection of Johnston and University, said its planned $800,000 restoration, which may be complete in 2022, will include an honor to Joseph Broussard — “Beausoleil” — and his descendants . . . Read Now

Center for Louisiana Studies on New Center for Louisiana Studies Fellows (Spring 2021)

Center for Louisiana Studies Fellows are recognized scholars of Louisiana Studies who serve five-year terms working in close affiliation with the Center . . . Read Now

The Acadiana Advocate on Philanthropist Helping UL's Roy House Hit Fundraising Goal (12/09/2020)

Enthusiasts for the 120-year-old former home of J. Arthur Roy, an early Lafayette business leader and community stalwart, reached and surpassed their goal of generating some $800,000 to restore the two-story, 5,000-square-foot building . . . Read Now

Book Trailer for Cablog: Diary of a Cabdriver

Excerpt Video for Cablog: Diary of a Cabdriver
Warning: Explicit Content