I Want Magic: Essays on New Orleans, the South, and Race

This collection brings together thirty-five essays published by New Orleans native C. W. Cannon over the past ten years in such outlets as The Lens, The Times-Picayune, and  The Rumpus. In his essays, Cannon utilizes his life experiences and intimate knowledge of his native city to explore the tension between New Orleans’s exceptionalism and Americanism, its identity since Katrina, and its role within the nation and South’s racial consciousness. The essays cover a variety of New Orleans-specific topics ranging from Mardi Gras, monument removals, crime, tourism, gentrification, and more, but all have something to say about New Orleans in relation to the rest of the state, region, and country.

About the Author

C.W. Cannon grew up in New Orleans and graduated from New Orleans public schools. He is the author of four novels and dozens of essays. He resides in Faubourg Marigny with his wife, children, and animals.

Praise for I Want Magic

 “A true son of Frenchmen Street, C. W. Cannon charts New Orleans's bohemian heartbeat, ‘shabby chic before it was chic,’ with wit and bravura, making I Want Magic a must-read now and for years to come.”—Jason Berry, author of City of a Million Dreams

“C.W. Cannon’s scope is wide, capturing the city's—as well as his own—reckonings with race, gentrification, liberal and conservative politics, southernness, authenticity, hipness, and hipsterism. I Want Magic should appeal to New Orleanians old and new. This book is for anyone who knows and loves this city.”— Rien Fertel, author of Brown Pelican

"The notes of this New Orleans native son are as biting as they are brilliant, as rich in erudition as in experience. Native, newcomer or visitor, if you want to inform your love of our city, you want to read this book."—Lolis Eric Elie, producer “Faubourg Treme: the Untold Story of Black New Orleans,” story editor, HBO’s Treme

© 2022 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press

Paperback | 6" x 9" | ISBN: 9781946160867